| Category | Title of Lesson | Brief Description | Corresponds with Program | Grade Level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Environmental | Crumpled Paper Watershed | Students create a model of a watershed and observe how the contours of the land determine the flow of surface water. Students investigate the physical characteristics of a watershed and the effects of human land-use decisions on the watershed. | Industrial Watershed | 5-8 |
| Environmental | Who Polluted the Merrimack | This activity demonstrates that we are all part of the problem of pollution. It also shows that protecting the environment is not a one-time event, but requires ongoing changes to our habits. | Industrial Watershed | 5-8 |
| Engineering | Innovation: Materials
Properties | Students test materials for various properties to assess how they will perform at a designated task. | Engineer It! | 3-12 |
| Engineering | Innovation:Simple Machines | This lesson provides students with a review of simple machines and their tasks. It works best in combination with your lesson on simple machines, or as a review/additional activity. | 3-12 | |
| Farm to Factory | Farm to Factory Production: Making a Grilled Cheese Sandwich | Students will compare making a sandwich on a farm before the Industrial Revolution and today to understand the changes that have occurred over the last 200 years. | 3-6
| |
| Farm to Factory | From Farm to Factory: The Nutter's Workday | Life changed dramatically for those who left family farms to work in the growing mill cities of New England. Follow Emily and Edward Nutter through a typical day on their farm, and a typical day in the factory. Students will learn about both ways of life and compare them with their own lives today.
| 3-6, with extension activities for older students. | |
| Farm to Factory | Decide Eliza Paige's Future | Students use the web-based Bringing History Home - Decide Eliza Paige’s Future to learn about the lives of mill workers in the early Industrial city of Lowell.
| Bale to Bolt | 4-8
|
| Farm to Factory | Slavery in the American South | Students will use primary sources to examine the institution of chattel slavery in the United States, to achieve a better understanding of the lives of enslaved people on Southern plantations. | Bale to Bolt | 5 |
| Immigration | On the Move: An Introduction to Immigration | This lesson introduces students to the concept of immigration. | Yankees and Immigrants | 3-5 |
| Immigration | Why do Immigrants come to America? | Students will use oral histories and cartoons to understand the push and pull factors that influence immigration | Yankees and Immigrants | 4-8 |
| Water Power | Waterwheel Power Testing | Students will investigate how the speed and height of falling water (potential energy) affects the mechanical energy produced by a waterwheel. | Power to Production | 5-8 |
| Water Power | Ball Drop Activity | This ball drop activity demonstrates how potential energy is impacted by a loss of energy with the collision with the ground. | Power to Production | 8-12 |
| Water Power | Squish Potential | In this activity, students will drop a standard weight from different heights to track the results to investigate the connection between potential energy and drop.
| Power to Production | 4-6 |
Work/Labor
| Craft Production to Factory Production | Factory production replaced the work of an individual craftsperson with a series of specialized steps. | 5-8 | |
| Work/Labor | What is work? | The work people do has meaning for them and for others. | Workers on the Line | 5-8 |
| General | A Recipe for Lowell's Industrial Revolution | For any recipe to succeed the proper “ingredients” must be included in the mix. Lowell’s textile industry was no exception. It relied upon six necessary “ingredients” to create America’s first large-scale textile industry. | All Programs | General |
Partnership
The Tsongas Industrial History Center is an education partnership between the University of Massachusetts Lowell School of Education and the National Park Service at Lowell National Historical Park.
