HIGH LEVEL DOCUMENT BASED QUESTION This DBQ adheres to New York State Learning Standard 1- History of the United States and New York, Commencement Level, Key Idea #3. Additionally, this lesson plan corresponds with the National Social Studies Curriculum Standards thematic strand of science, technology, and society.
Students may build their own DBQ scaffolding questions in pairs, as a group, or on their own in class using the Inventors Discovery Kit images as resources or teacher’s may select specific images to include as scaffolding questions. Additionally, primary source scaffolding questions are provided.
DIRECTIONS
This Document Based Question (DBQ) consists of two parts. Part A includes scaffolding questions for each primary source. Answer each scaffolding question in the space provided. Part B is the DBQ. Write an essay that fully answers the DBQ.
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
Industrialization led to significant changes in the social and economic framework of America. Evidence of this transformation can be found by studying the impact upon cities. Transportation and communication innovations literally paved the way for roadways, bridges and even airports being built during the early 20th century. America switched from an agrarian to an industrial economy.
DOCUMENT BASED QUESTION
How did technological advances in the early 20th century change American urban life? Specifically, how did the infrastructure of cities change?
TASK Answer each scaffolding question in the space provided based on the corresponding primary source. Answer the DBQ using information from at least five of the primary sources in Part A and your knowledge of United States history.
GUIDELINES
Document 1
“After running the motor a few minutes to heat it up, I released the wire that held the machine to the track, and the machine started forward into the wind... the machine, facing a 27-mile wind, started very slowly. One of the life-saving men snapped the camera for us, taking a picture just as the machine had reached the end of the track and had risen to a height of about two feet.”
-Orville Wright, "Frontiers of Flight", 1909
SCAFFOLDING QUESTION
Document 2
“The main object and justification of Central Park is simply to produce a certain influence in the minds of people and through this to make life in the city healthier and happier...through observation of which the mind may be more or less lifted out of moods and habits.”
-Frederick Law Olmstead, "Frederick Olmstead's Law", New York, 1878
SCAFFOLDING QUESTION
Document 3
“Inside the caisson everything wore an unreal, weird appearance. There was a confused sensation in the head... with the flaming lights, the deep shadows, they confusing noise of hammers, drills, chains…one might get a realizing sense of Dante’s inferno.”
-E. F. Farrington, "The Great Bridge"
SCAFFOLDING QUESTION
Document 4
“Ornament and structure were integral; their subtle rhythm sustained a high emotional tension, yet produced a sense of serenity. But the building's identity resided in the ornament. It was the spirit animating the mass and flowing from it, and it expressed the individuality of the building. Nurtured by the artists sympathy with life, the ornament spoke: it was the voice of the artist and the building – indeed they were one, the building a 'stock personality' and the architect an interpreter and prophet.”
-Louis Sullivan, "Louis Sullivan: An Architect in American Thought", 1962
SCAFFOLDING QUESTION