Wisconsin Then and Now: Tools
The Plan for Learners
Why this is important
As long as humans have been living in Wisconsin they have needed to find ways to take care of their daily needs, such as food, shelter, clothing, and transportation. How can we find out how people lived in times past? We're going to look at some of the tools people have used to take care of their needs. You'll see how clever humans can be in using the materials available to them to invent useful and interesting tools.
 
What you will learn to do
  Show how simple machines have been used in tools from the earliest times in Wisconsin history through today.
 
How you will know when you are succeeding
You will demonstrate your competence:
o by participating in class detective work to identify tools and time periods
 
Your performance will be successful when:
o you identify the period of history in which the tool was most likely used.
o you tell what work the tool might be used to do.
o you find at least one simple machine principle used in the tool.
o you tell what source of power is used to operate the tool.
o you tell what clues you used to get information about the tool.
 
Knowledge and skills you will learn along the way
This learning plan addresses the following learning objectives to help you master the competency:
a. Explain how these simple machines make work easier: lever, pulley, wedge, inclined plane, screw, wheel and axle, and gears.
b. Describe how Stone Age Native Americans made tools with the materials at hand and adapted them to meet their needs.
c. Locate on a map the place where the archaeological artifacts were found.
d. Identify simple machines in a variety of tools from different time periods.
e. Use clues to place tools in different time periods: Stone Age, about 100 years ago, about 60 years ago, present day.
f. Discuss different power sources that make tools work.
 
Learning Activities
_____1.
NAME a food you ate today. DISCUSS these questions: Where did it come from? Would that food have been available to your great great grandparents? How about to Stone Age people living in this area 8,000 years ago?
_____2.
NAME an article of clothing you are wearing. DISCUSS these questions: Where did it come from? Would it have been available to your great great grandparents? How about to Stone Age people living in this area 8,000 years ago?
_____3.
ATTEND the Ripon Historical Society presentation "Wisconsin Then and Now: Stone Age Tools" about Stone Age tools found in the Rush Lake area.
_____4.
LOOK at pictures and artifacts showing tools that helped people to do work when your great grandparents and grandparents were young.
_____5.
TALK ABOUT how the different tools use simple machines.
_____6.
TALK ABOUT the sources of power that make tools work.
_____7.
GET READY to be a detective. Use clues to figure out the time period when a tool might have been used, what it would be used for, and what simple machines are at work within the tool.
 
Assessment Activities
_____1.
USE clues to figure out what you are asked about each tool as the class discusses it. Raise your hand when you have figured out an answer.
 
Teacher Information

Description

This plan is designed in two parts for fourth graders studying Wisconsin history. The first part is a presentation focused on Stone Age tools. Frank Farvour and John Steinbring collected artifacts in the Rush Lake area for over fifty years and their collection is now housed at the Ripon Historical Society. Frank photographed a selection of tools and wrote the presentation, which is in PowerPoint and can be delivered to a large group in a multi-purpose room. The second part is an interactive session for individual classes. One or two members of the Ripon Historical Society will come into the class and show PowerPoint pictures of many different kinds of agricultural and household tools that date back from 50 to 100 years. They will bring along a few of the tools they can carry. They will work with the children on finding clues as to the approximate time period when the tool might have been used, the function of the tool, the simple machines (lever, wheel and axle, gears, inclined plane, wedge, screw, and pulley) that have been incorporated into the tool, and the source of power that made the tool work.
 
Wisconsin Standards Addressed
WI.SS.B.4.1 Identify and examine various sources of information that are used for constructing an understanding of the past, such as: artifacts, documents, letters, diaries, maps, textbooks, photos, paintings, architecture, oral presentations, graphs, and charts
 
WI.TE.A.4.2 Realize that all humans engage in technological activities; therefore, everyone is a technologist
 
WI.TE.A.4.5 Determine that humans have always developed tools to communicate, build, move things, and reshape their environment to meet their wants and needs
 
WI.TE.A.4.6 Illustrate how technology has evolved throughout human history