The Cold WarKelly Garcia/Matthew Wenz

EDUG 808Prof. Rogan/Dr. McCarthy

The Cold War•8th Grade Social Studies• Key Topics Covered

•Space Race•Arms Race•McCarthyism•Proxy Wars•Truman Doctrine•NATO/USSR • Partition of Germany

Our Trip…We voyaged to the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum•Located off of West Side Hwy

• Easy location to reach

• Engaging and interesting for middle school students

• Great resource for Cold War era

• Up close analysis of things students have seen in text and visuals.

What Did We See?• Cold War Relics• The growth of

technology• Primary sources• Women in combat

• Space race • Daily life aboard an

aircraft carrier

I want to go fast….

Essential Question•The “Cold War” era had various effects on American life both domestically and abroad. How did these effects change U.S. policy within the borders of our nation and in our handling of foreign affairs?• We developed our essential question by looking at the topics covered in this particular unit and determining the most important results. This question is a culmination of all the lesser topics in this unit.

What I Learned

I learned first and foremost how to create an effective field trip for my students. Kelly was nice enough to humor me and allow us to choose a location that I can use immediately with my class this school year. Too often we look at field trips as a way to get out of the classroom and break up the daily monotony of our ritualistic routines. After planning the trip I found that we can provide our students with a great variety of supplemental education outlets to benefit different learning styles. Even with modern gadgets and classical textbooks, there is nothing like experiencing education in real life. If we can provide our students with a variety of different sources: primary, secondary, visual, physical and auditory, we give them the best chance of succeeding in their understanding of different topics. By maximizing our field trips, we are really maximizing our students’ educational experience.

Document Based Questions

Question #1

According to this excerpt, what does Churchill fear will occur as result of the “Iron Curtain”?

“From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the

Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the

Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of

the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe.

Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest,

Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia, all these famous

cities and the populations around them lie in what

I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject

in one form or another, not only to Soviet

influence but to a very high and, in many cases,

increasing measure of control from Moscow.

Athens alone-Greece with its immortal glories-is

free to decide its future at an election under

British, American and French observation. The

Russian-dominated Polish Government has been

encouraged to make enormous and wrongful

inroads upon Germany, and mass expulsions of

millions of Germans on a scale grievous and

undreamed-of are now taking place.”

-Winston Churchill, “Iron Curtain”

Speech in Fulton, Missouri

Question #2

According to this document, what are two reasons for the formation of the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)

-The Parties to this Treaty reaffirm their

faith in the purposes and principles of the

Charter of the United Nations and their

desire to live in peace with all peoples and

all governments.They are determined to safeguard the

freedom, common heritage and civilization

of their peoples, founded on the principles

of democracy, individual liberty and the rule

of law. They seek to promote stability and

well-being in the North Atlantic area.

They are resolved to unite their efforts for

collective defense and for the preservation

of peace and security. They therefore agree

to this North Atlantic Treaty…

 The following is an excerpt from North Atlantic Treaty 

Washington D.C. - 4 April 1949

Question #3Many Americans were afraid of communists and the government’s inability to contain communism, thus the US government created the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).

According to this political cartoon how did the fear of communism disrupt the everyday lives of American citizens?

Question #4What two different measurements of military expenditure are depicted by the y axis in this graph? According to year 2000 dollars about how much did military expenditures increase between 1947 and 1953?