Hunting for Civil War Battles

To learn about the various battles of the civil war, each student chose a battle to individually research. A photo of the battle, and information such as the location, theater, victor and reason for the outcome was all put into a google doc. We then created a shareable link for the document, and put it into a QR code and a bit.ly, and put that and our battle name onto a poster that was hung somewhere in the school for others to find on the “scavenger hunt” Each battle also gave directions to get to the next battle, which was somewhere else in the school. After we had all walked the school in search of the battles, and taken notes on each, we came back to class to discuss our findings. We did this using the website padlet, where everyone could submit their answers for the entire class to see. Each person submitted their answers to the essential question, and it was helpful to see everyones response and helped me personally to understand it more.

The QR code to my battle, The Battle of Bull Run!

The first essential question was “Who was the ultimate victor in each of the theaters of war: East, West, Naval?” This question was clear for us to answer after seeing all of the battles, their victors and their theaters. The ultimate victor for the eastern theater was the confederacy. The confederacy won the Second Battle of Bull Run, the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Battle of Chancellorsville, as well as the Battle of Good Harbor. The ultimate victor for the western theater was the union. The union won the Battle of Fort Henry, the Battle of Fort Donelson, the Battle of Shiloh, the Battle of Vicksburg, and the Battle of Chattanooga. The union was also the ultimate victor for the Naval theater. A commonality of the reason for the outcome of the battles is the losing side was outnumbered. For example, in the Battle of Fort Henry, the Union was the victor because they outnumbered the confederacy, and the confederacy was poorly armed and had outdated weapons.  In some instances a surrender is because of a great number of casualties. For example, in the Second Battle of Bull Run, the union had 5,500 more casualties than the union, and therefore retreated.  

My classes padlet, discussing the ultimate victor in all three of the theaters

http://padlet.com/KerryHawk02/2015ATheaters

I enjoyed doing this activity and thought that it was a unique way to gather information on the battles.I thought that it was interesting to walk around the school to discover the information, and find out battle by battle how the war was going. I enjoyed walking around the school to learn about this lesson, and it made it easier and less difficult to learn about, rather than sitting in a classroom taking tedious notes. Each battle had clear information about it and a picture, making it easier to understand, opposed to searching for and through information on each of these battles individually. Overall, I really enjoyed this activity and found it a great way to learn without sitting in a chair looking at a screen for an hour.