In this lesson, students compare and contrast changes in themselves and their environmental surroundings over time.

Students will create a timeline of the events of their current school year. Next, they will look at the history of their community and create a timeline of historical events in the local community.

This inquiry leads students through an investigation of their families as a way to begin understanding the concepts of past and present. By answering the compelling question "What do family stories tell us about the past?" students learn about change over time. Through the use of family artifacts (e.g., photographs, marriage licenses, family trees, keepsakes), students learn that such items can reveal information about how life in the past differs from life in the present and how their families have changed over time.

This activity is designed to familiarize students with the cowboy culture of the Old West and its presence in our modern times.

This lesson plan addresses the ways people learn about events from the past and discusses how historical accounts are influenced by the perspective of the person giving the account. To understand that history is made up of many people's stories of the past, students interview family members about the same event and compare the ifferent versions, construct a personal history timeline and connect it to larger historical events, and synthesize eyewitness testimony from different sources to create their own "official" account.