Challenging Epistemologies in History Education: Black Communities, the Underground Railroad, and 3-D-Printing Material Culture

• In Event: Engaging Students in History Through Multiple Means

Abstract

A dearth of traditional written sources blends where many histories of the Underground Railroad end and where historical anthropology begins, providing learners with new sources with new questions in the history classroom. This five-year project, funded in part by the Library of Congress, represents an ongoing partnership with a university’s Center for Archaeological Investigations and the U.S. Forest Service to develop curriculum that utilizes Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and 3D-scanning and -printing technologies. In this paper, we synthesize key findings that are the result of several curriculum efficacy studies that focus on the design of modules that engage learners in the corroboration of written sources, material culture (artifacts), and geospatial data to uncover a hidden past.

Authors

• Grant R. Miller, Southern Illinois University - Carbondale
  Presenting Author

• Peter M. Nelson, University of British Columbia
  Presenting Author

• Scott W. Boatright, Southern Illinois University - Carbondale
  Presenting Author