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AER Newsletter: Summer 2019

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Welcome to the first, biannual Archival Educators Roundtable (AER) Newsletter! In 2016, the Rockefeller Archive Center (RAC) brought together like-minded professionals who use primary sources for public programming, outreach, and education, and the AER was born. As archival education is a still-developing field, the AER created a community where people could share their successes, challenges, and works in progress through casual workshops.AER’s network of educators, archivists, and archival education allies has since expanded its culture of support beyond the biannual meetings here at the RAC through social media, event attendance, joint publications, and email correspondence.It is our hope that this AER Newsletter will further extend the table, so speak, reaching more colleagues as we spotlight educators, and showcase the projects, challenges, and successes of archival education. Just as the aim of AER meetings is to ensure that all perspectives on primary source education are honored, we encourage you, our dedicated AER audience, to reach out and contribute your insights to future AER Newsletters! Many thanks to our first issue's contributors--we couldn't have done it without you.--Marissa Vassari, Archivist and Educator, Rockefeller Archive CenterElizabeth Berkowitz, Outreach Program Manager, Rockefeller Archive Center

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Case Study, Teaching/Learning Strategy

Author: The Rockefeller Archive Center

The Cold War: Primary Source Workshop

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This workshop includes historical context, digitized primary sources, and follow-up discussion questions. Students are asked to make arguments for and against providing funding to programs and projects proposed to the Commonwealth Fund, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Ford Foundation. Taking on the role of program officers during the Cold War and working in small groups, students will read primary sources and articulate why a foundation should or should not provide funding to these proposed ideas. As a whole group, the studentswill participate in a debate as to which of the proposed ideas would be the most effective tool for furthering American Cold War interests. Students are encouraged to use this workshop as a springboard for further research into the role foundations played during the Cold War.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Homework/Assignment, Lesson Plan, Module, Primary Source, Reading, Teaching/Learning Strategy

Author: The Rockefeller Archive Center

The War of the Worlds, Fake News, and Media Literacy Primary Source Unit

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The following unit offers multiple entry points into developing an understanding of media literacy. The unit framework and primary sources can be integrated into classrooms of grades 4-12. Each lesson has student objectives that can be accomplished within 40 minute periods over the course of several weeks. A midpoint writing assessment, whole class capstone debate, and final independentwriting assessment are included. Support materials are integrated into the lessons, and the primary source document pages can be found at the end of the unit guide.

Material Type: Unit of Study

Author: The Rockefeller Archive Center

How To Do Research Primary Source Unit

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This How To Do Research Unit Guide provides a lesson-to-lesson foundation for teaching:● What primary sources are● Real vs. fake information (evaluating sources)● Document analysis● Different ways to obtain information● How to formulate research questions● How to find answers to research questions● The hows and whys of citations (annotated bibliography)By the time students get to high school, they should have a basic understanding of how to effectively do research. Considering that there are so many steps involved in the research process, the earlier these necessary skills are taught, the more time students will be able to devote to theiractual projects. Moreover, in today’s world, information literacy needs to be achieved at an earlier age, so students can learn to be smart consumers, responsible sharers, and presenters of information. Throughout the research process, students will learn that there will be dead ends, questions that are too broad or too narrow, questions that do not have answers. This is an accurate reflection of what their experiences will continue to be as they move into higher level research projects in their educational careers. 

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Full Course, Homework/Assignment, Primary Source, Teaching/Learning Strategy, Unit of Study

Author: The Rockefeller Archive Center

Refugee Scholars Primary Source Workshop

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The workshop asks students to consider what foundations can do in times of global crisis by placing them in the role of Rockefeller Foundation (RF) program officers during World War II. As were the real program officers, students will be tasked with selecting a limited number of scholar applicants for aid in a life-threatening situation. Working in groups, students will read documents related to ten scholars who represent a variety of nationalities, backgrounds, and scholarly disciplines. Students will then select four candidates, and must be prepared to articulate the reasoning behind theirdecisions. This exercise enables students to imagine and grapple with the difficult choices RF officials had to make in one historical example of how foundation philanthropy has responded to humanitarian crisis. Students are encouraged to use this exercise as a springboard for further research into current scholar rescue initiatives, and/or policies and practices pertaining to refugees today.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lecture, Lesson, Lesson Plan, Primary Source, Teaching/Learning Strategy

Author: The Rockefeller Archive Center

Learning About and Creating Student Archives

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The Rockefeller Archive Center (RAC) is a mixed-media repository that holds the historical records related to the study of philanthropy. These archival materials serve as the entry point into learning how to identify, read, and analyze primary sources in the workshop. This workshop teaches students the value of primary source literacy and ownership of the research process.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Primary Source, Unit of Study

Author: The Rockefeller Archive Center

Experimentation and Innovation: Building the Hale Telescope

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The primary sources in this project, drawn from the collections at the Rockefeller Archive Center, include correspondence and diagrams that document the process of fabricating what became a 200-inch Pyrex telescope mirror. These sources can be used to strengthen critical reading skills, to support inquiry-based learning exercises, and to expose students to the stories of trial and error that lie behind most scientific or engineering breakthroughs. Students are encouraged to annotate in the margins in order to support the development of document analysis and critical thinking skills. This project contains a suggested exercise that builds on the themes of the primary source documents.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan, Module, Primary Source, Student Guide, Teaching/Learning Strategy

Author: The Rockefeller Archive Center

From Dream to Reality: Building the Hale Telescope: Primary Source STEAM Project

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The 200-inch Hale Telescope (historically known as the “Palomar Telescope”) at the Palomar Observatory in California represents an amazing feat of engineeringand ingenuity, the result of decades of trial and error.The primary sources in this project describe the last great hurdle in the Hale Telescope’s construction: successfully transporting the 40-ton, 200-inch mirror and its packing materials from upstate New York to the top of Palomar Mountain in southern California. This project is designed for advanced middle school or high school students. It contains a suggested project that puts students in the role of problem-solvers, with students using the actual data points drawn from the 1947 primary sources. Students will learn how to work with a formula, and to manipulate the formula’s variables to achieve different outcomes.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Module, Primary Source, Teaching/Learning Strategy

Author: The Rockefeller Archive Center

Tenements and Immigration Primary Source Set

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The primary sources in this set can be used for inquiry-based learning exercises and projects. Each document falls under the umbrella topic of tenements and immigration, and students are encouraged to annotate in the margins in order to support the development of document analysis and critical thinking skills. Suggested projects that make use of this set’s primary sources are also included for the educator as a springboard for research-based projects.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan, Primary Source, Teaching/Learning Strategy

Author: The Rockefeller Archive Center

Media Literacy: Voter Education

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This series of videos is part of the RAC’s educational programming. These videos include audiovisual primary sources, and are designed to be part of a media literacy curriculum.The clips of audiovisual documents serve as primary sources that can be viewed, analyzed, and discussed in a classroom setting to help students build media literacy skills.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Homework/Assignment, Lesson, Lesson Plan, Module, Primary Source, Teaching/Learning Strategy

Author: The Rockefeller Archive Center

Learning from the Panama Canal Yellow Fever Epidemic to Create a Public Health Campaign

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The following unit engages students with archival material related to the yellow fever epidemic during the construction of the Panama Canal. The unit framework and primary sources can be integrated into classrooms of grades 4-8. Each lesson has student objectives that can be accomplished within 40-minute periods over the course of several weeks. Students will learn about archives, primary and secondary sources through the lens of the yellow fever. They will make connections to other public health campaigns such as tuberculosis and Covid. Applying present day awareness strategies, students will create their own public health campaigns for yellow fever in the form of “challenges,” hashtags, posters, billboard mockups, and bulletins. Support materials are integrated into the lessons, and the selected primary source documents can be found at the end of the unit

Material Type: Lesson Plan, Primary Source, Unit of Study

Author: The Rockefeller Archive Center