Hunting for Knowledge

Last week in History, my class did a lesson called Civil War Scavenger Hunt.  Our two essential questions were;  Who was the ultimate victor in each of the theaters of war: East, West, Naval? and What are some commonalities you can identify in the reasons for the results of the battles?  Working alone, each student received 1/20 civil war battle names.  Using reliable sources, everyone had to research their assigned battle and find the date and location, the victor, which theater it took place in, at least 2 details, and an image.  Unfortunately, I was not in school the day our class researched battles.  For homework that night, each student created a public Google Document with their information.  Then, students created a QR Code, which linked to their doc.  In class the next day, they hung up their QR Code somewhere in the school, and the person before them indicated the location in their doc.  Luckily, Zack Sahagian let me tag along, and filled me in on what I had missed.  

Zack researched battle #14, the Battle of Chickamauga.  Zack clearly presented the information that his classmates needed to know, by stating the date, name, theater, and victor.  You can view Zack's work here.  

So, who was the ultimate victor in each of the theaters of war?  After viewing all of the different documents, we created a Padlet, "an online bulletin board", and used it to share ideas with our peers.  Our class mostly agreed that the Union dominated the western theater, by winning the Battle of Shiloh by outnumbering the Confederate Army, and the Siege of Vicksburg by being more prepared than the South.  Our class did not agree on the victor of the eastern theater.  David made a good argument in favor of the Confederate Army by saying "The Confederacy dominated the Eastern Theater. At the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Union suffered 13,300 deaths."  On the other hand, Alex H. made an equally good argument in favor of the Union Army by saying The Union dominated the Eastern Theater, as they had many more resources and manpower for the job. Some examples are the Battle of Gettysburg, where the Union managed to come out on top even after 20,000+ casualties."  You can view our ideas below.

Created with Padlet

What are some of the commonalities in for the results of the battles?  In the Battle of Shiloh and the Battle of Fort Sumter, an army ran out of supplies, which means they were not prepared enough.  Another commonality I noticed was between 4 separate battles, there was an issue with being outnumbered, both the Union outnumbering the Confederacy and vice-versa.