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Lists and describes some of the professions responsible for community health, such as doctors, nurses, pharmacists, dentists, dental hygienists, and veterinarians, and presents a video quiz based on the content of the segment.

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The Constitution and Constitution Day: A Beginner’s Guide

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The Constitution and Constitution Day: A Beginner’s Guide

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The Constitution and Constitution Day: A Beginner's Guide

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Jeffrey and Lilly, along with their intelligent dog Mr. Beanbody, travel back in time to learn about the United States Constitution. Along the way, they explore the three branches of United States government and the Bill of Rights. Mr. Beanbody goes on to explain the origins of Constitution Day, a national holiday celebrated in communities across the United States.

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Arriving in America: TheMaking of a MulticulturalNation 1880-1920

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Arriving in America: TheMaking of a MulticulturalNation 1880-1920

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Arriving in America: The Making of a Multicultural Nation 1880-1920

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Depicts the great wave of immigration into the United States from 1880-1920. The program analyzes such topics as the conditions at Angel Island, immigrant documentation at Ellis Island, immigrant contributions to American economy and infrastructure, the reasons immigrants decided to leave their homeland, and the challenges faced by immigrants on their journey to America.

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Access on-demand teaching strategies, interactive professional development courses, and membership to the Discovery Educator Network-one of the largest professional networks of educators in the world.

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Old Cowtown Museum's collections reflect aspects of life on the frontier in the late 1860s and 1870s. They include historic structures and their period furnishings, clothing and domestic textiles, tools and machinery, farming equipment and rolling stock. An archival collection of photographs, letters, and documents also provide primary source material for historical research. A separate study collection and reproductions are used by costumed history interpreters to bring this historical period to life.

T​here are 54 historic and recreated buildings at Cowtown located along the banks of the Arkansas River that are open to visitors all year long. Twenty-seven of the buildings are original and have been relocated to the grounds from Wichita and other sites in Kansas. Relocation of these structures protected them from demolition and preserved them for the future.

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Old Cow Town Historic Structures & Collections

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Old Cowtown Museum's collections reflect aspects of life on the frontier in the late 1860s and 1870s. They include historic structures and their period furnishings, clothing and domestic textiles, tools and machinery, farming equipment and rolling stock. An archival collection of photographs, letters, and documents also provide primary source material for historical research.

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A Flight Through Time

Within five years of the Wright brothers' 1903 flight at Kitty Hawk, Kansans seek to enter the aviation age with craft of their own design. Entrepreneurial and experimental spirits ride high as daring pioneers seek their fortunes in the wide open prairie skies.

The first successful Kansas plane, the 1910 Longren Flyer, is built in Topeka. It is quickly followed by a wide variety of craft developed by more than 60 manufacturers throughout the state. The nation's first airplane built strictly for commercial purposes, the Laird Swallow, is created in 1920 by the Wichita team of Laird, Moellendick and Burke.

They are joined by such pioneers as Lloyd Stearman, the Rawdon brothers, Al Mooney, Walter and Olive Ann Beech, Clyde Cessna, Bill Lear and many others. Whether they build one plane or thousands, they all add their genius to a vital new industry burgeoning in the center of the nation.

Even with that early start, practical and widespread aviation is a relatively recent phenomenon. Many of aviation's artifacts are scarcely a half-century old, yet they are irreplaceable monuments to the industry's pioneering days.

1900

Three years before the Wright brothers successfully take off at Kitty Hawk, N.C., Carl Dryden Browne promotes commercial airplane manufacturing in Freedom, Kansas. He builds a factory and a prototype, but never flies his aircraft. The factory closes in 1902.

1909

William Purvis and Charles Wilson, two railroad mechanics in Goodland, quit their jobs to work on a rotary-winged aircraft. The venture fails, but their design is believed to be the first rotary-winged aircraft ever patented, a predecessor to the helicopter.

1910

The first successful Kansas plane, the 1910 Longren Flyer, is built in Topeka by Albin Longren. He first flies the plane in 1911.

1911

Clyde Cessna builds a plane near Rago, Kan., and puts on a public flight at the Salt Plains near Enid, Okla. His first successful flight occurs in December, following almost a dozen failed attempts.

1916

Cessna moves his airplane manufacturing business from his farm in Kingman County to the Jones Auto factory in north Wichita.

1917

Cessna builds "The Comet," the first plane known to have been completed in Wichita.

1919

Two aircraft companies are formed in Wichita, Wichita Aeroplane Service Co. and the Wichita Aircraft Co. J.M. Moellendick, oil tycoon, invests in the Wichita Aircraft Co. Upset with the management, he persuades William Burke from Okmulgee, Okla., to take over. Burke flies to Chicago, meets with E.M. "Matty" Laird, and proposes that the three form a company in Wichita to build planes.

1920

E.M. Laird Airplane company is formed in Wichita. The staff includes Matty Laird, Billy Burke and Jake Moellendick. The group's first airplane, the Wichita Tractor, takes flight April 8. A young man observing the test flight, William Lassen, is believed to have remarked, "She flies like a swallow, boys." From that point on, the plane is known as the Laird Swallow.

1921

State census shows 21 plane manufacturers in the state.

1923

Laird returns to his hometown, Chicago. By now, Lloyd Stearman and Walter Beech are working for Moellendick at Swallow.

1924

In December, Stearman and Beech leave Swallow over a disagreement with Moellendick.

1925

Travel Air is formed by Cessna, Beech and Stearman. Two years later, Cessna and Beech split after a disagreement over whether to build cantilevered wings.

1926

Stearman forms his own company in California and a year later moves back to Wichita.

1928

Clyde Cessna forms Cessna Aircraft Co.

Wichita begins promoting itself as "The Air Capital of the World."

1930

Travel Air merges with Curtiss Wright; United Aircraft and Transport, which includes Boeing, takes over the Stearman Corporation.

Al Mooney forms the Mooney Aircraft Corp. in Wichita.

1932

Walter Beech and business-savvy wife Olive Ann start Beech Aircraft Co. The first Beechcraft, the classic Model 17R Staggerwing, makes its initial flight Nov. 4.

1935

Cessna model C-134 (later named the Airmaster) starts production, considered the "world's most efficient airplane."

1941 to 1945

Aircraft companies enjoy a boom because of World War II. Tens of thousands of aircraft workers are employed in Kansas plants, most of them in Wichita. Boeing builds B-29 bombers. Beech (C-45 from the Beech 18 among others) and Cessna (T-50 Bobcat, "Bamboo Bomber" and others) build military aircraft. Many companies work together to produce gliders.

1944

Boeing Wichita is the first manufacturing facility in the United States to use mass transportation for workers. Buses take people from downtown Wichita, Arkansas City, Winfield, Salina, Ponca City and Newkirk to Boeing and back.

1945

Culver Aircraft Corp. of Wichita operates in a complete blanket of secrecy for the duration of World War II. It builds radio-controlled drones.

Postwar Layoffs: Aircraft factories lay off 16,000 people at Boeing in one day.

First flight of the Beechcraft Bonanza.

1946

In 1946, when kid-genius Al Mooney re-enters the manufacturing scene at age 40, he and Charles G. Yankey form Mooney Aircraft Inc.

1948

Boeing Wichita conducts initial aerial refueling tests with B-29s.

1951

The first U.S. swept wing jet bomber, Boeing B-47 Stratojet, rolls off the Wichita production lines.

In January, the United States Air Force announces that it intends to establish a very large air force base at the Wichita municipal airport. The base will have a contingent of 6,500 or more people. The USAF plans to use the base for Boeing B-47 crew training.

1954

Boeing begins production on the B-52 bomber. B-52s still fly active missions today.

Construction begins on what becomes Mid-Continent Airport west of Wichita. Later in the year, all non-military traffic ends at the Wichita municipal airport and moves to Mid-Continent. Mid-Continent celebrates its 50th anniversary in April 2004.

1956

Cessna's Model 172 sets world sales records. More than 14,000 are built in 13 years.

1962

Bill Lear moves from Switzerland to Wichita to design, build and market a business jet. The first Learjet flight is Oct. 7, 1963.

1969

The first flight of a Cessna business jet prototype, which becomes the Citation.

1979

Beech Aircraft is acquired by the Raytheon Company.

1983

Beech announces plans for all-composite Starship. Certification and marketing problems derail the Starship; production stops at about 50 delivered.

1986

After 35,000 model 172s are built, Cessna halts production, due primarily to soaring product liability costs.

1986

General Dynamics Corp. buys Cessna.

1990

Bombardier Inc. purchases Learjet Inc., the first Kansas business jet maker.

1992

Textron Corp. acquires Cessna from General Dynamics.

1994

Beech Aircraft, after 62 years, is renamed Raytheon Aircraft Co.

1996

Cessna Chairman Russ Meyer is inducted into the Kansas Aviation Hall of Fame.

Cessna rolls out first 172 Skyhawk produced at new facility in Independence, Kan.

Raytheon Aircraft introduces the Hawker Horizon.

Boeing launches its first complete one-piece fuselage for the Next-Generation 737-700.

Raytheon is awarded the Joint Primary Aircraft Training System (JPATS) acquisition and support contracts, estimated to be worth $4 billion.

1997

A 98,000-square-foot expansion of the Bombardier Flight Test Center opens.

Boeing merges with McDonnell Douglas Corporation.

The Republic of Singapore Air Force chooses McConnell Air Force Base over two other American bases to train KC-135 aircrews and maintenance.

2002

Boeing delivers the 150th T-45 Goshawk training aircraft, a T-45C, to the U.S. Navy.

Raytheon is awarded $74 million option on U.S. Army Live Training contract.

As part of a plan to reduce and consolidate the Air Force's B-1 fleet, McConnell Air Force Base's B-1B Lancer Bombers are transferred to other bases.

McConnell's 184th Bomb Wing takes on a new mission flying KC-135s and is officially designated the 184th Air Refueling Wing.

2005

Boeing delivers its last 757 passenger airplane, concluding a 23-year production run. It is the 1,050th Boeing 757, with more than 1,030 still in service.

The Boeing 777-200LR Worldliner establishes a new world record for nonstop distance by a commercial airplane, flying 11,664 nautical miles in 22 hours and 42 minutes from Hong Kong to London.

The Virgin Atlantic Globalflyer, piloted by Steve Fossett and designed by Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites, launches from a Salina, Kan., airport for an around-the-world trip, landing 3 days later without refueling. Kansas State University at Salina acts as Mission Control for the record-setting event.

Onex acquires the Wichita/Tulsa division of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, which becomes Spirit AeroSystems.

2006

The 5,000th 737 comes off the production line. The 737 is the most-produced large commercial jet airplane in aviation history.

2007

Onex and Goldman Sachs acquire Raytheon Aircraft Company, which is renamed Hawker Beechcraft.

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Within five years of the Wright brothers' 1903 flight at Kitty Hawk, Kansans seek to enter the aviation age with craft of their own design. Entrepreneurial and experimental spirits ride high as daring pioneers seek their fortunes in the wide open prairie skies. The first successful Kansas plane, the 1910 Longren Flyer, is built in Topeka.

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History of Wichita

Now recognized as one of the major mid-sized cities in the nation, Wichita has come a long way since its infant years as a trading post and cowtown. The road from "then" to "now" has been filled with colorful people, events and businesses that have been the building blocks for today's cosmopolitan Wichita... a dynamic community rich in culture, activity and opportunity.

Wichita's reputation for manufacturing and exporting is not a recent development, archeological evidence indicates that the site of present-day Wichita has served as a trading center for thousands of years. Settlers were first attracted to the area in the mid-1850s, as they traveled through the prairies on their way to the west and were deterred when they found significant profits from hunting and trapping wildlife to trade with the native population.

The Wild, Wild West!

The beginnings of the community date to 1868, when J.R. Mead founded a trading post on the banks of the confluence of two rivers, the Arkansas and the Little Arkansas. For centuries this location had also served as a trading place for Native Americans. The name Wichita comes from the Wichita Indians, who settled at various times in the vicinity, and means either "scattered lodges" or "painted faces," depending on which historian you ask.

In 1868, a Wichita Town Company was organized with Mead and six others as original incorporators. Wichita was incorporated as a city of the third class on July 21, 1870. One hundred twenty-three men and one woman signed the original incorporation petition. The woman was Mrs. Catherine McCarty, who owned and operated a laundry. Later, she moved to New Mexico, where her oldest son, Henry, changed his name to William Bonney, better known as "Billy the Kid."

Move Along, Little Doggies!

Within a year of incorporation, Wichita experienced phenomenal growth, due largely to the cattle trade from Texas. So rapid was the population growth that in late 1872, Wichita became a city of the second class. That same year, Col. Marshal Murdock founded the Wichita City Eagle newspaper. Now known as the Wichita Eagle, it is the largest newspaper in the state.

Jesse Chisholm came to Wichita first in about 1863, leading a party of sportsmen and adventurers here to hunt game. He later marked the cattle trail, best known as the Chisholm Trail, from the King Ranch in south Texas to Kansas. Cattle by the hundreds of thousands traversed the trail to the Santa Fe trailhead in Wichita. In 1872 alone, 350,000 head of cattle were sold in Wichita at a value of more than $2 million, a princely sum in those days.

Spurred by this influx of cowboys in the 1870s who brought hundreds of thousands of cattle out of Texas north to Wichita along the Chisholm Trail, Wichita was indeed a rough and tumble cowtown. It was a city where Wyatt Earp, "Buffalo Bill" William Mathewson, and Bat Masterson walked the dusty streets. Just west of the river, the area known as Delano was especially wild and woolly. All manner of vice could be found in saloons, dance halls, gambling and prostitution houses to entertain the thirsty and lonely cowboys.

Down to Business!

Wichita fell on hard times in the late 1870s when the cattle trade moved further west to take advantage of the construction of rail lines. But, by 1880, the city had rebounded with a growing economy in agriculture and manufacturing. The first Board of Trade was opened in 1880. The Commercial Club was founded in 1897 and became the Chamber of Commerce in 1901. The present day Wichita Regional Chamber of Commerce dates from 1917.

Even though the cattle trade lasted only three or four years, its presence assured Wichita's position as a commercial hub. With the trade groundwork firmly established, manufacturing and agriculture industries thrived in the late teens and early 1920s. In addition, savvy aviation entrepreneurs moved in to take advantage of the benefits of a prosperous oil industry, agreeable climate and wide open spaces perfect for building and testing these new birds of flight.

Those Magnificent Men and Their Flying Machines!

Men like Lloyd Stearman, Walter Beech, Clyde Cessna, E.M. Laird, J.M. Mollendick and George Weaver were responsible for starting the aircraft industry in the area. With Mollendick as the financial backer, Laird started the Swallow Airplane Company to build the Swallow airplane that had been designed in Chicago. Interestingly, Beech, Stearman, and Weaver all worked for Laird and Mollendick until each went on to establish his own company. Stearman's company later was purchased by The Boeing Company of Seattle, now Spirit AeroSystems. Today Spirit is Wichita's largest employer with more than 20,000 employees.

The Beech and Cessna companies (now Textron Aviation) continue today, as does Learjet (now Bombardier Aerospace Learjet), founded by William Lear in the mid 1960s. It was through the efforts of these aviation pioneers that Wichita earned the title of "Air Capital of the World." With all companies still located in Wichita, that title firmly remains today. Cessna, Bombardier Aerospace Learjet and Raytheon supply more than half of the world's general aviation and military aircraft. Boeing supplies two-thirds of the world's commercial airliners.

The Entrepreneurship Lives On!

It was not only aviation that established Wichita as a hotbed of entrepreneurship. Many other Wichita business leaders have made their mark too. W.C. Coleman, a name synonymous worldwide with camping and outdoor recreational equipment, produced his first Coleman lantern in Wichita in 1914.

About the same time, another innovative business leader, A.A. Hyde, invented a product that was to become a household word... mentholatum. Later, two enterprising Wichitans launched White Castle hamburgers here.

Koch Industries, the second largest privately held company in the U.S., is another homegrown success story. Originally established as the Wood River Oil and Refining Company in 1940, Koch Industries has become one of the most diverse firms in the nation. Koch's global operations include refined products, chemicals, crude oil services, gas liquids, energy services, chemical technology, minerals services, agriculture and capital services.

In 1958, Frank and Dan Carney borrowed $600 from their mother and established their first Pizza Hut in Wichita in a small red-bricked building. This original Pizza Hut now resides on the campus of Wichita State University as testimony to the possibilities of vision, hard work and the spirit of entrepreneurship.

Making Themselves at Home!

A sampling of other well-known national and international companies with roots in Wichita include: Big Dog Motorcycles, InterVoice-Brite, Inc., Candlewood Inn, Chance Manufacturing, IFR Systems (now known as Aeroflex Wichita), Lone Star Steakhouse, Cox Communications, Hyperion Communications, Pioneer Balloon, Rent-A-Center, Ryan Aviation, Summerfield Suites, Warren Theatres, Freddy's Frozen Custard and Steakburgers, and The Residence Inn. While not originating in Wichita , there are numerous other leading companies that have branches here like AmeriServe, IKON Office Solutions, LSI Logic and Royal Caribbean International.

Charge!

Obviously, Wichita has come a long way since its beginnings as a trading post and cowtown. Right now, Wichita is a booming city with business interests that span the globe. Good jobs and good salaries, below national average housing costs, short commute times and burgeoning arts and attractions have also developed in conjunction with this solid, Midwest spirit of hard work and vision... a pioneer spirit all dressed up in high tech fashion.

But, it's the original foundation as a center for commerce that has been the one constant ensuring Wichita's progress through good times and bad. It's a legacy of commerce that will continue to keep Wichita prosperous as we charge ahead in this 21st century.

Sources: Dr. Craig Miner, The Wichita State University; " Wichita Century" by R.L. Long; "Visions from the Heartland" by Howard Inglish

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Now recognized as one of the major mid-sized cities in the nation, Wichita has come a long way since its infant years as a trading post and cowtown. The road from "then" to "now" has been filled with colorful people, events and businesses that have been the building blocks for today's cosmopolitan Wichita...

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EXPERIENCE Real Support

Access on-demand teaching strategies, interactive professional development courses, and membership to the Discovery Educator Network-one of the largest professional networks of educators in the world.

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Discovery Science Alliance: Great Inventors

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Highlights the processes used for creating an invention and testing a prototype. Students of the Science Alliance Academy learn to collaborate, create, and test new walker designs.

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Click on Project Samples

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Day in My Community

Life in Kansas on October 11, 2001, was preserved for future generations through more than 4,000 letters. This effort was a project of the Kansas Association for Family & Community Education (FCE). The letters are now a part of the collection of the Kansas State Historical Society.

Individuals from age six to 90 participated in the letter-writing effort. The submissions, written by individuals from Kansas communities small and large, ranged from one page to more than 50 pages. The letters were handwritten, typed, and sometimes illustrated. Of the state's 105 counties, 73 are represented among the collection.

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Day in My Community Life in Kansas on October 11, 2001, was preserved for future generations through more than 4,000 letters. This effort was a project of the Kansas Association for Family & Community Education (FCE). The letters are now a part of the collection of the Kansas State Historical Society.

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Highlights some of the workers who ensure a community functions, such as mail carriers, farmers, bank tellers, librarians, teachers, and principals, and presents a video quiz based on the content of the segment.

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Describes the process of recycling and the benefits of reducing waste and reusing materials. Recycling refers to reusing waste products. The program describes how different types of garbage can be recycled, reduced, and reused.

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Differentiates between urban, suburban, and rural communities, and states that a community is a group of people living and working together in the same area. The segment also explains that people in a community often work together to solve a problem that is too big for one person to fix, and presents a video quiz based on the content of the segment.

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Cheddar K-12 Explores: The Exploding Craters of Siberia

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Cheddar K-12 Explores: The Exploding Craters of Siberia

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CheddarK-12 Explores: The Exploding Craters of Siberia

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In terms of climate change and its dangers, Siberia is in a class of its own - a landscape of unexplained hills with levels of methane gas that are constantly changing. Cheddar explores how one of the coldest places on earth could soon become one of the hottest.

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Celebrating Kansas Harvest

Wheat History

"All parts of Kansas grow good corn
but in wheat Kansas can beat the world."
Topeka Daily Capital, 1888

Today's Kansans may be surprised to learn that wheat has not always been the state's dominant crop. Farmers who settled here just after the Civil War (1861-1865) planted corn, a familiar crop that thrived in the humid eastern areas they called home.

It would take many years for wheat to dethrone corn in Kansas. The first major blow was delivered in 1874 by swarms of grasshoppers that devoured the corn crop well after the wheat was harvested. A series of summer droughts made matters even worse.

Railroads also played an important role. Anxious to sell land to farmers who would ship grain on their lines, they mounted huge advertising campaigns and even sent agents to recruit emigrants among Germans living in Russia. These people--none of whom grew corn in Russia--quickly settled in what would become the state's major wheat-producing regions. Their great success with winter wheat convinced other farmers to try it (winter wheat--planted in the fall and harvested in the spring--is suited to Kansas where most moisture arrives in winter and early spring).

At the same time wheat was overtaking corn in Kansas fields, new technology was dramatically changing the face of farming. Mechanical threshing (separating kernels from straw) appeared in the mid-19th century. The nostalgia older farmers sometimes express for the threshing era has much to do with socializing and community, because crews often were made up of large groups of friends and neighbors. In central and eastern Kansas, farmers usually formed threshing rings of neighbors helping each other. In western Kansas, farmers hired custom threshers on a contractual basis because the region's large, flat wheat farms required tremendous amounts of machinery and labor.

Combining Havesting & Threshing

"I didn't cry when we got a combine."
Virl Moeckel, Plevna, 1998

Threshing machines and their large crews were a common fixture on the plains for more than 50 years, but the tradition could not withstand the onslaught of the combine. So named because it combined the work of all other harvest equipment (cutting and threshing) in just one machine, the combine began appearing in Kansas fields during World War I, and by 1930 Kansas farmers owned nearly one third of all combines in the United States.

Combines dropped less grain in the field and drastically cut labor costs, but wheat cut by a combine had to be dead ripe. Timing was critical because the longer wheat stood in the field the greater the risk from hail, diseases, and pests. Farmers bought their own machines rather than share with neighbors.

The amount of work one farmer could do exploded in the 20th century due to power machinery, but technology has been both a blessing and a curse. New machines and plant varieties yield more wheat through less work. Farms grow larger because farmers can handle more land, but this often leads to greater debt.

As equipment has become larger and more efficient, the need for farmers to come together to share work has declined. All the same, today's farmers have found other ways of maintaining community. Threshing crews have disappeared but in their place is the unique Plains tradition of custom combining. Harvest meals continue to be social gatherings, but for families rather than large groups of friends. Farmers may not share work as often as they used to, but when neighbors are struck down by injury or illness they rally together to bring in the harvest.

This online exhibit is the story of 20 farm families at the turn of the 21st century, embracing new technology even as they practice old customs. Wheat has become a shared symbol of their success at feeding the populations of the world as well as their neighbors at home. These sentiments were distilled into a single remark made by Marie Moeckel, a farmer from Plevna, Kansas, whose declaration prompted the title for this project:

"We're just wheat people!"

Wheat People: Celebrating Kansas Harvest is an online exhibit developed by the Kansas Museum of History.

1. Wheat History - Corn used to be "King" in Kansas

2. Gearing Up - Getting ready for harvest

3. On the Run - Everybody moves quickly

4. Family - Coming together in the fields

5. Fast Food - Meals are a social event

6. Nature - June is a stormy month

7. To Market, To Market - The local grain elevator

8. The Season's End - Harvest festivals

9. Business or Way of Life? - Farming is both

Contact us at kshs.kansasmuseum@ks.gov

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"All parts of Kansas grow good corn but in wheat Kansas can beat the world." Topeka Daily Capital, 1888 Today's Kansans may be surprised to learn that wheat has not always been the state's dominant crop. Farmers who settled here just after the Civil War (1861-1865) planted corn, a familiar crop that thrived in the humid eastern areas they called home.

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Access on-demand teaching strategies, interactive professional development courses, and membership to the Discovery Educator Network-one of the largest professional networks of educators in the world.

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Access on-demand teaching strategies, interactive professional development courses, and membership to the Discovery Educator Network-one of the largest professional networks of educators in the world.

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The focus of this lesson designed for fourth graders is to learn the origin of the name Kansas and to understand some basic facts about the Kansa Indians. The students will read expository text as well as perform basic original research to determine the origins of the name of their city or county. The lesson is designed to take place over two class periods but can be adjusted to meet individual classroom needs. Select each image to see a PDF with the front and back of each card.

Lesson plan

Kansas History, Government, and Social Studies Standards:

Standard #3: Societies are shaped by beliefs, ideas, and diversity.

3.1: The student will recognize and evaluate significant beliefs, contributions, and ideas of the many diverse peoples and groups and their impact on individuals, communities, states, and nations.

Kansas College and Career Ready Standards:

RF.4.4a-c: The student reads with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.

W.4.2a-e: The student writes informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.

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Read Kansas! Intermediate - I-10 Why Is the State Called Kansas?

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The focus of this lesson designed for fourth graders is to learn the origin of the name Kansas and to understand some basic facts about the Kansa Indians. The students will read expository text as well as perform basic original research to determine the origins of the name of their city or county.

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This third grade lesson allows the students to work with both primary and secondary sources. The students will study schools in early Kansas. After reading an expository text on the topic, students will connect clues from primary sources to the text. This will introduce students to the idea that historians use clues from primary sources to interpret the past in secondary sources. The lesson concludes with the students retelling the story in their own words. This lesson can be completed in one period or can be broken into sections done over several days. Select each image to see a PDF with the front and back of each card.

Lesson plan

Kansas History, Government, and Social Studies Standards:

Standard #4: Societies experience continuity and change over time.

4.1: The student will recognize and evaluate continuity and change over time and its impact on individuals, institutions, communities, states, and nations.

Kansas College and Career Ready Standards:

RI.3.2: The student determines the main ideas of a text; recounts the key details and explains how they support the main idea.

RI.3.7: The student uses information gained from illustrations (e.g., maps, photographs) and the words in a text to demonstrate understanding of the text (e.g., where, when, why, and how key events occur).

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Read Kansas! Primary - P-18 Understanding Clues from the Past: School Days

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This third grade lesson allows the students to work with both primary and secondary sources. The students will study schools in early Kansas. After reading an expository text on the topic, students will connect clues from primary sources to the text.

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Read Kansas! Primary - P-17 Historic Places in Kansas

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This lesson, designed for third grade, helps students identify and explain the importance of landmarks and historic sites in their community. The Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve near Cottonwood Falls is used as an example. Included are four Read Kansas! cards that identify and explain its importance as an historic site.

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EXPERIENCE Real Support

Access on-demand teaching strategies, interactive professional development courses, and membership to the Discovery Educator Network-one of the largest professional networks of educators in the world.

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Access on-demand teaching strategies, interactive professional development courses, and membership to the Discovery Educator Network-one of the largest professional networks of educators in the world.

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Wichita Kansas Non Profit Organizations | Non Profits In Wichita KS | NonProfitList.org

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Find non profit organizations in Wichita Kansas . Search through our extensive list of non profit organizations.

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Formative 3: Read Works: Li Bing and the Flooding 

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Formative 3: Read Works: Li Bing and the Flooding 

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Improve your students' reading comprehension with ReadWorks. Access thousands of high-quality, free K-12 articles, and create online assignments with them for your students.

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Improve your students' reading comprehension with ReadWorks. Access thousands of high-quality, free K-12 articles, and create online assignments with them for your students.

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- People Work at Many Jobs ( pg.
16)
- How a Business Works (pg 394)
- Free Enterprise (pg 402)
- The National Government (pg
102)

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- A Nation of Immigrants, pp.
242-247
- Cities of Many Cultures, pp.
252-257
- Henry Ford’s Dream (pg 372)
- Henry Ford Makes a Product”
(Horizons pg 378)

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- Inventions Lead To New
Products, pp. 386-391
- Stories People Tell, pp.
210- 217
- Leaders in the Community
(pg 74)
- Communities have
Governments (pg 78)

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- Human Processes (pg 188)
- People Work at Many Jobs
(pg 16)
- Where on Earth Is Your
Community (pg. 36)
- People and Their
Environment, pp. 160-165

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- Exploring Your
Community’s Past (pg
300)
- Our American
Heritage (pg 228)

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- Read a Map (pg 42)
- Describing a Place (pg 146)
- What People Add to Places
(pg 154)
- Real American Heroes (pg
220)

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https://www.visitwichita.com/blog/post/glance-at-150-years-of-wichita-history/

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https://www.visitwichita.com/about-wichita/history/

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Wichita is Kansas' largest city filled with significant aviation and western heritage, arts and culture, entrepreneurs, festivals, and places to dine, shop, and play. The city is also noted for its breathtaking sunsets, beautiful weather, friendly residents, remarkable affordability, and ease of getting around.

Once you discover Wichita's rich history, everything it has to offer now and in the near future, you'll find yourself in Wichita!

Wichita's History

Wichita served as a trading center and meeting place for 11,000 years for nomadic people, but it wasn't until 1863 that the first permanent settlement of Wichita Indians was recorded. Shortly after, J.R. Mead became the first white settler when he opened a trading post, and established the area as a base for the Chisholm Trail.

By 1870, Wichita was incorporated as a city, and a destination for cattle drives from Texas from whence it derived its nickname, "Cowtown." When the cattle trade moved west to take advantage of the construction of rail lines, Wichita fell on hard times. However, the city bounced back in the 1890s as grain began to more than equal the wealth formerly brought by cattle to become a trade and milling center.

The population of Wichita nearly doubled in 1918 after a great oil reserve was discovered nearby. In turn, the oil money allowed local entrepreneurs to invest in the up and coming airplane industry. Men like Lloyd Stearman, Walter Beech, and Clyde Cessna brought the industry to the area, and during World War II it was the major manufacturing center for airplanes needed in the war effort. Wichita remains the center for the aircraft industry, the "Air Capital of the World," producing 70% of U.S. general aviation aircraft.

The entrepreneurial spirit of those great pioneers continued to thrive in Wichita with other businesses like Coleman, White Castle, Pizza Hut, Big Dog Motorcycles, and Koch Industries.

Wichita Today

Today, Wichita has grown into an eclectic city with some of the greatest arts and entertainment in the Midwest. It is a destination with something for everyone!

Experience what Wichita is best known for, its western heritage. Enjoy great western family entertainment and all-you-can-eat Bar-B-Que at the Diamond W Chuckwagon Supper featuring the Diamond W Wranglers and step back in time and explore America's most authentic "Old West" town at Old Cowtown Museum, an outdoor, living history museum.

The city also attracts the talents of famous artists including Pavarotti and Broadway productions. Discover the talents of local and national artists at the Music Theatre of Wichita, Wichita Grand Opera, and the Wichita Symphony Society. You can also take in the significant works of public art located throughout city along with an internationally-renowned collection of American art at the Wichita Art Museum.

Wichita is home to one of the country's top zoos, the Sedgwick County Zoo, with 2,500 animals of nearly 500 different species. The animals are not the only great attraction in Wichita, the museums are also world-class. Encounter hands-on exhibits at Exploration Place, the city's premier science center, or explore the history of the world at the Museum of World Treasures. Take a stroll through the fragrant gardens of Botanica, the Wichita Gardens. Delve into the "Air Capital's" rich aviation history at the Kansas Aviation Museum or uncover the wonderful heritage at the Kansas African American Museum and the Mid-American All-Indian Museum including the city's symbol, the Keeper of the Plains. The Keeper represents the city's Indian heritage and was part of a riverfront beautification project that now elevates the newly restored sculpture.

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History in Wichita | Wichita Visitor Information

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Wichita is Kansas' largest city filled with significant aviation and western heritage, arts and culture, entrepreneurs, festivals, and places to dine, shop, and play. The city is also noted for its breathtaking sunsets, beautiful weather, friendly residents, remarkable affordability, and ease of getting around.

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https://www.wichitahistory.org/?page_id=2712

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Wichita Sedgwick County Historical Museum

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Here are links to lesson plans and activities to go along with the museum's "Adventure in Time" videos posted on YouTube. There is also information on teacher-issued "Family Pass" which provides free Museum Visits to students and their families through the generosity of the Beach Family Foundation (Sedgwick County students) and the Kansas All-Star Scholars Fund (Sumner County students).

VIDEO 1 - Introduction to the Historical Museum for Students - A quick look at the Museum. What are Museums?

VIDEO 2 - Wichita, the Magic City - How our city began.

VIDEOS 3 & 4 - Bison on the Plains, part 1 & part 2 - The importance of the Bison.

VIDEO 5 - Child's World - Everyone starts as a child: How was it different for children 100 years ago? How was it the same?

For additional content & ideas visit the Wichita Photo Archives: www.wichitaphotos.org
Teacher Issued Family Pass Instructions:
Students and their families may visit the Museum at no charge when a teacher issues a "Family Pass" - teachers simply send an email to the student/family stating the following:

Send From the teacher's official email address to Family -

Subject line: "TEACHER'S PASS" -

In Body of email state:

School Name -

class/grade level -

Parent or Guardian's contact information -

Student's first Name-

With this request & information: Please admit (students 1st name) and their guests with this Teacher's Pass. Call in advance to schedule. Museum Hours: T-F 11am - 4pm, S & S 1-5pm, 204 S. Main, Wichita, Kansas 316-265-9314 or tours@wichitahistory.org

This email (or a similar form) must be printed out and given to the Museum's Admissions Staff on arrival; a call to the Museum for reservations is recommended in advance of the visit.

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Here are links to lesson plans and activities to go along with the museum's "Adventure in Time" videos posted on YouTube. There is also information on teacher-issued "Family Pass" which provides free Museum Visits to students and their families through the generosity of the Beach Family Foundation (