Visit(s) to West Point Foundry Preserve provide a foundation for other lessons in this unit. Depending on your priorities and the amount of time you have, students can learn about the:
In this lesson students read excerpts from newspaper articles about Cold Spring and the West Point Foundry in the 1860's, answer questions, and create graphs using data.
This lesson allows students to learn about the Hudson Valley's early peoples and their relationship with their environment. Throughout the unit, they can then contrast and compare the lives of the original peoples to those in the foundry era and current times. Students also learn about the the origins of language and why humans needed to communicate. They will also understand the uses of symbols and symbolism in the past and present.
This is the last lesson in the series. Students learn how land use decisions -- especially those affecting development and preservation -- work. They learn that a community can work together to balance human and environmental needs. A Power Point presentation introduces themes. A class discussion, persuasive writing activity, and a role-playing game round out the lesson.
This is the first lesson to be completed after visiting the West Point Foundry. Students recreate a day in the life of a resident of Cold Spring in the 1800's. They research the period using illustrations, maps, photographs, narratives, secondary sources, and census records from a 'resource box,' generated prior to the lesson. Students condense this information to create a journal depicting a day in the life of a Cold Spring resident.