Out of the Blue - Researching with Freeform

Airships, a story, primary sources…and a historic fabrication! 

Screenshot of Freeform research

In history classes you never know where the research rabbit hole will lead. Therefore a habit of mine, when creating history content, is to use Notes to collect and Freeform to organize and share. Freeform also provides the opportunity for a student-led primary source inquiry, learning by using sticky notes for questions and further exploration.

Some steps

1. A student or team highlights a local news event and puts a clipping of it on a shared Freeform. Individually students post questions, supply answers and add new discoveries via sticky notes.
2. In addition, the class searches and adds, via sticky notes, their finding of a story that connects the original posted event to the past.
3. Using reliable primary source sites such as Chronicling American or Prints and Photos in the Library of Congress, students verify the historic event and add those primary sources to Freeform along with increasing questions or paths to follow.  It’s like walking by a jigsaw puzzle and adding a piece. 

An Example:

My example started with a iPhone photo taken by a teacher in San Francisco.

Here is a link to the Freeform board

The video below is a screen recording of the Freeform scenes as I talk through the facinating findings.

You’ll find the 2023 article about the San Francisco Chronicle’s 90 year old “fabrication” here in Apple News. Wonderful lesson about media literacy in the past.

Can you see how starting with a current picture of an airship over San Francisco and collaboratively chasing this down to historic airship sightings over the city in the past, gives local history an engaging connection?