Can My Family Use Gettysburg by the Numbers?
Of course you can!!
On your Gettysburg trip:
Access GBTN on your mobile device while en route to visiting Gettysburg or as you tour the battlefield. You could start by making sure your family has the BIG picture. Or make your trip an information treasure hunt as you travel. Assign your teen (or preteen) the role of data maven in the back seat. Ask him/her to select topics the family wants to know about and share the numbers, the questions, and the surprises. Use the questions to delve further.
Enjoy making family comparisons with the distances you are traveling, your meals, or your clothing on a hot July day. Make Gettysburg a conversation, starting with Gettysburg by the Numbers.
Want to know more? Open the BIG Picture page to make sure you grasp the basics and to find Editor’s Choice resources to investigate more background or related Civil War information. Find out what happened before and after the battle or what Lincoln said about it.
As a family “virtual trip”:
Even families who cannot travel to Pennsylvania can experience Gettysburg together. Start with Google Maps or Google Earth on a computer or tablet. Open another tab with Gettysburg by the Numbers. As you read and “tour” the satellite views of the battlefield, let your teen act as tour guide, sharing the numbers and questions that make you want to know more. Even younger siblings (or older high school students) will enjoy answering some of the questions using their smart phone or tablet. Make some of the questions a “race” to the finish and others a challenge to see who can generate the most creative response. Share your solutions on Facebook or Twitter with a link to GBTN to challenge your friends! This could be the rare occasion when your family all shares in a digital experience.
Just for your history buff or numbers geek:
Share GBTN with your teen who loves to explore and learn on his/her own. The wide variety of topics will have something to excite him/her about history, even if it is an odd numerical fact. Make the numbers a conversation starter using the questions that follow.
In your scout troop, youth group, or neighborhood afterschool hangout:
Share GBTN with a group of middle schoolers and see where they go. It might inspire a day of camping with nothing but Civil War rations. Maybe you have some budding musicians who would like to try sending signals using a drum. If you enjoy maps, try exploring some of the information about Geography. You might even be able to use some of the questions in the many topics as explorations or themes for an evening of fun.