Past Grant Programs

Teaching American History


Teaching American History was a grant project of the federal Department of Education from 2000 to 2012. The grants funded three-year long professional development programs for teachers of American history in elementary, middle, and high schools designed to increase teacher's content knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of traditional American history. The History Teaching Institute partnered with the Ohio Historical Society, the Columbus Public Schools, the Mid-Ohio Educational Service Center, the Educational Regional Service System (ERSS) Region 10, and the Tri-County Educational Service Center on  the grants. Program Content was related to Ohio's Academic Content Standards for social studies. Connecting to the Past and Back to History were two of those initiatives.

 

Connecting to the Past
Connecting to the Past was a professional development program designed to support and improve the teaching of American history. Participation was open to teachers in grades four to eight in Ashland, Holmes, Wayne, and Medina Counties. It combined the resources of the Tri-County Educational Service Center, the Ohio Historical Society, and the Ohio State University. Each year of the program, twenty-four teachers participated in an orientation seminar and three out of four offered content seminars. Participants will also took part in two historic site-based seminars, and attended a five-day Summer Institute at the Ohio State University in Columbus. Connecting to the Past was funded by a U.S. Department of Education Teaching American History grant.
 
Connecting to the Past seminars featured engaging content-focused presentations from Ohio State’s award-winning history faculty, as well as distinguished teachers and scholars from other colleges and universities. At each seminar the Project Curator introduced participants to primary sources (such as letters, photos, maps, and documents) related to the core theme, along with ways to take these sources back to the classroom. Lead Teachers helped participants apply what they have learned to their teaching. The Lead Teachers were experienced classroom teachers from area schools. They shared their experiences and techniques and facilitated peer learning.


As a result of the program, several lesson plans and tutorials were created and are housed on this web site. The teacher-created lesson plans revolve around three core themes: Peopling the New World: Immigration and Migration of Natives and Newcomers, Creating the New Nation: The Revolution and Constitutional Development and Growing the Nation: Technology, Industrialism, and Expansion.
 

 

Back to History

Back to History was a professional development program for K-12 teachers. The program served teachers  in Ohio's Educational Regional Service System (ERSS) Region 10, including Clark, Darke, Greene, Miami, Montgomery, and Preble counties. This program combines the resources of The Ohio State University, the Ohio Historical Society, and the Clark County Educational Service Center to support and improve the teaching of traditional American history. Lesson plans and primary source activities from Back to History can be found on this web site.