Create Your Own Appeal: Conservation and Preservation in South Carolina
Part 1: Create Your Own Appeal – 45 minutes
Students will begin to think critically about issues relating to the conservation and preservation of places that have natural, cultural, or historic value. In completion of the Proposal Template provided, they will identify a place of significance in their community worthy of protection, while learning about the criteria and processes for the nomination of places for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Sites.
Part 2: Share Your Proposal - 2-4 class periods
After allowing preparation time, let students talk to the rest of the class about what they learned about their targeted places of significance in the completion of their proposal templates. Give them 3-5 minutes each for presentations.
Lesson Partners: Knowitall.org
Grade(s):
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
Subject(s):
Recommended Technology:
A computer with an internet connection and a means of display to the class
Other Instructional Materials or Notes:
Background
Pee Dee Explorer is a website that provides a look at the natural, cultural, and historic resources of the region in South Carolina that is called the Pee Dee. Named for its rivers, the Pee Dee region remains largely undeveloped. Rural, industrial, and agricultural lands are what mainly lie outside of a few small town centers. While struggling to maintain a vital economy, residents in some parts of the Pee Dee are finding value in the region’s natural areas and historic sites. This lesson aims to help students to think critically about conservation and preservation, while cultivating appreciation for the natural, cultural, and historic resources that remain hidden in plain sight all around us.
Lesson Progression
Part 1: Create Your Own Appeal – 45 minutes Procedure
Precede the activity with discussion of topics and concepts related to conservation, preservation, and the importance of both in terms of natural, cultural, and historic places. For guidance, refer to the activity called “Write About or Discuss,” in the Teacher Resources.
Share the brochure that outlines criteria for designation of a site for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Sites
And talk specifically about the following Applicable Register Criteria for significance:
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Property is associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history.
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Property is associated with the lives of persons significant in our past.
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Property embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction or represents the work of a master, or possesses high artistic values, or represents a significant and distinguishable entity whose components lack individual distinction.
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Property has yielded, or is likely to yield, information important in prehistory or history.
Draw connections between preservation, conservation, and human impact on ecosystems, and stress the need to diminish harm to the environment as one reason for these efforts. Solicit other reasons.
To illustrate these concepts, obtain real-world examples of protected places. Use the resources provided in the “Materials” section above, or if possible, draw connections using places in your community. Here are some options using Pee Dee Explorer:
OPTION 1:
Have students view the Conway Oaks video segment: https://www.knowitall.org/video/conway-oaks-pee-dee-explorer
OPTION 2:
Have students discuss how they might appeal to their local government for conservation or preservation of their targeted natural, cultural, or historic site.
Introduce and review the Proposal Template worksheet, and assign completion of the worksheet as an exercise in how to nominate a target site for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places.
Part 2: Share Your Proposal - 2-4 class periods Procedure
If you have found enough time and resources in order to allow students to incorporate technology into their presentations, then spend two class periods in a lab setting allowing them to prepare Movie Maker, iMovie, or PowerPoint presentations (with about 7 or 12 slides apiece), and to incorporate any digital photography or video they might have collected. Spend 2 class periods going around the class allowing students about 3-5 minutes each to present and to talk to the rest of the class about what they have learned about their targeted places of significance in completion of their proposal templates. Allow for question and answer time and discussion at the end of each class.
Suggestions:
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Decide if you want your students to work as a class, in groups, or individually.
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Consider incorporation of the assignment called “Learn About Your Community,” whereby students collect and share oral histories about places of significance.
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Go outdoors for inspiration from your immediate environment or take a field trip to a special place nearby that is open to the public, such as a beach, a park or a garden. If you have access to a place of natural, cultural, or historical significance nearby, then use it as an example of how protection of special places starts with ordinary citizens. Be sure to have permission where it may be required.
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For those students who are serious about moving forward with their projects, provide consultation or suggestions of next steps, for example: begin a petition to garner support, attend a city or county council meeting and share your work, or submit your nomination to the South Carolina State Historic Preservation Office and the Department of Archives and History.
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Require students to keep a journal of the process and its planning, or ask for a reflection essay answering: What was your favorite part of this experience and why? What was your least favorite and why?
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Invite a guest speaker from a local conservation organization or land trust program, SCDNR, the South Carolina State Historic Preservation Office or the Department of Archives and History.
Teacher Notes
For technology integration, use digital photo or video cameras, or allow students to use their cell phones (optional)
A computer lab with Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Movie Maker, or Apple iMovie on all computers (optional)
Storage medium(s) for presentation of work in class on a computer that is fully compatible with all mediums of student presentation (optional)
A computer or television, depending on the format of student work, with means of display to the class (optional)
Proposal Template | Pee Dee Explorer
This activity sheet is meant to accompany the lesson called “Create Your Own Appeal.”
View AssetWrite About or Discuss | Pee Dee Explorer
Allow your students engage in a writing exercise or an open discussion of some ideas that are introduced through the Pee Dee Explorer series. As a prompt, use some of the suggested topics below, or...
View AssetThe National Register of Historic Places in South Carolina
View ResourceThe National Register of Historic Places
View ResourceSouth Carolina State Historic Preservation Office
View ResourceNational Register Forms
View ResourceStandards
- Earth Science: Changes in Landforms and Oceans
- 5.E.3 The student will demonstrate an understanding of how natural processes and human activities affect the features of Earth’s landforms and oceans.
- This indicator was developed to encourage inquiry into how cultural characteristics are determined by a broad range of factors and interactions specific to a place.
