The sites below provide resources of particular interest to Minnesota teachers as well as students seeking information about Minnesota. If you are an elementary or secondary student doing a state report on Minnesota, click here and read my essay, "Living in Minnesota." Then scroll through the links that follow to find anything else you need. If you are looking for lesson plans or other specific information, use the site index below.
Site Index: Lesson Plans with a Minnesota Connection, Resources for Minnesota Teachers, Information for State Reports, More Information about Minnesota, State Government, Outdoors/Nature, State History, Minnesota Indian Nations, Cities and Towns, Minnesota Weather, Newspapers, Arts/Museums/Zoos, Farming/Agriculture, Professional Sports Teams
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Lesson Plans with a Minnesota Connection:
State Unit Study - Minnesota
Designed for homeschoolers, this site from About.com provides
an interactive unit complete with printable
maps and worksheets.
Minnesota Floor Map
A middle-grade geography lesson in which students use materials
and space provided to design a floor map
of the State of Minnesota. See also
Minnesota Map/Quiz,
for a printable version of a basic Minnesota
geography quiz using a completion format and
Minnesota
Word Search,
for a word search puzzle on Minnesota cities
and towns.
Minnesota Alliance for Geographic Education
This page lists the Minnesota Academic Standards in
geography. Scroll down the page to find links to actvities and lesson
plans for some of the standards. See
Minnesota Urbanization
for map images to support teaching of the standards.
Minnesota Road Trip
An intermediate to middle grade lesson
plan exploring four of the five themes of geography
(location, place, movement, and regions)
as they relate to Minnesota through the detailed planning
of a seven-day trip around the state. See also
Minnesota Travel Itinerary WebQuest
for a simialr activity.
Minnesota-China Connection
A long list of activities developed for this project.
They are organized by subject area.
Tracking the T-Wolves
An ongoing intermediate-grade activity
designed to take advantage of students'
interest in professional sports to help them
learn about the first of the five themes of geography:
location, particularly the location of U.S. and Canadian
cities having NBA teams.
ArtsNet Minnesota
A joint project
of Minnesota art centers and museums, the site contains
artworks, biographies, style characteristics, discussion
questions,
student activities, and lesson
plans.
Minnesota Communities
Online explorations using primary sources from the
Minnesota Historical Society.
Click on
teachers
for a large selection of lesson plans
on topics including people (Ard Godfrey,
John Pillsbury, Julia Nelson, etc.), occupations (milling,
pottery, mining), landscapes (falls, river,
iron range), and milestones (Civil War, mill explosion,
dangers of mining, and many more).
Minnesota: A
History of the Land
A
teachers' guide intended to help middle-school
students view the
Minnesota: A History of the Land video series.
Forests. Fields, and the Falls: Connecting Minnesota
An overview and teaching activities this program from
the Minnesota Historical Society.
Minnesota Civic Education Matters
Civics lesson plans with a Minnesota flavor.
Minnesota Political Leaders
An Internet-based lesson for grades 7-10.
Refugees in Minnesota
A lesson plan for grades 11/12
Classroom Curriculum from the Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless
Many elementary
and middle-grade lesson plans dealing with homelessness.
The Changing Role of the Iron Range
A lesson plan for grades 4-5.
Settlers in the Late Nineteenth Century
Had Experiences both Similar to and Different
from Earlier Pioneers
A 1st-grade lesson plan that uses literature to compare and
contrast the lives of Minnesota settlers before
and after the Civil War.
Louisiana Purchase
A 5-lesson unit adaptable to a variety
of grades/abilities.
Minnesota History: A WebQuest
This 25-question WebQuest might make
a good extension or culminating activity for
your Minnesota state history unit.
Earliest Americans
and Their Environments
Though this 3rd-grade lesson plan is
not specifically about Minnesota, it
does examine the land-bridge theory of migration
from Asia to North America that offers one explanation of
the arrival of the the first people to inhabit Minnesota.
For further information, see
Paleo Period,
Jeffers Petroglyph
Site,
and
Lake Agassiz:
The Ultimate Fishing Spot?
Following the Path of the Dakota Conflict
of 1862
A lesson plan for grades 4-6 in which students map historically
significant sites along the Minnesota
River while learning about the importance
of the Dakota Conflict of 1862.
Sioux Treaty of 1868
A secondary lesson plan using historic documents from the
National Archives and Records Administration.
Anishinabe
- Ojibwe - Chippewa: Culture of an Indian Nation
A high-quality
lesson plan for grades 3-5.
German Immigrants:
Their Contributions to the Upper Midwest
A lesson plan in which students answer
questions and practice their German while
using photographs and documents from the
American Memory
of the Library of Congress.
Little House in the Big Woods
A unit for grade 3 using this work by
Laura Ingalls Wilder.
See also
Famous Person - Laura Ingalls Wilder,
Laura,
Laura Ingalls Wilder: Iowa Hero and
Little House.
Charles Lindbergh: An American Aviator
Links
to lesson plans and resources. For other lesson plans
on Charles A. Lindbergh, Jr.,
see
He Flew for Freedom
and
Charles Lindbergh.
Paul Bunyon
A 5th-grade lesson plan on storytelling that emphasizes Paul
Bunyon.
Fishes of Minnesota
This interactive, online quiz is a fun way to learn about
Minnesota fish species.
Natural Resources Education
The Minnesota DNR has a number curriculum guides and resources,
many of which include lesson plans. Though
most can be obtained only by attending a workshop
or must be ordered by mail, the following sample activity
is available online:
How Does Your Watershed Flow?
(an upper elementary or middle grade
lesson plan in pdf format from
Project Wet).
Other
programs for which curriculum materials are available
include
Young
Naturalists,
Project Wild,
Project
Learning Tree,
Wildfire Prevention Education
Materials,
MinnAqua,
and
Minnesota Minerals Education.
Go
to the main site above to find ordering information
for the following curricula: Adopt-A-School,
Arbor Month, and Fisheries Tour Packet & Supplemental
Materials Guide.
Forests - Teaching Activities - Natural Resource Education:
Minnesota DNR
Fact sheets, lesson plans, and activities for Biomes
of Minnesota, Gypsy Moth, and A Vanished Forest.
Tree Identification to Observe Diversity of a Given Nature Area
A 2nd-grade lesson plan developed to meet the Minnesota Science Standards.
Minnesota Raptor Center
Sixteen multidisciplinary lesson
plans about ospreys for grade 4-8. See also
Tools for
Educators.
Minnesota Zoo Scavenger Hunts
Printable pages for schools planning
field trips to the Minnesota Zoo.
Mississippi
River
Over 30 middle school lesson plans, activities, and assignments.
For other lesson plans, see also
Life on the Mississippi Past and
Present,
Mississippi River,
and
Mighty Mississippi.
For background information about
the Mississippi River, go to
The Topic: Mississippi Rriver
or the
Mississippi Headwaters
Board.
Mississippi
River
A lesson plan for grades 2-4.
Wildlife Along the Mississippi
River
A lesson plan for grades K-5 from Education
World. See also
Mississippi
River Scavenger Hunt.
Watershed
Lesson Plans
Five days of lesson plans in pdf format on the Lake Superior Watershed.
If you are doing an integrated unit on Lake
Superior, take a look at
Fish
of the Great Lakes,
Minnesota's Historic Shipwrecks,
Lights of Lake Superior,
and
the
Great Lakes Information Network.
Lesson Plan on the
Edmund Fitzgerald
A 4th-grade lesson plan about this ship sunk in 1975.
Water on the Web
This program from UMD looks really interesting. It is an interactive
curriculum designed for advanced high
school and college students that uses real
lake data to explore basic science concepts through
directed study and inquiry. To access the lesson plans,
go to curricula.
Great Lakes for Kids
Lesson plans for grades 4-8. For more information on the Great
Lakes, go to
The Great Lakes Information
Network.
Paddle to the Sea
An activity from the Gulf of Maine Aquarium
using the book
Paddle to the Sea
by Holling Clancy Holling. Among other things, this activity
examines the effect of the Great
Lakes on local weather patterns and compares
water surface areas of the Great Lakes to the Gulf of
Maine. For more resources regarding this book,
Mini-Themes,
and
scroll down the page to find a long list of links for
a grades 5-6 unit.
Resources for Minnesota Teachers:
Education Minnesota Home Page (Formerly
MEA and MFT)
NCREL
The North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL)
is a resource for teachers in Illinois,
Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and
Wisconsin.
Minnesota Department of Education
Minnesota Department of Education
- Special Education
InforMNs
A site designed to help
Minnesota educators use technology and the
Internet. It offers tech support as well as information
about workshops, listserves, and school websites.
Information for Doing a State Report
on Minnesota:
Living
in Minnesota!
Are you doing a state report on Minnesota? This is your lucky
day. I wrote this essay just for you!
Minnesota North Star
The "official" website for the state of Minnesota. It provides
a selection of resources that should give
you all the details, facts and figures, and
anything else you need for your state report.
State Unit Study - Minnesota
Designed for homeschoolers, this site from About.com provides
an interactive unit complete with printable
maps and worksheets.
Explore Minnesota
Facts and figures about Minnesota from
50 states.com.
Minnesota State Flag
A picture of and information about the Minnesota State Flag.
Maps of Minnesota
Clicking above will take you to a reasonably good online map
of Minnesota. Another decent online map
is available from MInnesota State University
- Mankato. Go to
Locating Minnesota
to view it.
Click
here
for a black and white printable outline
map of Minnesota. Also see
Maps: Minnesota
DNR.
More Information About Minnesota:
Minnesota - North Star
The state of Minnesota's home page. This is a good site for
learning about Minnesota.
Explore Minnesota
Minnesota tourism information.
Minnesota Secretary of
State Student Page
Links to homework help sites as well as information about
state government, state symbols, Minnesota
trivia, and Minnesota state history.
Minnesota State Demographic Center
Information on Minnesota's
population.
Minnesota Geology
From the University of Minnesota.
State Topography Image: Minnesota
Not too exciting, but worth a quick look.
Minnesota Government:
Minnesota State Government Online
A sub-page of the North
Star site.
Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty's Home
Page
Minnesota State Senate
Minnesota House of Representatives
Minnesota Nature/Outdoors:
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
(DNR)
Minnesota's Game Fish
Pictures and information from the DNR. Also see
Natural History of Minnesota Fishes.
Fishes of Minnesota
This interactive, online quiz is a fun way to learn about
Minnesota fish species.
Ice Fishing Home Page
Yes, we really do ice fish here in Minnesota!
See also
Ice Fishing World
for ice fishing information and reports
about ice fishing action in Minnesota and North
Dakota.
Great
Lakes Aquarium - Duluth
An excellent site for learning about fresh-water fish, particularly
those found in Lake Uperior. For additional information,
see
Fish of the Great
Lakes,
and
Minnesota Sea Grant.
Mississippi Headwaters
Board
A great site for information on the Mississippi River. See
also
OldManRiver.com.
Boundary Waters
Canoe Area
Information on the BWCA, which is on the border of Canada
and Minnesota. See also
BWCA.com.
North
American Bear Center
Learn all about Bears from the North American Bear Center in
Ely, Minnesota.
International Wolf Center
Images and information
from the International Wolf Center, also in Ely,
Minnesota.
Minnesota Raptor Center
Eagles, Hawks, Ospreys!
Adelson's Cross-Country Ski Page
Get the latest information
on snow conditions and races.
Minnesota United Snowmobilers Association
Minnesota History:
Minnesota Historical Society
See
Minnesota Communities
for online explorations using primary
sources from the
Minnesota Historical Society.
Click
on
teachers
for a large selection of lesson plans
on topics including people (Ard Godfrey,
John Pillsbury, Julia Nelson, etc.), occupations (milling,
pottery, mining), landscapes (falls, river,
iron range), and milestones (Civil War, mill explosion,
dangers of mining, and many more). If you are looking for
the history of a specific region or town in Minnesota,
try the Hennepin History
Museum,
Minnesota Historical
Organizations,
Minnesota Local History,
and
Minnesota Alliance of Local
History Museums.
EMuseum @ Minnesota State University, Mankato
Go to
History of Minnesota
for a timeline and specific historical topics.
Minnesota Secretary of
State History Page
See
Minnesota Chronicle
for a timeline. This page also provides
interesting historic maps and documents
such as the Minnesota State Constitution and the
Northwest Ordinance.
Today in History: Minnesota
Find out what happened on today's date that is significant
in the history of Minnesota.
Minnesota Prehistory
Information on Minnesota's distant past. See also
Jeffers Petroglyph Site
and
Lake
Agassiz, the ultimate fishing spot?
From Site to Story
An excellent site with information on archaeological research
in Minnesota.
Native Peoples of Minnesota
Brief histories of the Dakota, Lakota, Nakota, and Anishinabe.
See also
Native Peoples of Minnesota Links.
The Kensington Runestone
Did Vikings really explore Minnesota? Read this article and
decide for yourself. For more information, go
to the
Kensington Runestone Home Page,
Kensington Runestone Museum,
Vikings in the New World,
and
Vikings and Runestones.
Virtual
Museum of New France: The Explorers
See also
Discoverers Web: Joliet and Marquette,
Louis Hennepin,
and
Time Line - A
Brief History of the Fur Trade.
Louisiana
Purchase
A brief overview of this real estate deal that acquired vast
new lands for the United States, including
part of what is now Minnesota.
Click here
to read the treaty agreement. See also
Purchase Louisiana
Bicentennial.
Historic Fort Snelling:
A Brief History of Fort Snelling
From the Minnesota Historical Society, this site tells the
story not only of this historic fort, but also of
the development of the U.S. Northwest.
Historic Murphy's Landing
An excellent site with information on this historic landmark.
Pig's Eye's Notepad
An encyclopedia of St.
Paul history.
The Dakota Conflict Trials
Extensive information from U.M.-Mankato.
The
Dakota Conflict of 1862
A chronology,
photos, and a brief narrative.
First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment
Information on this famous Minnesota Civil War regiment. See also
1st Minnesota.net.
Minnesota Immigration History
Research Center
From
the University of Minnesota.
International Migration to Minnesota
From 1982 to 1994.
Harvest Journal: Memoir
of a Minnesota Farmer
This site contains excerpts and research notes as well as
ordering information about this book based on
the journals kept by a Minnesota farmer from
1868 through 1937.
Minnesota Mining History
A brief overview from the Minnesota Department of Natural
Resources: Minerals Division. See also
Minnesota
Taconite
and
What's mined in Minnesota?
The Tradition
and Heritage of Mayo Clinic
Learn about the history of this world-famous medical facility.
Minnesota Legislative
Library: Minnesota Governors, 1849 - Present
A chronological list.
Famous Minnesota Winter Storms
Listed chronologically.
Minnesota's Historic Shipwrecks
This site developed by the Minnesota Historical Society not
only provides information on shipwrecks, but
also offers information on exploration and
fur trade, the iron ore industry, lumbering, and railroads.
1895 Map of Minnesota
This vintage map may be just what you need for your state
history unit. Be patient, as it takes a long
time to load this page.
Minnesota Indian Nations:
Minnesota Indian Affairs Council
Information about Minnesota Indian tribes, treaties, and
resources. For additional information see
Treaties with Minnesota Indians,
Indian Fishing and Hunting Rights,
and
Minnesota
Indian Gaming Association.
A Brief History of the Lakota People
Minnesota Indian Tribes, Reservations,
Treaties
Links to pages for specific bands. Click on the right side
menu
Native Peoples of Minnesota
Brief histories of the Dakota, Lakota, Nakota, and Anishinabe.
See also
Native Peoples of Minnesota Links.
Native Languages
From my World Languages Page.
Minnesota Cities and Towns:
Minnesota Cities
Links to information on every city
or town in MN.
Rochester
Home of the Mayo Clinic.
Bloomington
Home of
Mall of America.
Minnesota Weather:
Minnesota Climatology
Information about Minnesota
weather, including historical data.
Minnesota Weather
Current conditions and forecasts.
List of Minnesota Weather Records
From Wikipedia
Famous Minnesota Winter Storms
Listed chronologically.
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Minnesota Newspapers:
Minnesota Newspaper Web Sites
Links to all Minnesota newspapers that
have online editions.
Minnesota Newspaper Directory
Links and contact information for all
Minnesota newspapers, including those which
do not have online editions.
Saint
Cloud Times
Our local newspaper. Check it out; it's not bad!
Twin Cities Pioneer Press
Arts/Museums/Zoos:
Walker Art Center
The Science Museum of Minnesota
Minnesota Transportation Museum
Como Park Zoo and Conservatory
Great
Lakes Aquarium - Duluth
Farming/Agriculture:
Minnesota Department of Agriculture
Minnesota agriculture from A to Z.
University of Minnesota Agricultural Extension
Service
Publications, news, and programs.
The Land Online
Minnesota's agricultural
newspaper.
Harvest Journal: Memoir
of a Minnesota Farmer
This site contains excerpts and research notes as well as
ordering information about this book based on
the journals kept by a Minnesota farmer from
1868 through 1937.
Gibb's Farm Museum, St. Paul
Professional Sports:
Minnesota Twins
Minnesota Timberwolves Home Page
Please let me know if you
find a link on this site that no longer functions.
My name is
Edmund
J. Sass, Ed.D.
You can reach me at
esass@csbsju.edu