My daughter has been working through a 12-week trip through American History, from Columbus to the Constitution from Drive Thru History Adventures. Drive Thru History Adventures offers three online courses for students - Ancient History, American History, and Bible History. Unlike most history curriculums Drive Thru History Adventures literally takes students one adventures with as they travel with Dave Stotts, via video field trips exploring history. This curriculum is geared for students ages 12 and older. Younger students (5-11) can glean from the curriculum from watching the videos and answering the more simple questions with their parents. High School students can be challenged more by doing research outside of the curriculum on topics of interest, writing research papers, completing projects, and digging deeper into the subject matter.
Drive Thru American History
So what exactly will your student be doing during their "adventure with Dave Stotts" each week? Well, here is a short run down list of what they can expect:
- Students will watch the Adventure video - a short written summary follows the video
- Next, is the Suggested Reading - this can be read on your device or printed out
- Answer the Discussion Questions - this can be done aloud or printed/written out
- Side Road
- Digging Deeper Resources
- The Discovery
- Pilgrim Search for Freedom
- Beginnings of Revolution
- Whitefield & Boston's Freedom Trail
- William Penn & Early Philadelphia
- Founding Fathers of Philadelphia
- Fighters of the Revolution
- Early Colonial Virginia
- Founding Fathers of Virginia
- Revolution of New York
- New York and the First President
- New Jersey and Epilogue
Video Adventures
Each video is approximately 28 minutes in length. Dave Stotts definitely has a love for history and keeps students engaged. For students that find history BORING this is a great way to make history make sense and come alive.
My 11 year old daughter said,
"I enjoyed watching the videos. Mr. Stotts is very entertaining. I have learned a lot about history and it has actually be kind of interesting. Even though the videos are almost 30 minutes long they go by really fast. I have learned about not only history but some geography, art, and fun facts too. It was neat seeing all of the historic places from history that Mr. Stotts drives to in the episodes each week. Seeing the actual places where history took place is so cool! Because a lot of what Mr. Stotts covers is new to me I think that I will probably watch the videos more than once. I really like learning history with Mr. Stotts."
I do feel that for students lacking a lot of history background they may feel a bit lost just listening to the videos without further explanation into the time period, events, people, etc. It was helpful to stop and pause the videos from time to time to explain various events with my daughter or to look up topics in order to get a thorough understanding before continuing on with a video. With that said, I feel like if my daughter were a bit older this would not be an issue. I absolutely love history and found myself glued to the videos whenever my daughter was watching them. I enjoyed John Stotts take on teaching history and appreciated how he brought scripture and God into his lessons. I myself really enjoyed seeing the historical sites where history actually took place. For so many individuals that will never have the opportunity to actually see the sites of these historical places, John Stotts brings them to you in these videos.
Suggested Reading
IMO, this reading is geared more for the older student. My 11-year-old daughter found these reading to be a bit over her head. I do like that Drive Thru History makes reading these on your given device easy so as not to have to print them out and waste printer ink. For the student that prefers a physical copy students can simply print the readings. Some students find it helpful to highlight the text, have a physical copy, and keep a binder for physical reference later on.
Discussion Questions
Questions such as, "Why was crossing the Delaware River so very difficult for the colonial army?" is just one example of the questions asked. Most of the questions were pretty straight forward and my daughter was able to answer them. Every once in awhile she did come across a question that she did not recall hearing about in the video.
A couple of weeks ago we got a huge surprise in the mail! Drive Thru History Adventures
sent us two iron on patches and two car decals. They are pictured here with my daughter
while she is working on her Episode Three worksheet.
Students can print out chapter worksheets which include the Episode number and title, weekly quote, video summary, and discussion questions with space given to write answers.
Dig Deeper
These are the suggested projects for the older students needing or wishing to further their study on their weekly adventure. One example is for younger students to present John Hancock's Thanksgiving Day Proclamation. John Hancock presented this proclamation and was "Given at the Council-Chamber, in Boston, the fifth Day of October, in the Year of our Lord, One Thousand Seven Hundred and Ninety-One, and in the sixteenth Year of the Independence of the United States of America."
This is just an example of one of the many amazing photographs that your student will find throughout their study. I have always loved this picture.
After completing each weeks lesson your student will see this at the bottom of their screen congratulating them on finishing their weekly history adventure.
E-Mail Communications
John sends emails sharing his many side road adventures and topics such as "The History of Cheese" and "The History of Groundhog Day" to name a few. Earlier in February Dave was fighting the flu and so his side road video topic is "Crazy Fashion Shows, Germ Free Living" and was dressed in a hazmat suit. He cracks me up.
Overall Thoughts
I really liked Drive Thru History overall. The setup is easy to follow and it engages the student. I would definitely recommend this program to others.
To read more reviews click here.
Social Media
Facebook: http://facebook.com/drivethruhistory Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/drivethruhistory/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drivethruhistory/
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