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Lake Country Museum, cultural society combine to produce history books for local students

Student book and DVD includes fifteen stories from the history of Lake Country
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A new teacher's guide for Lake Country schools highlights Lake Country's history

The Lake Country Museum and Archives and the Lake Country Heritage and Cultural Society has recently published a set of local history resources for Lake Country’s schools. The publication, Lake Country: Origins in Time and Place, includes a student book of fifteen stories about our community’s history, a Teacher's Guide of suggested lesson plans, and a DVD of digital images.

The lesson plans and student activities include materials that highlight the people and events that are significant to our local community, using inquiry-based learning of Socratic questions and research using primary source material. The Teacher’s Guide DVD includes authentic reproductions of primary source documents, maps, and photographs, with the original documents available to teachers and students through the Archives. A Discovery Trunk of authentic artifacts relating to each of the stories is also available for sign out through the Lake Country Museum.

The project was funded through The History Education Network (THEN/HiER), and each of Lake Country’s schools has received several full classroom sets of the books and Teacher’s Guide. The publications are especially timely as the content and lesson plans are based on BC’s new K-9 Social Studies curriculum.

The response has been very positive from local teachers and from School District #23, and several teachers have already begun using the books in their classrooms, along with the Origins Discovery Trunk. The museum has visited each school with presentations to teachers and has also begun class presentations, including 150 Grade 7 students at George Elliot Secondary.

The museum staff and volunteers worked with local teachers and historians and with Dr. Vicki Green, Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Education, UBC Okanagan Campus through 2015 to develop the resource. “Children have an exciting model of practice to learn Lake Country's history and geography! This curriculum reflects the importance of engaging our children today in their past for our future.” states Dr. Green.

THEN/HiER is the first pan-Canadian organization devoted to promoting—and improving—history teaching and learning by bringing together the multiple and varied constituencies involved in history education: academic historians; public historians in museums, archives and historic sites; practicing teachers; researchers based in faculties of education; and curriculum policy makers.

“It was an honour to be awarded the opportunity to develop this local history resource. The Lake Country Museum appreciates the support of our community and we are pleased to be able to give back to Lake Country’s schools – and we hope that the books will encourage students’ interest in history.” says Museum Manager, Shannon Jorgenson.

For more information about the publications, please contact the Lake Country Museum at 250-766-0111 or by email to info@lakecountrymuseum.com. Both the student book and Teacher’s Guide are available as a downloadable pdf at www.lakecountrymuseum.com.