TELE-FIELD TRIPS AND RELATED SITES: THE AMERICAN WEST

"Tele-field trips" are another excellent resource for students of history. Students who visit historical sites share information with other Internet-connected classes. In 1994 a group of students shared their experiences of revisiting the Oregon Trail via e-mail with other KIDLINK subscribers. In 1995 a group of students from Monroe Middle School in Wyoming retraced the route of the pioneers near South Pass, Wyoming and published their report and photographs of the expedition entitled "The Oregon Trail Travel" at their school's web site. Patricia Weeg's students exchanged e-mail with a number of students and teachers on the theme of 'The Oregon Trail Revisited' (including photographs and information on using related materials in the classroom). Staff from Glenwood Heights Primary School in Washington have produced an online exhibition of Lewis and Clark In the Pacific Northwest (quotes from journals and photographs of the sites mentioned).

Similarly, Barbara Scott and Sue Martz from Escondido Union School District in California have proposed a tele-field trip project California Mission Internet Trail to create a collaborative field trip resources linking the 21 missions along the California trail.

Information related to the early history of California and the missions can be found at the following Web sites: California State History, Monterey Bay Area Local History Project, and The Spanish Missions of California California Missions Interactive (an Internet Field Trip from 1995), On-line Journals of The Donner Party, The Donner Party Web Site (including full text primary resources), Fabled Tales of the Mendocino Coast, San Francisco History, The Real Black Bart and a History of Silicon Valley and the Technology Behind It. There is also a student projects from the USD History Department 'The Great American Gold Rush' and John Polos has published his student paper They Came to See an Elelphant , a history of the California Gold Rush. From the Library of Congress American Memory collection comes California as I Saw It: First-Person Narratives of California's Early Years, 1849-1900 which consists of the full texts and illustrations of 190 works documenting the formative era of California's history through eyewitness accounts and Early California History: An Overview. The University of California at Berkeley has put together a large image database entitled California Heritage Digital Image Access Project (a "digital" archive containing photographs, pictures, and manuscripts from the collections of its Bancroft Library). There is also a PBS site to compliment their televised series on The California Gold Rush .

In addition to the projects mentioned, there are a growing number of other Web sites devoted to the history of the American West. These include an online exhibition from the US National Archives ' Photographs of the American West', from the University of Virginia, Exploring the West: A Perspective in Maps from Columbus to Lewis & Clark, a presentation of the History and Development of the American West from Internet Engineering Services (including a fascinating article on Swedish Emmigration to America), Mountain Men and the Fur Trade (USA) ( a library and research center devoted to the history of trappers, explorers and traders in the US) , a brief History of the Wells Fargo, a History of the Pony Express, a geneology search on Lewis & Clark and other expedition members, Lewis and Clark Expedition Research Unit, Lewis & Clark:From Here to Obscurity (from the Discovery Channel), a history of Old West Kansas, The California Gold Rush (a personal diary published from the period), a chapter on 'The Era of Expansion and Reform' from an American history site in The Netherlands, Pioneer Spirit, Texas, Texans, and the Alamo AND The Gallery of the Open Frontier, a digital image library from the University of Nebraska..

New Perspectives on THE WEST offers the opportunity to take a guided tour through the history of the American West, following in the footsteps of filmmakers Ken Burns and Stephen Ives. Designed to complement the American television series THE WEST, the site assembles many of the documentary materials that went into the making of the program. The pages present the elements of Western history (profiles, documents, images) and encourages visitors to link these into patterns of historical meaning for themselves.

PBS's web site American Visions offers a colorful introduction to how European and American painters depicted the various themes of the Wilderness and the West in the 19th century (including links to a number of interesting web-based resources on the subject).

TELE-FIELD TRIPS AND RELATED SITES: ANCIENT EGYPT

Odyssey in Egypt is an interactive archaeological field trip from Wadi Natrun, Egypt. The Odyssey project ties together middle school students with an active archaeological excavation of a 4th century Coptic monastery. According to the project organisers, students who took part in the "virtual" dig in 1996 worked "alongside the archaeologists". The 10-week curriculum included e-mail from a Coptic monk who lives as a hermit in a cave near the site, field reports, problem-solving activities related to the dig itself and a host of background information relating to Ancient Egyptian history, Egypt Under Roman and Byzantine Rule and Egyptian Languages and Religions along with science and archaeology all on the internet. Registration is now beginning for the 1997 Odyssey project and interested schools should access the Odyssey Homepage for more information.

Grade 5/6 classes regularly study Ancient Egypt as part of their social studies program. It is not surprising, therefore, to find several research projects from middle school classes featuring Ancient Egyptian history and culture. These include Oak View Elementary School's excellent Web site Pages Through the Ages, Ms Hos-McGrane's Grade 6 Ancient Egyptian Research Projects online from Amsterdam.

Students from Ms Nason's social studies class have teamed up with postgraduate students from San Diego State University to create an elaborate adventure game about Ancient Egypt entitled Hatshepsut's Revenge (with a link to their Egyptian Scavenger Hunt). Temple & Funerary Architecture of Ancient Egypt: is a WebQuest designed by Social Studies School Service to systematically explore Egyptian resources on the Web.

There are a growing number of interesting Web resources devoted to the study of Egyptian history and archeology.

Egyptian Antiquities Information, a terrific site being created for the Egyptian Department of Tourism, has already assembled a listing of biographies of the pharoahs and another of Egyptian Gods. Information for the History of Egypt section is taken from the book Egypt Of The Pharaohs by Sir Alan Gardiner. The content is growing rapidly

The Ancient Egyptian Site is dedicated to the history and culture of Ancient Egypt. There is an overview of history which can be searched chronologically or by keyword and an explanation of the names of the Pharaohs (including an illustration of their names in hieroglyphs). There is also an extensive bibliography as well as a selection of links to other sites that deal with Ancient Egypt. This is a good place to start your online exploration of Ancient Egyptian history.

Teachers interested in additional background history of Egypt under Roman rule should visit Steve Muhlberger's informative essays on Late Antiquity in the Mediterranean (from the ORB Site for Late Antiquity).

This PBS website From Jesue to Christ: The First Christians is an intellectual and visual guide to the new and controversial historical evidence which challenges familiar assumptions about the life of Jesus and the epic rise of Christianity in the ancient world.. This site is anchored by the testimony of New Testament theologians, archaeologists and historians who serve as both critics and storytellers. They address dozens of key issues relating to Jesus' life and the evolution of Christianity. Throughout the site, maps,charts, ancient texts, pictures of the archaeological discoveries, ancient imagery, and audio excerpts from the television program complement and illuminate the narrative.