1609: Quadricentennial Curriculum - now online here!
Praise for 1609: Quadricentennial Curriculum
"Wow! Thank you for this great and evolving
body of work. So much to do and see and discover."
"This is great! Thanks for doing this!"
2009 marks the 400th anniversary of Samuel de Champlain’s entrance onto the lake that now bears his name. It will be an opportunity for NY and VT schools to join in the celebration and emphasize instruction about the history and environment of the lake region. We hope this multi-disciplinary curriculum helps educators of all kinds to bring this topic into the classroom and help the commemorative events of 2009 shine for years ahead.
For ease of use, each chapter of this curriculum is saved as a separate pdf document. Because these are of a high enough quality to be printed, the file sizes are large. We encourage you to read the Introduction first.
Please note that this version is a work in progress. In the coming weeks and months, we will update and augment these files; be sure to check back to see our improvements!
And finally, we welcome contributions. As you can see, LCMM did not accomplish this alone - if you have lesson plans, new research, or additional works, please let us know - we may be able to include it into this piece!
And of course, we'd like to thank the many contributors and participants that made this possible.
1609: Quadricentennial Curriculum
Introduction 
- read this first
Geology
Glaciers & the Champlain Watershed
Lake Champlain's First Navigators
First Nations
Europeans in the New World
1609: Samuel de Champlain Reaches the Lake
Mapmaking
Europeans & Native Americans: A Lasting Impact
Thanks to the generous support from the VT Quad Commission and the Barnes Foundation,
LCMM is able to offer this digital resource free of charge.
LCMM brought together scholars and educators in April for a workshop series for teachers, Teaching the Quad.
These workshops, hosted at LCMM in Basin Harbor, VT, and at Stafford Middle School in Plattsburgh, NY, were extremely successful, both in examining the myriad of historical perspectives on the events of 1609, but also in bringing tools that educators can use in their classrooms. Thanks to everyone who participated.
But don't take our word for it!
"Great workshop. Thanks!" - Charlotte teacher
"Thank you for developing this!"
"A great day." - Milton teacher
"Thanks! A great experience."
From the Burlington Free Press: Teachers Wade Into History.
Free Press photographer Alison Redlich posted an image slideshow.
Check back as we post video footage of some of these extraordinary presentations:
- Samuel de Champlain, A Life, Willard Sterne Randall
- Before the Lake Was Champlain, Abenaki Tribal Historian Dr. Frederick Wiseman
- Teaching With the New Quadricentennial Curriculum, LCMM’s Education Director Sarah Lyman
- Bringing History to Life With Drama, Joan Robinson of the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts
- Historical Fiction for Young Readers, by educator and writer Kate Messner; and Abenaki of the 17th Century, Wabanaki singer, storyteller, and historian Roger Longtoe
This resource is made possible by the generous support of the Barnes Foundation and the Vermont Quadricentennial Commission.