Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) Western Region @ Metropolitan State University of Denver

Wyoming Grantees


Buffalo Bill Center of the West
Contact: Gretchen Henrich – Director of the Interpretive Education Division
Email: [email protected],
Website: https://centerofthewest.org/

Grant awarded May 22, 2019

This project funded a week-long institute in Wyoming and Montana to connect educators with the stories of the American West by exploring art’s contribution to the conservation of public lands and National Forests. This was accomplished by using primary sources from The Library of Congress, the Buffalo Bill Center for the West, the National Museum of Forest Service History, and the Montana Historical Society. The five-day workshop included content instruction from a wide variety of experts including museum curators, library directors, digital learning specialists, a US Forest Service archaeologist and photographer, and a TPS Master Teacher. Participating teachers created, tested, and shared the teaching materials they developed as part of their experience. The workshop attracted several teachers from non-western states who were impressed by the content related to western topics as well as the use of images and art as primary sources. The opportunity to integrate TPS into on-going professional development is promising. As Gretchen Henrich reported, “The skills and techniques that we learned in the training session have easily translated into our own teaching practices. We have also been able to incorporate many elements of the workshop into the planning stages of our upcoming teacher training opportunities.”


Wyoming Geographic Alliance
Contact: Germaine Wagner – Professional Development Coordinator?
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.uwyo.edu/wga/

Grant awarded April 6, 2015

The Wyoming Geographic Alliance (WGA) kicked off its regional grant by presenting the 2015 Summer Institute “A Sense of Place” for K-12 teachers. This 3 ½ day Summer Institute allowed participants to gain valuable teaching strategies and resources focusing on geography, history, primary sources, and literacy integration. Participants created lessons utilizing the Wyoming Student Atlas, Library of Congress primary sources, and ArcGIS story maps. All lessons aligned with the Wyoming Education Standards and the Common Core State Standards. Teachers shared information and resources from the Library of Congress and WGA with their home school districts in the form of mini-workshops.

Collaborating organizations included the American Heritage Center and the School of Energy Resources, both located at the University of Wyoming, GIS, and Wyoming GISC. The TPS Western Region partnered with the program at the University of Northern Colorado, which provided facilitators and staff support in the Laramie and Casper areas. WGA and TPS@UNC plan to incorporate lessons learned and instructional tools developed through a collaborative project of state Geographic Alliances sponsored by the TPS Western Region, the Colorado Geographic Alliance, and the National Geographic Education Foundation. Project Coordinator Germaine Wagner reported that they started with a group 23 teachers and reached a total of 324 over the course of the grant. They will continue to offer outreach and support to teachers by providing workshops at schools and additional activities utilizing the Wyoming Floor Map in conjunction with the Wyoming Student Atlas.


University of Wyoming
Contact: Brian Eberhard – Social Studies Education; Carol Bryant – Associate Professor, Department of Secondary Education‌
Email: [email protected]; [email protected]
Website: http://www.uwyo.edu/

Grant awarded February 14, 2013

The University of Wyoming College of Education disseminated TPS through their existing student teaching network of pre-service and in-service teachers. Grant funding was also used to include veteran Wyoming History Day teachers who served as mentors to student teachers on incorporating primary source materials. The initial workshop was held on November 29, 2011 and introduced 35 pre-service teachers to the resources of the LOC and the American Heritage Center, housed at the University of Wyoming. Three additional workshops for in-service and mentor teachers were held later in the summer and fall 2012 in Casper, Cheyenne and Laramie.

In total, nearly 100 pre-service and in-service teachers were reached through this grant. As the grant coordinator (Brian Eberhard) summarized,
The TPS workshops had a positive impact on my teaching practice and student learning. I browse the LOC website regularly and have increased my use of primary sources in my classroom instruction. Also, workshop instructors did an excellent job emphasizing the importance and benefits of using primary sources to address common core standards, and they modeled a wide range of approaches to be used in the classroom.