Last updated: September 22, 2023
Lesson Plan
Replace or Repurpose?
- Grade Level:
- Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade
- Subject:
- Social Studies
- Lesson Duration:
- 60 Minutes
- Common Core Standards:
- 6-8.RST.3, 6-8.RST.6
- Additional Standards:
- NCSS Standard 2C
NCSS Standard 4A
NCSS Standard 4D - Thinking Skills:
- Remembering: Recalling or recognizing information ideas, and principles. Analyzing: Break down a concept or idea into parts and show the relationships among the parts. Evaluating: Make informed judgements about the value of ideas or materials. Use standards and criteria to support opinions and views.
Essential Question
Why is recycling and reusing materials important?
Objective
Students will be able to:
• Explain the importance of metal and blacksmiths to people living in the American West from the late 1800s to the early 1900s.
• Explain how the people who worked with and made metal objects changed over time in relation to changing transportation systems, production methods, and economic factors.
• Hypothesize ways to repair or repurpose objects they use every day, and demonstrate an awareness of skills, materials, and knowledge needed to accomplish this.
Background
Metal was a material critical to life in the American West prior to 1900. Much of what people used was made of metal. And it had an important quality: with the right knowledge and skills, metal objects could be reshaped and repaired. Before 1900, the person with these skills was a blacksmith. Local blacksmiths were critical in the American West. They possessed the knowledge and skill to work with metal in remote areas with little access to factory made tools and goods. Ranchers and cowboys depended on them and their skill to provide the tools and repair services necessary to keeping their ranches operating.
This changed after 1900. Factory-made goods were mass-produced, making them cheaper than handmade items. They were also more available in the west due to expanding railroad networks. Rather than repair, it became easier and more convenient to replace metal tools and parts. Blacksmithing, as a trade, began to fade away.
But the need for that skill re-emerged in 1929. When the Great Depression struck, people across the nation suffered a sudden loss of money and jobs. Meeting basic needs became a struggle. One hardship experienced by cowboys and ranchers was the inability to buy new tools or replacement parts when the ones they had were broken or worn out. Metal working regained its importance as a skill. The person who needed that skill was different, however. Instead of a local blacksmith, cowboys were now expected to learn use a forge and metal working equipment to repair broken metal objects.
And from this emerged a new skill. Ranches could repair broken metal tools, but their lack of money took away their ability to replace tools that were beyond repair. Instead of discarding these broken tools, cowboys used their new metal working skills to repurpose them. Every scrap of metal was potentially a new tool, so nothing was left to waste. The Repair Shop at Grant-Kohrs Ranch reflects this new-found need of the Depression. Built in 1935, Conrad Warren, who was the grandson of cattleman Conrad Kohrs, was sure to include a blacksmithing forge and tools among the other machines and woodworking tools he needed to keep the ranch running.
With this new skill and this ever-important material, cowboys could create new tools that helped them get work done around the ranch. Their creations might not be professional quality, but “making it work” was the rule of thumb. If they could make useable tools from old or broken ones, then ranches save money by not buying new tools. And in the Great Depression, saving money meant survival.
For more information on Montana and ranching during the Great Depression, visit the Montana Historical Society to read Chapter 18 of their online text book: “The Great Depression Transforms Montana: 1929 – 1941.”
Preparation
• Grant-Kohrs Ranch NHS Repair Shop Virtual Visit video
• Replace or Repurpose? student worksheet
Materials
Download Replace or Repurpose? Student Worksheet
Lesson Hook/Preview
Introduction 5 minutes
• Students will look around their home or classroom for at least ten objects made of metal, or where metal makes up most of its parts. Have them list these items on the top of their Replace of Repurpose? worksheets.
• Next, have them draw a circle around the one that is most important to them and have them sketch that object on their worksheet. Why is this metal object important to you?
• In the late 1800s and early 1900s, metal was one of the most important materials people needed to make the objects they used every day. That included cowboys. Much of their work required metal tools. In the 1800s, they relied on people with metal-working skills to make and repair these tools for them. But that changed after 1900. Metal was still important, but the person who needed the skill to work with it, and why they needed to work with it, changed.
Procedure
Video 28 minutes
Watch the Repair Shop Virtual Field Trip video found on the Grant-Kohrs Ranch NHS website. This video is approximately 28 minutes long.
Student Activity 15 minutes
• Have students complete the rest of the Replace or Repurpose? Worksheet.
• As they complete the rest of the worksheet, invite them to think like a person who lived during the Great Depression. Encourage students to brainstorm ways that they could repair it do its intended purpose again or find a way to use the object or its parts to accomplish a different task. Also encourage them think about the skills, knowledge, tools, or other materials they would need to repair or repurpose the object.
Discussion and Analysis 5 to 10 minutes
• Invite the students to share their objects. Then lead students in a brief discussion, using the following questions: What is the object, and what do you use it for? If it was broken, do you think that you could fix the object? If yes, how could you repair it so that it worked again? If not, what would you need to be able to fix it (knowledge, skills, tools, parts, etc.)? If it couldn’t be fixed, what ways were you able to think of to repurpose the object? How useful would it still be in your life?
Vocabulary
Collins Dictionary definitions
• Blacksmith: A blacksmith is a person whose job is making things by hand out of metal that has been heated to a high temperature.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary definitions
• Cowboy: one who tends cattle or horses.
• Forge: (noun) a furnace or a shop with its furnace where metal is heated and wrought; (verb) to form something, such as metal, by heating and hammering.
• Great Depression: the period of severe worldwide economic decline that began in 1929 and lasted throughout the 1930s and that was marked by deflation and widespread unemployment.
• Repurpose: to give a new purpose or use to.
Assessment Materials
Replace or Repurpose? Student AssessmentThe Replace or Repurpose? student worksheet can be used to assess student understanding of the video’s content, their ability to create a new use for a broken object and plan their process of repurposing it.
Enrichment Activities
Extension Activity
This activity can be done in a classroom or at home. Allow up to one hour for this activity.
Invite the students to actually repurpose an object! Have them find an object at home that is either broken or permissible for them to take apart. In a notebook or binder, have students record what the object is and what it was intended to be used for. Next, have the students think about and write down a way to modify their object to accomplish a new task. They can sketch their designs in their notebooks. After sketching, students should list the steps they will have to take and any materials (glue, tape, string, etc.) they might need to complete their modification. When they have finished their planning, give the students time to
repurpose their object. Have them record any additional materials or changes in plan as they work. When finished, have the students try it out! In their notebooks, have students write down how well their design worked. In a large group, invite students to share their repurposed objects and how well they worked. Finally, lead the students in a group discussion. How well did their plan work? What other materials did they need to use? What knowledge did they already have that helped them repurpose their object? Or, what knowledge did they have gain to complete their project?