Today I had the pleasure of teaching three classes of Pre-AP 8th graders about beginning genealogy research. They are embarking on a yearlong project to discover their ancestors and create a display for their annual family history showcase in the spring. All of this is coordinated by an incredible teacher at Emily Gray Junior High, Chris Voutsas, who I wrote about here: 8th Grade Family History Project: My Story in American History. I want to share the PowerPoint and handout that I created for today’s lesson. Feel free to download the files and share. Discovering Your Roots_Basic Records and Strategies...
I’m excited to share a guest blog post today by Kristen Ziller and Laura Richardson, two amazing teachers I met at RootsTech. They were there sharing about their 8th grade family history project at the Family Tree Maker booth. They have used their teaching expertise to craft a year long project for 8th graders to learn about their family history through primary sources family stories. Kristen Ziller at RootsTech Introduction Our journey with family history projects for our 8th grade students began in 2014 when I was invited to participate in a three-day teacher cohort on the beautiful campus of the...
Should children take DNA tests? Thought leaders and genetic genealogy experts say yes. In keynote speeches and interviews at RootsTech 2018, Cece Moore, Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Living DNA co-founders David Nicholson and Hannah Morden, reveal their thoughts about the booming DNA industry and how it can benefit children. Overcoming Prejudice LivingDNA is making great strides in the industry, especially in pinning down ethnic origins to specific regions within the British Isles. Yet they also have an altruistic goal – to overcome racial divides through DNA testing. Co-founders David Nicholson and Hannah Morden wowed the audience at RootsTech...
As a genealogist and a former teacher, I am fascinated by the idea of students discovering history by researching their own ancestors. When I taught U.S. and World History to 6-8th graders, I was so overwhelmed by the amount of work required, that I barely had enough time to create each of my 3 lesson plans per day! Now that I stay home with my children, I’m constantly thinking how I would incorporate genealogy and family history research into my curriculum if I were teaching again. With all the new research about how students retain information better and engage more...
I’ve always wanted to volunteer at the Tucson Family History Center near where I live. After giving a presentation at their Family History Fair in February (Kid Genealogists, a presentation I also gave at RootsTech with Emily Schroeder and Melissa Finlay), I got to talking with one of the directors about possibly starting a children’s family history group. I thought about it the whole way home and realized that I had plenty of lesson ideas already created from writing the kids book club posts here each month. We decided to do it weekly, like the library does for their story...
Happy DNA Day! Below are 15 activities to teach kids about DNA, genetics, and heredity. Each of these ideas are free and have worksheets, printables, or easy lesson/activity ideas that can generally be done in a day. If you want to do some advance planning and have your kids take a DNA test, there are so many fun things you can do with the results. One of my favorites is the grandchild report from gene heritage. I even added photos to mine. Check it out here: You can also create a “Grandparent Inheritance Chart” by Legacy Tree Genealogists as explained at the...
I interviewed Chris Voutsas, an outstanding junior high history teacher, about the family history project he assigns his 8th graders each year, called “My Story in American History.” After our correspondence, I attended the school’s academic showcase open house which featured the family history projects. I was wowed by the outstanding work each student shared. Let’s hear from Chris about why he does what he does. Be sure to check out the video of the students at the end. Hi Chris, how long have you been teaching? I have been teaching here at Emily Gray Junior High since 1980. I had...
Need a fun activity to help your youth learn to research census records? “Finding Franklin” gives them the opportunity to discover the wealth of information that can be found in a census. Questions about Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States lead the youth to find specifics about his family and occupation over a span of 48 years. They can then use the skills they’ve developed to find their own family in the census records. I created this to use with FamilySearch.org, but you could try it with Ancestry.com or MyHeritage.com also. Each website has different search boxes and filters, so...
