Museum Field Trip, Barter and Trade Lesson Plan and Technology

Michigan Historical Museum

702 W. Kalamazoo St, Lansing, MI 48909
517-373-3559
www.michigan.gov/museum

I have designed a lesson plan and field trip incorporating technology for students

in the fifth grade. The unit will cover Native American and European relations and how

they bartered and traded. By the end of the unit all students will be able to describe how

trade generates economic development and interdependence and understand the pros and

cons of the barter and trade system (GLCE- SOC.IV.5.). Students will also be able to

describe how the English and the French traded with the Indians, and that the fur trade

was a major industry in Michigan (GLCE- K1.1 and USHG Era 1 1.1 and 1.2). Visiting

the Michigan Historical Museum on a class field trip will help bring this unit to life and

help the students have a clearer and deeper understanding. Students will be divided into

groups of four and given one digital camera to take pictures of exhibits throughout the

museum that correlate with the lesson. The students will later upload the pictures that

they have taken to work on a digital project.

I will introduce this unit with a clip from School House Rock on YouTube called

“This for That” (http://www.youtube.com/). This clip demonstrates and explains what

bartering and trading is and how it was used. It also shows the progression from original

barter and trade to today’s “barter and trade” with currency. I will set up an activity

where the students can experience what it is like to barter and trade. I will fill plastic

baggies with different “goods” such as candy, stickers, pens and pencils, and gum. I will

distribute the baggies to the students and have them sort through their baggy and decide

what they want to trade with other classmates. The students can then partake in their own
version of barter and trade and see how it works. This activity will help students grasp the

barter and trade concept and bring it to life. After this activity I will have students post a

blog on our class website about their experience, what they learned from it and how they

felt while participating in the activity.

I will begin teaching the unit on the Native Americans and the Europeans. Furs

were highly coveted in Europe, especially beaver fur, because it showed status. People

used beaver fur for hats and clothing. Fur traders first came to the Americas in the

1650’s. Because of Michigan’s excellent water routes (rivers and lakes) trade was easy

and accessible. I will use Google Earth (http://earth.google.com/) to have students look at

a map of Michigan to see how the water routes were so useful and in the trader’s favor.

This incorporates geography (and technology), which is also an important part of Social

Studies/History. The French traded and bartered with the Native Americans with their

own goods, such as pots, blankets, beads, knives and rifles in exchange for fur. The fur

trading business grew immensely creating companies such as the Hudson’s Bay

Company, the North West Company and the American Fur Company. The Indians came

to depend on the traders’ goods, changing their culture and creating a much easier way of

life for them (GLCE- U1.4.3). The Europeans had a huge influence on the Native

Americans. I will introduce to the students who Jacob Aster was. He was the richest man

in the Americas by 1830 due to his successful fur trading business, the American Fur

Company. This company dominated not only Michigan, but much of America. After

spending some time learning about the fur trade and how barter and trade worked I will

take my students on a field trip to the Michigan Historical Museum.

 Before we leave for our field trip I will assign the students questions to find

answers to while at the museum, along with specific things to look for. I will ask them to

find what Jacob Aster’s motto was, which will be in the exhibit on fur trade (the answer

is “Give the least and get the most”). I will also ask them to look at the list of trade goods

posted on the fort wall and find out how many deer or mink skins equaled one large

beaver skin (1/2 a deer or mink), how many beaver skins a sack of corn was (2-5) and

how many beaver skins a ¼ pound of meat was (1/2-2). Having my students look for

these answers will help them understand how valuable beaver fur was and the importance

of barter and trade since they had no currency to buy goods. When students have found

the things that they are looking for I will have them document it by taking a digital

picture. I will also ask students to take other pictures of exhibits and displays that

correlate with our lesson and the questions that I have asked students to look for.

Prior to the field trip I will assign groups to the students with a parent volunteer as

their leader. This will help the field trip be organized and go smoothly. We will arrive at

the Michigan Historical Museum at 9:30 a.m. and leave at 11:30 a.m. This gives students

enough time to learn, explore and take pictures without the field trip becoming

monotonous or drug out. When we arrive at the museum I will have our docent guide us

to the second level where the fur trade and barter and trade exhibit are located. I will have

our docent show us the different furs and let the students hold them and compare them to

the other furs. Some students may wish to take a picture of this. I will also have our

docent show us the different goods that were traded amongst the Natives and Europeans.

I will then allow the students to explore with their group the exhibit and search for the

answers to the questions they are to find (GLCE- P.2.3). After our field trip I will have
students create a glogster or scrapblog displaying the answers that they found to the

questions, along with the pictures that they took (GLCE- P.2.3). This will help students

learn to not only search for information, but how to organize and present it using

technology. This will lead to a class discussion on what we learned and saw at the

museum and how it is applicable today. Students will take turns showing the class their

glogster or scrapblog (if possible on a Smart Board).

*In a previous lesson I introduced students to glogster and scrapblog and the features that

these technologies have. Students already will have previous experience playing around

with glogster, scrapblog and using a digital camera.