The Teaching with Primary Sources Midwest Region is proud to showcase an article composed by Midwest Region Consortium partner Meghan Davisson with the Minnesota State Historical Society! This article titled, "Empowering Communities with Local History" showcases some of the excellent work and strategies utilized through the completion of their grant project, "Inquiry in the Upper Midwest."
This article is now live on the resources page of the Midwest Region's updated website, on which we hope to continue to gather writing to showcase the work of our excellent grantees! Thank you, Meghan, for your contribution!
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Meghan Davisson
, what a wonderful article! It seems as if pairing local resources with Library of Congress primary sources worked very well for your teachers during this project. I loved your description of how the project ended up being much more than a list of resources. What teachers and students DO with primary sources matters more than lists!
Already this morning on Twitter, I've seen a video of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (announced today as the Democratic Party VP pick) on a Minnesota State Fair ride with his daughter. That made me curious about how a political candidate from a particular state might impact state historical societies such as yours. What might be the opportunities to increase awareness, for example?
Thank you, 
Mary Johnson
! It was exciting to work with our teacher cohort and experience their enthusiasm and buy in--especially the lessons they created for their curriculum. It was clear they were taking the tools we provided and translating them to their classroom contexts.
It is quite something to have national attention shining on Minnesota right now! I think many of us are wondering if we will see Governor Walz and Vice President Harris at the State Fair this year. We can claim two former Vice Presidents (Hubert H. Humphrey, VP to President Lyndon B. Johnson, and Walter Mondale, VP to President Jimmy Carter). I'm not privy to the whole organization's plans, but my team at the Minnesota Historical Society (Teacher Education and Curriculum Development) is currently revising our sixth grade Minnesota Studies textbook, Northern Lights: The Stories of Minnesota's Past, and having conversations about how this cultural zeitgeist--as well as our Olympians like Suni Lee--can be included.
Congratulations on the very nice article.
At one time I taught primary source workshops for educators in the building at Larpenter & Snelling, right next to the fair grounds. Participants sometimes searched for photos of the fair or St. Paul in general.
I have had some recent experiences with younger people coming to the local historical society or events. It’s always exciting to see young adults learning more about local history. Nd. OST importantly, asking questions and sharing. One of them is running for a city office.
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