Process Part ONE:
1. Go to the following website: Legacy
READ!!!!
2. Go to the following website and watch the videos below in the order given: Dust Bowl Clips
- Dust Bowl Preview
- Intro
- Uncovering the Dust Bowl
- Environmental Catastrophe
Process Part TWO:
Answering the following questions will help you understand the Dust Bowl era more completely. Use the websites provided to find the answers to these questions. Your answers should be typed IN YOUR OWN WORDS AND IN COMPLETE SENTENCES. Simply copy and paste these questions into a word document and be sure to continually save to your thumb drive (or hard drive). These assignments will be emailed to me or placed into my drop box on the classroom website.
1. What five states were MOST affected by the Dust Bowl? Use the map below from World Book Student to answer this question.
ANSWER:
The Dust Bowl era covered most of the 1930s. Go to the following websites to answer the questions:
2. How many dust storms were reported in 1932? In 1933? Farming in the 1930s
3. The drought of 1934 was the worst in United States history. How many states were severely affected? What percent of the country did this cover? Drought
1934 (#s 4 & 5)
4. In December of 1934 the Yearbook of Agriculture published facts about the devastation to the land. How many acres of formerly cultivated land were destroyed for crop production? How many acres lost all or most of the topsoil?
5. In 1938 there was a 65% reduction in soil blowing. How was this achieved?
6. The drought was at least partially responsible for the Dust Bowl. How often do droughts occur in the Plains states (give years of major droughts in the region)? Encyclopedia of the Great Plains
7. Drought alone did not cause the Dust Bowl; misuse of the land was also a factor. How was the land misused? Be specific. Dust Bowl Tough (paragraphs 6 & 7)
8. What happened on Black Sunday? Go to Remembering Black Sunday (Paragraphs 1, 4, 5, 6, 7) to find out and then give specific details about what happened to people and/or property on that day.
9. The Dust Bowl exodus was the largest migration in American history. How many people moved out of the Plains states by 1940? Dust Bowl Migration
10. About 200,000 of the millions who left their homes journeyed to California. In what ways was life there hard for these migrants? Give three specific ways. Poverty Stories (paragraph 4)
It’s hard for us today to imagine what it was like to experience these dust storms. Descriptions and pictures can help. Click on this page about the Dust Bowl from Kansas State University and scroll down the page to look at the photos, paying special attention to the captions next to the pictures.
11. Write down one observation about these photos that you found surprising, amazing, or otherwise noteworthy.
It has been said that a picture is worth 1,000 words. The Library of Congress has many pictures from the Dust Bowl available to us online. Go to their Dust Bowl Migration Primary Source Set to see some of these pictures. For best viewing, click “Download” under the thumbnail views of the pictures (it may take a few minutes to load, but the picture size will be bigger.)
12. & 13. Choose two of these pictures to write about--be sure to write out the picture name. For each picture, describe what you see, paying attention to detail, and explain your reaction to what you see (how does it make you feel, what conclusions do you draw, what did you learn).
Picture 1:
Picture 2:
14. Choose one of the Recorded Sound MP3 files to listen to (with headphones, if possible). Summarize what you hear in a brief paragraph.
15. Are there still dust storms in the U.S. and world? What does this mean for crops and prices? Modern Dust Storms?
Storm Clips (#s 16 & 17)
16. What does it feel/look like when you see the storm from far away?
17. What does it feel/look like if you are inside the storm?