Social Studies and Hands-On Learning

By Natalie Gilbert

Social Studies has always been a personal interest of mine, and I am always looking for new approaches to teach my students their units.  However, I am more than familiar with getting lost in the dates, names, and locations of certain units when I was a student myself, and want to ensure that that’s not all Social Studies becomes for my students, as well.

This subject can be taught in so many different ways, and by using so many different modalities, that it is often interesting to see what students can come up with themselves when given the opportunity. I personally enjoy doing a lot of hands-on work with my students in the classroom, as I feel that this helps them gain better insight into the information than a worksheet or page of information might.

That is not to say that some students do not learn best by reading and answering comprehension questions based on the material; I have students who would prefer this method, and I base their individual lessons around this style of learning. However, when we do hands-on learning in the classroom, I find that most students are willing to try an activity, before returning to their particular activity; the way that they learn best.

Last year, during a unit on the Great Depression, my students looked up the average size of a shanty that people were forced to move into after the Stock Market Crash. Once they found this information, they used tape to section off how big it would be, and in groups, had to figure out the layout of their particular shanty, and how they would live in it as a family unit. We also did something similar when they learned about fallout shelters during the Cold War. The students enjoyed being able to push all the chairs and desks out of the way, spread out on the floor, and in a way, live the information, instead of simply listening to it.

This year, my Grade 9's were learning mapping during our unit on Physical Geography, so we created a treasure hunt around the outside of the school. This was done to reinforce the material they had already been learning, and give them a hands-on approach to a subject that is difficult for some students to grasp. They went outside, created their own maps by counting paces, by creating their own legends, and by using the mapping skills they had learned in the classroom, outside of the classroom. The students were very excited to switch maps with each other once their good copies were done, and it was fantastic to see them working together, and helping each other find the “treasure” I had buried according to the directions on their maps.

I try to use hands-on learning in my teaching as much as possible. I feel that it not only helps to reinforce skills learned through discussion and writing work, but often helps to provide students with pertinent information that they may not have gotten otherwise. I also feel like this approach helps information remain with students longer, and helps illuminate certain scenarios they might have been difficult to fathom or understand otherwise. Dates and events in the past can be difficult to connect to, and I feel that the more hands-on you become with these subjects, the more you can create a connection to it. Social Studies can be a dynamic subject when approached in multiple ways, and I feel that a hands-on approach helps students understand that learning these topics don’t have to be boring or monotonous; they can be engaging, interesting, and entertaining when presented in interactive ways.