As a 21st -century teacher of social studies, I wanted to give my students the opportunity to experience a similar hands-on and highly relevant research process. I also recognized, however, that today’s students have a range of presentation tools available which were unimaginable when I was in high school.  I share with my students my prized project, painstakingly put together with construction paper, handwritten pages, and even crayon.  They (and I) find it hard to believe that in 1981, this constituted an “A” project:

While teaching Urban Studies as a senior elective this year at Masterman High School, I hoped to combine the excitement of primary research with the sophistication of today’s technology.  As a member of HSP’s teacher advisory committee, I was familiar with PhilaPlace from its early stages, and as PhilaPlace evolved, my ideas evolved as well.  Visiting the PhilaPlace website with its rich graphics, personal stories, and extensive documentation, gave my students an ideal model of what on-line neighborhood research could look like.

Though my students could not hope to create something on the scale of PhilaPlace, they did successfully produce their own neighborhood websites, working either individually or in groups of up to five members. While some of the students chose to learn more about their own surroundings, others used the website assignment as an opportunity to explore an area with which they were less familiar.

I gave the students alot of choice in terms of how they pursued and presented their research.  Many students engaged in archival research similar to what I had done, however, with digital cameras and scanners, they were able to include images of maps, news articles, and archival photos.  Some students attended community events, interviewed neighborhood residents, or visited community-gathering places as part of their research.  All of these interpersonal experiences were documented both visually and in writing.  Creatively inclined students produced (and then scanned) original drawings or created photo essays on a theme relevant to the neighborhood.  Tech-savvy, and not so tech-savvy, students developed interactive digital maps, podcasts, PowerPoints, and videos.

From what I can tell, the students have enjoyed the hands-on and close-to-home aspect of their research just as much as I had.  But, clearly, their ability to share their research and analysis greatly exceeded my own.

Each of the student websites can be found by clicking Project Pages.  Enjoy their youthful enthusiasm and humor.  And, please, reflect for a moment how far we have come from the era of projects held together with glue and string!

I should add that I teach students at the top academic school in Philadelphia which draws students from throughout the city.  Their work on these sites is evidence of both their intelligence and their diversity, traits which have enriched the Urban Studies class throughout the year.  For one of the first assignments of the school year, students developed a metaphor to describe their own slice of urban life.  A ride on the R7 train was compared to a family reunion; Lemon Hill became a VFW post;  and Washington Square Park was a needle in an urban haystack.

Amy Jane Cohen teaches in the Social Studies Department at the Julia R. Masterman School in Philadelphia