Last updated: September 22, 2023
Lesson Plan
CSI: Cowboy Scene Investigation
- Grade Level:
- Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade
- Subject:
- Literacy and Language Arts,Social Studies
- Lesson Duration:
- 90 Minutes
- Common Core Standards:
- 6-8.RH.1, 6-8.RH.2, 6-8.RH.3, 6-8.RH.4, 6-8.RH.6, 6-8.RH.7, 6-8.WHST.1, 6-8.WHST.2
- State Standards:
- Montana Content Standards
Social Studies (8 to 12)
• Content Standard 1
• Content Standard 3
• Content Standard 4
• Content Standard 6
Visual Arts Anchor Standards
• Visual Arts Standard #2
• Visual Arts Standard #4
• Visual Arts Standard #6 - Additional Standards:
- Crosscutting Concepts
Patterns
Cause and effect
Stability and change - Thinking Skills:
- Analyzing: Break down a concept or idea into parts and show the relationships among the parts. Evaluating: Make informed judgements about the value of ideas or materials. Use standards and criteria to support opinions and views.
Essential Question
What can artifacts tell us about people of the past?
What do the objects we create or use say about us as a society?
How do observation skills help us learn about our world?
Objective
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
•Define “artifact” and explain what information artifacts can give about people in the past.
•Connect physical objects to abstract concepts (special relationships) and academic knowledge (primary and secondary sources) in history.
•Explain how to use observation skills to learn about artifacts and begin the process of inquiry (forming hypotheses).
Background
Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site, located in Deer Lodge, Montana, is an historic cattle ranch dating to the 1860s. It is representative of the Open Range Cattle Era, 1865 to 1900, when ranchers allowed their cattle herds to roam free across public grasslands, from Texas to Montana. This system of ranching played an essential role in the westward expansion and industrial growth of the United States in the late 1800s and impacted the lives of diverse peoples in the American West.
For more background information about the ranch’s history and the people of the open range cattle era, visit the Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site.
Today, the ranch preserves approximately 50,000 historical artifacts in its museum collection. According to the Society for American Archaeology, an artifact is an object “made, modified, or used by humans.” A variety of people, including archaeologists, historians, and museum curators study artifacts to learn about the people who made or used them. They can tell stories about life in the past, what was important to the people who made or used them, how people within an area changed over time, and make history tangible.
For more background information about artifacts and what they can tell us about past peoples, visit the Smithsonian Institution.
Each artifact in Grant-Kohrs Ranch NHS’s collection has a story to tell about the many peoples connected to the ranch’s history. Artifacts in the collection range from prehistoric tools crafted by American Indians to spurs and saddles used by open range ranchers. The lives of American Indians, fur traders, women, cowboys, ranchers, and peoples of diverse cultures are reflected in the museum collection.
In this lesson plan, students will watch the “Cowboy Scene Investigation” virtual field trip video. It takes students around the ranch and into the park’s curatorial facility to learn what artifacts are, how to analyze them, and what they can tell us. They will learn to analyze artifacts using the “I notice, I wonder, it reminds me of…” technique developed by Project BEETLES, The Lawrence Hall of Science, University of California, Berkeley. This technique is a framework for developing observation skills and the basis of scientific inquiry.
For information about this technique and making observations, visit Project BEETLES.
Following the video, students will explore artifacts from the museum collection. They will use their observations and personal experience to hypothesize what the artifacts were used for and what information they can give us about the people who used them.
The lesson then challenges students to connect the artifacts to a historic resident of the ranch house. They will explore seven past residents of the ranch in their Student’s Background packet, which includes primary and secondary source information for each person. Students will take notes about each person on their Suspect Worksheets.
In the final activity, students will combine their artifact observations, suspect card notes, and hypotheses to write a brief suspect profile for one of the house’s historic residents.
Preparation
• Teacher’s Background packet
• Blank Suspect and Artifact Worksheets
• Artifact Worksheets 1 through 7
• Student’s Background packet
• “CSI: Cowboy Scene Investigation” virtual field trip videos
CSI: Cowboy Scene Investigation - Part 1 Artifacts as Clues
CSI: Cowboy Scene Investigation - Part 2 Clues from the Collection #1
CSI: Cowboy Scene Investigation - Part 3 Clues from the Collection #2
CSI: Cowboy Scene Investigation: Part 4 Clues from the Collection #3
CSI: Cowboy Scene Investigation: Part 5 Clues from the Collection #4
CSI: Cowboy Scene Investigation: Part 6 Analyzing the Evidence
Materials
Download CSI Teachers Background Information
Download CSI Students Background Information
Download CSI Student Suspect Worksheets
Download CSI Suspect Blank Worksheet
Download CSI Artifact Blank Worksheet
Download CSI Artifact #1 Worksheet
Download CSI Artifact #2 Worksheet
Download CSI Artifact #3 Worksheet
Download CSI Artifact #4 Worksheet
Download CSI Artifact #5 Worksheet
Download CSI Artifact #6 Worksheet
Download CSI Artifact #7 Worksheet
Lesson Hook/Preview
Introduction
• Have students write about or draw an object that belongs to them and they like to keep. Describe the object. What does it look, feel, smell, sound, or taste like? Where do you keep the object? What else do you keep with the object? Why do you have it? What story can it tell us about you?
Procedure
Watch the virtual field trip videos “CSI: Cowboy Scene Investigation.”
• Visit the Grant-Kohrs Ranch curatorial facility. What are artifacts, how do we analyze them, and how can they help us learn about people who lived in the past?
• After the video, lead students in a brief discussion. What are artifacts? Why are they important? What can we learn from artifacts? Artifacts can reveal four things: connections between people (relationships, passing down to descendants, and preserving artifacts from ancestors); change in people’s lives and change over time; the meanings an artifact represents to people in the past and how those meanings can change over time; and they capture a moment in time (for example, a tragic or joyous event).
• How do we analyze artifacts? Where can we go to research artifacts?
Student Activity 1: Have students analyze the artifacts using “I notice, I wonder, it reminds me of…”
• Assign students one artifact to analyze. Have them download the corresponding “Artifact Worksheet.”
• Worksheet: Use the BEETLES technique and guiding questions to analyze the artifact. What characteristics do you notice about the object (can include measurements, texture, etc.)? What makes you curious about it? What do you wonder about it? Does the object remind you of anything you use? What do you think it might have been used for? What might that say about the person who used it, and what is your evidence?
• Discuss observations in large or small groups.
Student Activity 2: Connect each artifact to a historic resident.
• Have students read about past residents of the ranch in their Student’s Background packet. Students will use their “Suspect Worksheets” to take notes on each person who lived on the ranch.
• Next, have the students work individually or in small groups to connect their assigned artifact to one of the suspects. They should use the information on their suspect cards and their artifact observations to build connections.
• Discussion questions: Which person do you associate with your artifact? What is your evidence? Could more than one person be connected to it? What might that tell us?
Student Activity 3: Create a suspect profile!
• Have the students write a “suspect profile” about one of the historic figures discussed in the lesson. Their profile should answer the questions: What was this person doing on the ranch? Why might they have been doing it? How did this artifact help them do it? What might this artifact have meant to them? What does the artifact say about their life on the ranch? Does it raise more questions about this person? They should refer to their suspect card notes and object observations in their profile.
Analysis and Reflection
• Lead students in a group discussion. How did the artifacts help reconstruct what happened on the ranch? What did we learn about people who lived on the ranch by examining the artifacts? What, if anything, surprised you about who was here or what they were doing? What, if anything, makes you curious or what would you like to know more about?
Assessment Materials
CSI: Cowboy Scene Investigation Assessment OptionsUse recall questioning or ask students to reteach what they learned throughout the lesson to gauge student understanding. Example questions:
• What is an artifact?
• What are some things we can learn from artifacts?
• What observation skills help us examine artifacts?
The Artifact Analysis Worksheets will be used to gauge student understanding of how to analyze an artifact, their use of the BEETLES observation technique, and how to use observations as evidence in support of their hypotheses.
Student Activity 3, “Create a suspect profile,” will be used to assess students’ ability to connect the physical objects to abstract concepts and academic knowledge (in the form of primary and secondary sources). It will also be used to evaluate the students’ ability to use observations and academic knowledge to form and support an argument.
Enrichment Activities
Investigate a historic artifact from your home or community!
Grant-Kohrs Ranch has shared some of its artifacts with you. Now share some of your artifacts with the ranch!
Have students look for a historic artifact at home or in their local community. It could be an artifact in a local museum, historical society, or an artifact or heirloom owned by their family. Then, students will use the same “I notice, I wonder, it reminds me of” procedure to analyze their artifact. Have them record their observations on the blank Artifact Worksheet included with this lesson plan. In the place where a photo is attached, have the students make a sketch of the artifact (they may also use a blank sheet of paper, if more space is needed). After they have completed the worksheet, have students perform independent research on the artifact. Many national, state, and county historical societies have online archival collections. For example, online archives are available at:
• The Library of Congress
• The National Archives and Records Administration
• The Montana Memory Project, hosted by the Montana Historical Society
If students choose a family heirloom, oral histories from family members may also be used. But students should seek to verify information through research.
When students have completed their research, have them present their artifact and findings to the class. In their brief presentation, students should try to answer the following questions: Who made it and when? What was it intended to be used for? Who was intended to use it? What sources (archival sources, oral histories, books, etc.) did you find that helped you learn about this artifact? What person or persons can be connected to this artifact? What does this artifact reveal about that person?