Document-Based Inquiries

Teachers in the institute developed Document Based Inquiries (DBIs) that can fit in existing units of study across the curriculum. DBIs focus on finding a variety of primary sources (including historical documents, interviews, photographs, artwork, and stories) and developing or recording new ones (by creating historical research instruments, conducting interviews, or recording stories). DBIs position students as citizen historians who develop new understandings and then justify and represent them: in this case through the development of multimedia museum exhibits that can be shared in both digital and physical forms. The teaching units will focus on “contact zones'' of American history that have played out in Idaho, i.e., on contended topics where different interests and perspectives collide.