Education Resources

Programs

1st Grade

Walk Walnut St. Bridge, with guide discussing directions (N,S, E, W), the geographic features (island, mountain, river) so apparent from the bridge, and why people settled here. Proceed to Pavilion at Coolidge Park for map-making exercise in which the children draw the features they have just seen. (Can be customized to allow the children to ride the historic carousel in the Park and hear its history.)

2nd Grade (Can be adapted to all grade levels)

(In classroom or at Ross's Landing) Cherokee Life: program covers culture and daily life, including roles of individuals and values, how we know about early peoples, and environmental resources. Can use fossils from the Center's collection depending on the venue.

3rd and 4th Grades (Can be adapted to 5th–12th grades)

(In classroom, or at Renaissance Park) Human Impact on the Environment tells how Chattanooga got really dirty, and how it was cleaned up. If done in the Park, visit and discuss water quality at the man-made wetlands.

5th Grade (Can be adapted to 6th–12th grades)

1. (In school or on the Riverfront) Much Civil War history is connected to Chattanooga, and can be covered in a variety of ways, including from the perspective of a family living in Chattanooga at the time to the African American troops in the Union Army.
2. (In the classroom or at the History Center. If real artifacts are used, must be done at the Center for groups no larger than 20-25 students.) The Taliferro Papers are the basis for a World War II program which puts a human face on the war's impact.
3. Effective civil rights demonstrations came to Chattanooga in the form of lunch counter sit-ins by students at Howard High School in February of 1960. The History Center curator has recently researched this story, and can present it to your class. The presentation will include photographs, and will examine the immediate and lasting impact of the sit-ins.

6th Grade (Can be adapted to 7th–12th grades)

1. (In the classroom or at Ross' Landing and The Passage. At Ross' Landing, can be customized as a semi-simulated experience which includes students being given names of Cherokees departing from Chattanooga in the Removal, and a ferry trip across the river to the monument at Renaissance Park) Covers the Cherokee experience up through the Trail of Tears.
2. The Tennessee River system is an ecological system in which the energy of rushing water has been transformed into electricity. The coming of TVA and its dams (locally, Chickamauga) changed the ecology of the region, and the lives of the people who live in it. Facilitator(s) will discuss the actual building of Chickamauga Dam and what it meant to individual families (with artifacts), and will also discuss historical and ecological context of TVA (with photographs).

7th Grade (Can be adapted to 8th–12th grades)

1. (In the classroom or at the History Center) The Debate Over the Eviction of the Cherokees from the Cherokee Nation, 1826-1838 will teach your students the mechanics and delivery of debate. Working with the teacher, History Center staff will teach the students how to research the material on the subject, and prepare the arguments for and against. Center staff will supervise and mediate the debate, which can be presented before other students and/or parents. (This is a project which will require multiple sessions over a period of weeks.)
2. This cultural geography program facilitates discussion of the relationship of local cultural elements to our own place in space. Elements can include politics, transportation, agriculture, recreation, religion, language, gender issues, and more. This program can be general, including most of these elements, or it can be split into two or more sessions.

8th Grade (Can be adapted to 9th–12th grades)

This Civil War program offers a more sophisticated approach to the study of history than can be used with the lower grades. Though the 8th grade students may have participated in Civil War programs in the past, they will not find its material repetitive except in the context of time and general topic. The program is comprised of monument studies, and it is to be done on the Chickamauga Battlefield. Students will connect history to memory, understanding the memorialization of the Civil War and how it shaped national identity. They will get experience reading the landscape, constructed and not. They will gain knowledge about the battle of Chickamauga itself, and about the way it is remembered: they will learn how the people who participated in it felt about it, and how they identified with the causes of the Civil War.

Booking Instructions

Please book your group's reservation for a History Center program at least two weeks prior to your requested date. If you would like a program customized for your group, please book three weeks in advance, If possible. Fee payment is required at the time of the program. Please make checks payable to Chattanooga History Center. Call 423-265-3247, extension 10, for information or to book a program.

The school rate for already prepared programs held in your school, or at another site of your choice, is $45 per hour session plus mileage reimbursement at the GSA approved rate. There is a $25 fee for customization of a program, and there may be other charges if the customization requires services from other organizations or businesses.

The school rate for walking tours is $2.00 per student. One adult per 10 students is free of charge. The fee for each additional adult is $3.00. There is a $25 fee for customization of a tour, and there may be other charges if the customization requires services from other organizations or businesses.

Planning Your History Center Program

The Chattanooga History Center wants history experiences to be as meaningful as possible to your students. Often, just a little simple preparation before participation can help them fully engage with the topic. If you have specific goals to achieve through our program, please tell us what they are when you call to book your reservation. Please let us know the level of knowledge your students already have about the topic (none, a little, studied it for 9-week session, etc.). We may ask that, prior to the program, your students perform a simple exercise, such as bringing questions they would like to have answered to the program.