Historical Scene Investigation
Grades 6-12, with parental supervision
This website provides social studies students with the opportunity to become virtual history detectives through investigating primary source documents.
Students investigate prepared “case files” about historical events by examining primary source materials archived at this website. Through these “journals, diaries, artifacts, historic sites, works of art, quantitative data, and other evidence from the past… they compare the multiple points of view of those on the scene at the time.”
Developed in partnership with the College of William & Mary School of Education, University of Kentucky School of Education, and the Library of Congress, H.S.I. is an effort to take students beyond textbook facts and give them “experiences that more closely resemble the work of a real historian.”
When you get to the website you’ll see a menu that offers information about the H.S.I. Project and a link to the “Investigations” that include:
- Jamestown Starving Time
- Bacon’s Rebellion
- The Boston “Massacre”
- Lexington and Concord
- Constitution Controversy<
- Antonio a Slave
- Finding Aaron
- Children in the Civil War
- School Desegregation
- Case of Sam Smiley
- March on Frankfort
- When Elvis Met Nixon
Click on any “case file” and a new page opens with a description of the historic event and a question for the student to answer through investigating documents. Click on “Student View” to read the documents and access a series of questions that guide the student in analyzing the information in order to crack the case.
