Lesson Ideas

Inquiry Tasks

• Ask students to brainstorm prior knowledge of the Great Depression, identifying causes of such economic challenges, Using the classroom presentation, War's Impact on Oklahoma, provided by the Oklahoma Council for Social Studies, ask students to create a graphic organizer, noting the changes in Oklahoma's economy brought about by the first World War. Advise students to pay close attention to the reasons for changing conditions in Oklahoma's farming communities. Ask students how one sector of the state's economy can impact so many others and contribute to an economic disaster?

• Ask students to define their concepts of an economic "boom" versus a "bust." What general types of events can lead to economic growth versus economic recession? Use The Wheat Bubble Burst, a brief documentary videoclip by Ken Burns to begin examining how the agricultural practices and mechanization of the American farm fueled an already dire crisis on the Great Plains. Encourage students to review data from the US Crop Prices graph. What conclusions can be drawn regarding the boom and bust cycles of farm production? How do they correlate with international events? What risk does the public take when neglecting to recognize the interrelationships of international events to domestic challenges?

• Ask students to use the lesson, The Great Plow Up, provided by PBS, to review the history of settlement in the Great Plains and analyze the farm practices that turned grasslands and wilderness into cropland. Encourage students to gather evidence from the videoclips accompanying the lesson and Ken Burn's documentary, The Dust Bowl (below) as well as supply-demand-price charts. Ask students to evaluate the impact on farmers and the U.S. economy by creating a original documentary presentation, based on the lesson's guidelines and suggestions. What role do documentaries play in the public's understanding of the past? 

Primary Sources 

Secondary Sources 

• The Wheat Bubble Burst, 7-minutes videoclip, Dust Bowl, PBS documentary by Ken Burns.

• Mechanization on the Farm, 3-minute videolcip, Iowa PBS documentary.

• Mechanized Agriculture, 4-minute videoclip, Dust Bowl, PBS documentary by Ken Burns.

• Dust Bowl Comes to the Southern Plains, 6-minute videoclip, Dust Bowl, PBS documentary by Ken Burns.

• Farm Bust in 1920s. 2-minute videoclip, Iowa PBS documentary. 

• Farming, Oklahoma Encyclopedia, Oklahoma Historical Society.

• The Great Farm Depression of the 1920s, by Dan Bryan (2012), AmericanHistoryUSA.com, provides a student-friendly summary of the conditions of America's farming communities in the post-war, post-boom era. 

• The New Deal, Oklahoma Encyclopedia, Oklahoma Historical Society, provides information on Murray's leadership and failures to provide a solution to farmers' plight.