Curriculum Overview · Grades 3–8
The Classroom Investigation Guide
We built the Kids' Game and this Classroom Guide as partners—just like a textbook and a field workbook. Every single step pairs primary historical records, government land survey [GLO] notebooks, and aerial imagery with hands-on schoolyard activities.
📹 Video coming soon · Read Dave's script ▾
Video 3: Welcome, Teachers & Parents
Dave Sullivan on using this guide in your classroom (~60 seconds)
Host: Dave Sullivan (Forest Landowner)
Classroom Host Script
Read full word-for-word spoken script ▾
| Shot | Time | Visual | Dave's Spoken Words |
|---|
| Shot 1 |
0:00–0:20 |
Dave holding printed surveyor notes & string |
"Welcome, teachers and parents! I'm Dave Sullivan. If you've ever wanted to connect your students to real local history right outside their classroom window, this guide was made for you." |
| Shot 2 |
0:20–0:42 |
Dave gestures to interactive screen and workbook |
"Instead of memorizing distant dates, students start with their own school ground or home. They pull an iron chain in the hallway, spot where 1930s orchards turned into forests, and uncover the real people—like Letitia Carson and the Kalapuya—whose lives shaped this land." |
| Shot 3 |
0:42–1:00 |
Dave holds up the 1-page Story Card |
"We built the Kids' Game and this Classroom Guide as partners—just like a textbook and a field workbook. On every single step of this guide, you can click one button to launch that exact map challenge for your students, or switch to a full printable packet in one click. Everything here is completely free." |
Subjects: Social Studies & Geography
Concept: The 1-Mile PLSS Township Grid
Materials: Blank Township Grid Handout & Ruler
Before students look up their school address, help them understand how a street address sits inside a county tax parcel, and how that parcel sits inside a 1-mile square (Section) of a 36-square-mile Township. Explain that Thomas Jefferson and Congress created this grid system in 1785 so that every piece of land in America would have an exact legal address.
Subjects: Math & American History
Concept: Gunter's Chain, Links & Pacing
Materials: 66-ft rope or tape measure, notebook
Take students into the hallway or schoolyard with a 66-foot length of clothesline rope (the exact length of an 1850s Gunter's iron chain). Have each student count how many natural paces (steps) it takes them to walk 66 feet. Explain that 80 chains make exactly one mile (5,280 feet), and 10 square chains make exactly one acre!
Historical Record Connection for Letitia Carson’s Soap Creek Place: In 1854, Deputy Surveyor Dennis Hathorn (Donation Claims) & Robert Elder (Section Lines) walked with this exact 66-foot chain across Township 10 South, Range 5 West, Section 34 & DLC #59.
Surveyor blazed: an 30 inches Oregon White Oak (Quercus garryana) (28 links (18.5 feet)) [Verified GLO/ORWW Record], an 24 inches Oregon White Oak (Quercus garryana) (125 links (82.5 feet)) [Verified GLO/ORWW Record].
Subjects: Ecology, Forestry & Geography
Concept: Forest Succession & Landscape Change
Materials: 1936 vs 2026 Comparison Printout
Provide students with the side-by-side aerial comparison of Letitia Carson’s Soap Creek Place. Have them circle three specific features that changed between 1936 and today (e.g., open oak pasture becoming dense Douglas-fir woods, a straightened creek channel, or a new road). Guide a discussion on why trees grew into open meadows once seasonal fires and grazing ceased.
Subjects: Civics & Public Education
Concept: Section 16/36 School Trust Lands
Materials: School Section Map & Civics Discussion Guide
Explain why Congress set aside Section 16 (and Section 36 in western states) in every single township to fund public schools. Contrast private settler patents (homesteads and donation claims) with public trust lands held forever for classrooms. Discuss how sustainable timber harvest and land leases from Oregon's Common School Fund still send funding to your school district today.
Subjects: American History, Civil Rights & Law
Concept: Analyzing Court Verdicts & Federal Patents
Materials: Carson v. Smith Primary Source Excerpts
Examine the historical records uncovered by Dr. Bob Zybach: the 1853 GLO survey plat listing David Carson (#59), the 1855–1856 Benton County jury verdicts in *Carson v. Smith* awarding Letitia Carson $300 for back wages and $1,200 for cattle, and her June 17, 1869 federal Homestead Patent (ORRAA 008939) signed by Ulysses S. Grant. Teach students how historians look beyond single names on maps to uncover the full human story.
Subjects: Oral History & Community Inquiry
Concept: Connecting Pioneer Deeds to Modern Deeds
Materials: Take-Home 3-Question Interview Sheet
Give students the take-home oral history interview sheet: "3 Questions to Ask a Grandparent or Longtime Neighbor About This Place." They ask about old trees, historic buildings, or past floods on their block, and connect what their family or neighbors remember to the county deed books and historical aerials.