Ideas for Schools

Local history projects can provide rich academic opportunities when they are structured as learning expeditions. The Montana Heritage Project is one of the nation's premiere educational programs supporting such expeditions. As John Dewey, among others, noted, doing is a form of thinking, and it is the way we naturally learn.

At the Montana Heritage Project website, you can learn how to plan a learning expedition using the ALERT framework. You can learn the 5 steps toward a community-centered school. You can also find an abundance of other materials for teachers.

You can join one of the expeditions already underway, using materials created by other schools and contributing the facts and stories you learn to the Heritage Project website. Two expeditions are currently in progress: The Expedition to 1910 and The Sixties Expedition (in partnership with the Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress).

The Montana Heritage Project invites submissions of historical essays, photographs, feature articles based on oral interviews, and other scholarly work by high school students and teachers. View their publication terms here.

You may also want to look at the home page for Heritage Education magazine, which features student and teacher writing and photography.