German Heritage of Texas

Introduction

        This WebQuest focuses on the German immigrants who settled in Texas. The learning outcomes of this assignment are intended for the students to practice historical reading, research and preparing a presentation and to grasp the importance of these early German pioneers to Texas.

Task

There will be 3 assignments for this project.

First, you will do local research about the German settlement of Tomball by visiting the Tomball Museum Center.

  • Take pictures and keep a journal about the buildings you see and the information you read.
  • Think about and journal your thoughts on what it would have been like to be a German pioneer.

Second, you will write a research paper on why German's immigrated to the New World and to Texas.

  • You will include information on when and why German's first immigrated to the New World and why they settled in Texas.
  • Include research on local German settlements in Tomball, Texas and New Braunfels, Texas.
  • Include cultural information such as festivals and traditions.

Third, you will create a PowerPoint Presentation that summarizes your research paper. 

  • Your presentation should include names and dates, but more importantly WHY they came to Texas and what it was like for them.
  • Include maps of the cities you researched as well as demographic infomation about the cities. 
  • Include information about German settlement in 2 Texas cities - Tomball and New Braunfels.
  • Include a brief cultural section that describes Texas-German customs or festivals that we still celebrate.
Process

As stated before, there will be 3 assignments for this project.

First Assignment - Visit the Tomball Museum Center

  • You must take pictures of every building you see (there are 10 buildings) and record at least 5 facts about each building in a journal. Make sure to include helpful information you read or are told about each building. 
  • Think about and journal your thoughts on what it would have been like to be a German pioneer.
  • You will create a photo journal with you photos and your journal entries. You will print out your photos and type up your journal information so that you have a picture of a building followed by the 5 facts about that building. You will also include your thoughts on what it would have been like to be a German pioneer at the end of your photo journal. You will print a cover page for your photo journal that includes your name, your teachers name, the project title, and the date. You can be creative with this project. Just make sure it is legible.

Second Assignment - The Research Paper:

  • You will compose a research paper on why German's immigrated to the New World and to Texas that will be in 3 parts. This does not mean there will be three paragraphs. You should have at least 7 paragraphs with your introduction and conclusion. Your paper should be formatted in this way:

            Part 1:

      • German Immigrants to the New World - When and why did they come? Where did they settle? Who were the first settlers? What was it like for them? Include names, dates, places, and any other interesting information you can find.
      • German Immigrants to Texas - When and why did they come? Where did they settle? Who were the first settlers? What was it like for them? Include names, dates, places, and any other interesting information you can find.

            Part 2:

      • German settlers in Tomball, Texas - When and why did they come? Where did they settle? Who were the first settlers? What was it like for them? Include names, dates, places, and any other interesting information you can find. You may wish to include a reference to the Tomball Museum in this section.
      • German settlers in New Braunfels, Texas: When and why did they come? Where did they settle? Who were the first settlers? What was it like for them? Include names, dates, places, and any other interesting information you can find.

            Part 3:

      • German Culture still present in Texas - Where do you still see signs of the German culture? What festivals are still held? What traditions are do you still see? Have fun with this section. 
  • Remember your paper should be typed in Times New Roman 12 point font, double-spaced, with 1 inch margins. Put a heading on the first page of your paper with your name, your teacher's name, class name, and date. You paper should also have a header on each page with your last name and the page number (located on the right hand side of the paper).
  • You will pull your information from the resources I have provided plus any additional reference sources you find. Try to find at least one resource that does not come from the internet. (The museum does not count as that one resource.)
  • You will need to include a works cited page using MLA formatting rules.

    Third Assignment - PowerPoint Presentation

    • Your presentation should be a summary of your research paper.
    • Your presentation should include names and dates, but more importantly WHY they came to Texas and what it was like for them.
    • Be sure to include maps with the cities you studied, use Google Satellite Maps. 
    • For each of the cities give an overview of information of that city:
      • motto,  population,  location etc.
      • You should use this general outline for you PowerPoint
        • Background of immigration,
        • Immigration in New Braunfels (include your city information),
        • Immigration in Tomball (include your city information and information gathered from the Tomball museum),
        • a section of pioneer life,
        • finally a section on these German heritage cities today and customs they still observe.

     

     

    Resources:

    Mennonites

    https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/inm01Germanshttp://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/png02German-American Heritage

    http://www.germany.info/Vertretung/usa/en/06__Foreign__Policy__State/01…

    German Heritage - Texas Stylehttp://www.germany.info/Vertretung/usa/en/06__Foreign__Policy__State/01…

    New Braunfels

    http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hen02

    http://www.newbraunfels.com/

    Tomball

    http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hgt06

    http://www.tomball.com/about/about_history.php

    http://www.ci.tomball.tx.us/

    http://tomballmuseumcenter.org/

    Purdue Owl Writing Lab

    https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/

     

    Evaluation

     

    German Heritage of Texas

    PowerPoint Presentation Rubric

     

     

    Name                                                                                Date                                          Score          /60

     

     

    Historical Content (5 points each)

    ¨  Does the PPT include information on New Braunfels?

    ¨  Does the PPT include information on Tomball?

    ¨  Does the PPT include dates, facts and places?

    ¨  Does the PPT include maps, pictures and character descriptions?

    ¨  Does the student describe the emotions present in early pioneers?

    ¨  Does the student answer "Why" German pioneers immigrated to the US and to Texas?

         /30

    Physical on-site Research (5 points each)

    ¨  Does the PPT include pictures from the museum trip?

    ¨  Does the PPT include information from the museum trip?

    ¨  Does the student record their initial emotions upon seeing early pioneer homes?

         /15

    Cultural Understanding  (5 points each)

    ¨  Does the student make an outstanding show of American and Texas roots that are connected to German immigrants?

    ¨  German Heritage in Texas cities and customs they still ovserve.

         /10

    Quality of Presentation

    ¨  The student presented and outstanding emotional description of people, places and dates along with modern relevance, instructional aides for all topics.

         /5

     

     

    Tomball Museum Center

    Photo and Journal Rubric

     

     

    Name                                                                                   Date                                         Score: /70

     

     

    Photographs (1 point per photograph)

    ¨  Is there at least one photo of each of the 10 buildings?

         /10

    Journal

    ¨  Are there at least 5 facts about each building? (10 buildings, 1 point each fact)

    ¨  "What would it have been like to be a pioneer?" is clearly answered with thought and feeling. (4 points)

         /54

    Formatting (2 points each)

    ¨  Are the pictures of clear quality?

    ¨  Is the paper typed in a legible font style and size?

    ¨  Do the facts follow each picture and pertain to that picture?

         /6

    German Heritage of Texas

    Research Paper Rubric

     

    Name                                                                                     Date                                       Score          /120

     

     

    Introduction(5 points each)

    ¨  Is the topic of the paper clearly and concisely introduced?

    ¨  Does the introduction include a clear and concise thesis statement?

    ¨  Is there a well developed hook that grabs the reader's attention?

          /15

    Body of the Paper - Part 1  (5 points each)

    ¨  Does the paper address all 5 points found in the paper guidelines?

    ¨  Is there a topic sentence?

    ¨  Do the sentences support the topic sentence?

          /15

    Body of the Paper - Part 2 (5 points each)

    ¨  Does the paper address all 5 points found in the paper guidelines?

    ¨  Is there a topic sentence?

    ¨  Do the sentences support the topic sentence?

          /15

    Body of the Paper - Part 3  (5 points each)

    ¨  Does the paper address all 5 points found in the paper guidelines?

    ¨  Is there a topic sentence?

    ¨  Do the sentences support the topic sentence?

          /15

    Conclusion (5 points each)

    ¨  Is there a conclusion?

    ¨  Does the paper provide a brief summary of what has been discussed?

    ¨  Is there a call to action?

          /15

    Quality of Sources (5 points each)

    ¨  Are the sources relatively recent?

    ¨  Is there a variety of sources?

    ¨  Does the paper draw from at least 1sources that is not an internet source?

          /15

    MLA (5 points each)

    ¨  Are sources cited in the proper format on the works cited page?

    ¨  Are the in-text citations properly formatted?

    ¨  Does the paper follow the margin, font, and page specification found in the paper guidelines? (2 pages, 12-point font, Times New Roman, 1” margins, double spacing, headers)

          /15

    Writing Style (5 points each)

    ¨  Is the paper well organized?

    ¨  Is the paper free from grammar & spelling errors?

    ¨  Are there smooth transitions between sections?

          /15

     

    Conclusion

     It is important to realize that everything today has roots from somewhere or someone and that the study of history is important in understanding our lives today.

    Credits

    Inspiration, sources, and PPT rubric from Texasnishe-Deutschen:The German Heritage of Texas, a webquest by David Covington.

    This webquest was modified to accomodate our local heritage and to incude a research paper. This was specifically written for my homeschooler.