Students can learn about the presidents with this great technology lesson

Title – Presidential Database

By – Peter Dragstrem

Primary Subject – Computers / Internet

Secondary Subjects – Social Studies

Grade Level -

Materials needed:

computers for students

database program (Works or Access)

Internet connection

age appropriate web sites to research subject

POTUS.com

whitehouse.gov (make sure it is gov and NOT com)

Have the students set up a database that will cover all 43 presidents of the US and their vice presidents… (have the kids research on the Internet)

I have used last name, first name, party, term, birth, death, state of birth, and vice president as just a few of the field names…

Teaching databases can be done with almost anything that can be categorized…

For the social studies teachers this project led to many questions about why some Presidents didn’t have vice presidents. It gave me the opportunity to introduce some US Constitution lessons and I was able to teach them history from the questions they gave. It also leads to questions about assassinations and Grover Cleveland.

WARNING I have done this project a few times and I will inevitably have one or two students accidentally go to whitehouse.COM instead of GOV as a matter of fact it was this project that made me realize that the .COM was a porno site. JUST BE AWARE…

Have them print out a table and a finished report grade on accuracy, spelling, and capitalization…

E-Mail

Peter Dragstrem

!