Iowa's new Social Studies Standards include Iowa history in grades K-12 for the first time in over a decade.
The Iowa Museum Association and partners developed Teaching Iowa History to provide Iowa history content and instructional resources to support Iowa's teachers in meeting the new standards.
Education is a core activity for all museums. To meet identified educator needs and bring museum's into a closer working relationship with educators, the Iowa Museum Association applied for and received a National Endowment for the Humanities "Creating Humanities Communities" matching grant in the amount of $60,000 to support Teaching Iowa History.
The first phase of Teaching Iowa History:
- identified Iowa historians - local, academic, subject matter experts, and more;
- curated a digital collection of Iowa history content and primary sources;
- created instructional resources for K-12 teachers;
- offered professional development around teaching Iowa history with primary sources;
- tested and modeled both instructional resources and professional development.
Teaching Iowa History was discussed on "Relevant or Irrelevant" on KALA Radio. Broadcast May 29, 2020. Cyndi Sweet, Executive Director of the Iowa Museum Association, shared with the "ROI" panelists about the Teaching Iowa History project.
Teaching Iowa History supplementary information may be found on "Relevant or Irrelevant" Podcast.