Topic: From Marquette & Jolliet to the I & M Canal

Topic: Water, What is it Good For? Absolutely Everything!

Developed by: Kathleen Scholten

Intended Grade Level: 5-6th Approximate Length: 2-4 days

Applicable Standards:

16B 2d, 16C 2b , 16D 2b, 16E 2c , 17 A 2b, 17B 2b, 17C 2b, 17D 2b

Goals/Objectives:

Apply previous knowledge to predict actions of pioneers.
To explore the history of settlement and its effects on our neighborhood by making a connection between the early explorers Marquette & Joliet and their vision of the I & M Canal.
To recognize the impact the canal had on our local communities.

Procedures:

Students will look at a map of Illinois rivers, and a map of vegetation of the Illinois territory.
A discussion will be held regarding the needs of pioneers, and how they will decide where to move, and why.
Student will draw on their map a prediction of where they think the greatest population will occur, and write down an explanation of their prediction.
A brief history of Louis Jolliet and Father Jacques Marquette will be presented, using the book; Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet by Jeff Donaldson-Forbes, and other information from various sources.
Each child will receive a map of the trip made by Marquette and Joliet, and will trace the departing trip in blue and the returning trip in red.
Overhead maps of population density from 1820 to 1860 will be evaluated in class. Attention will be given to the sudden population increase and addition of a large city in the NE of Illinois. (Chicago). A discussion will be held making predictions as to why the sudden shift in population.
We will now look at an overhead timeline of Illinois from 1800 – 1860 to see if there was anything to explain this. Perhaps the item called the I & M canal. What was it? Has anyone heard of it?
Students will view the video Prairie Tides.
A discussion will be held regarding the effect of the canal on not just Chicago, but also our village of Justice, IL.

Materials: Overhead maps of population density from 1820 to 1860

Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet by Jeff Donaldson-Forbes

Overhead timeline of Illinois from 1800 – 1860

Prairie Tides Video

Handouts: Map of Vegetation on the Eve of European Settlement, CA 1700

Map of Illinois rivers

Map of Marquette and Jolliet’s Exploration of the Mississippi 1673

Resources

(traditional & electronic)

http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu/fimage/image.php?id=424

http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu/fimage/image.php?id=418

http://www.gibbs-smith.com/textbooks/downloads/statemaps/IL/rivers.gif

http://www.museum.state.il.us/muslink/nat_amer/post/htmls/popups/hi_explore_map.html

http://www.canalcor.org/

Ellis, Brian “Fox” Exploring the I & M Canal, An Activity and Coloring Book That Celebrates the History of the Illinois and Michigan Canal,

Illinois History Teacher, vol. 11:2, 2004

Assessment(s)

Student will demonstrate understanding of the impact of the I&M Canal on their personal life, by answering the question; How does the I & M Canal effect me, my family, or my neighborhood today?, using the medium of their choice e.g.; drawing, poem, essay, model, diorama, play, poster, etc. , and present it in class.

Map of Marquette and Jolliet Route

	ILLINOIS TIMELINE
1673	Father Marquette and Louis Jolliet explored the Illinois country.
1763	French and Indian War ended. Illinois country ceded to Great Britain.
1778	George Rogers Clark and his American troops arrived to claim the Illinois country, which became a county of Virginia.
1784	Illinois Territory was created including area of Wisconsin.
1818	Illinois became a state with Kaskaskia as the capital and about 40,000 people. State Constitution let slaveholders retain slaves already in state but prohibited slaves from being brought into state.
1820	State capital was relocated to Vandalia. Vandalia's centralized position on the National Road made it an important stagecoach stop. This road carried passengers and mail from Baltimore to St. Louis in only three weeks.
1836	Building of Illinois & Michigan Canal began.
1837	Chicago was incorporated as a city with a population of 4,170.
1839	State capital was moved to Springfield as settlement moved north.
1847	Cyrus McCormick came to Chicago to establish a shop that produced 500 horse-drawn reapers during the next year. The McCormick reaper could cut 15 acres of wheat a day. A man with a scythe and cradle could cut only 3 acres.
1848	Completed in 1848, the canal made port towns of LaSalle, Peru, Joliet, and Lockport and provided a shipping link with the Great Lakes for Illinois agricultural products.
1860	Abraham Lincoln left Springfield to become president of the U.S.
1861-5	Civil War took 256,297 Illinois men away from their families; over 34,000 were killed or died of disease.
1871	The Chicago Fire killed 350 people and destroyed the homes of one-third of the city's population, about 1,600 stores, 60 factories, 28 public buildings. The city quickly rebounded as more costly structures were built and more than 100,000 craftsmen were employed for the reconstruction.
1893	World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago celebrated the "stupendous results of American enterprise" and attracted 27 million visitors over six months. The first Ferris Wheel towered 250 feet over the midway and could carry 2,160 people at one time.
1917-18	Illinois sent 351,153 men to fight in World War I. At home Illinois women helped make hospital supplies and learned to prepare wheat less and meatless meals to conserve food. Some filled agricultural and industrial jobs vacated by men at war.
1922	First radio station in Illinois began broadcasting from Tuscola, two years after the first commercial broadcast in the U.S.
1928	Children required finishing elementary grades before they were allowed to work in Illinois. State school year lengthened from six to eight months.
1941	U.S. joined World War II. During the next five years, over 900,000 Illinois residents served in the Armed Forces. The state also supplied about 27 billion dollars of war goods.
1941	Crawford Eddy set up Chicago's first experimental TV station, W9XBK, which became WBKB, Channel 4, in 1942. Only about 100 Chicagoans owned sets.