Historical Marker: History is All Around Us!

History is all around us! This is a great assignment that I did for my Utah History students. However, it could work for any history class in any state. The previous for this project is that students will need to:

• Go to a Historical Marker within the State of Utah
• (plaques with on old buildings, or monuments etc.)
• Take a Selfie at the Marker 
• (Print off or send to me to print)
• Do a little research about said marker
• Present to the class

Selfie at Hotel Utah,
 My kids and myself

To help students find markers, to begin with, I had students look up markers using the Utah Heritage website:

https://heritage.utah.gov/history/historic-markers

In this link select “Markers and monuments database”  then search by County, Organization, Keyword, or Theme. In most cases, it will have a short description.

I even placed a map on the back wall of my classroom with pins and selfies of places that my student have gone within the state. 

To help motivate students, I award 3 prizes at the end of each quarter.

1. Best Selfie
2. Farthest Marker
3. Most Interesting 

For most students, they enjoyed this project and enjoyed learning about the little-known history of our small towns and our state. When it came to students that claimed that their parents couldn't take them to a Historical Site, I had them have their parents contact me, or reminded them that there were a ton within a 30 min drive.