Teaching Idaho

Investigate Boise Course

Investigate Boise is a place-based approach to urban studies that fosters civic engagement. Our pilot program began in a downtown store front on Idaho Street. Guest lectures, bus tours, hikes, and two-wheeled Segways extended the lesson from Caldwell to Arrowrock Dam.
Video
Course Documents

Research Highlights

The Snake River Canyon Scenic Byway spans Idaho’s Canyon County from the Walters Ferry to the Oregon Line. Boise State University is working with Canyon County cities and entrepreneurs on a heritage education program. Phase one is a web exhibition with tourist information, local history, a guide to canyon wildlife, and a tour of ten scenic vineyards.

Idaho Issues Online. From 2004 to 2007, the Center published six topical issues of the online peer-reviewed journal. Beautifully illustrated with maps and art, the journal featured special reports on Native American, Prisons, Immigration, Cities, Rivers, and Schools.

The preservation of historic sites in the path of suburbanization is the focus of project jointly sponsored by Ada County and Boise State. Senior Bill Howe is working with planners and Boise State educators on a computer based maplike archive of historical images and documents. A powerful tool for the teaching of architecture, geography, and regional planning, the project will debut in the Boise Schools in 2009.

Legends—a blur between fact and fancy—can be expressions of hopes and fears reaching deep into Idaho’s past. Idaho Yesterdays, the state’s history journal, explores the subject in a colorful special edition call “Telling Truthful Tales.” For lesson plans see journal’s website at idahoyesterdays.com

News!

Coming in Spring, 2010 - The Idaho Adventure

Gibbs Smith, Publisher
Authors Todd Shallat and Nancy Tacke present a NEW, full color social studies textbook for Idaho’s fourth grade students.

Teaching American History

In 2008–2010, the Center for Idaho History and Politics is honored to partner with the Boise School District and the BSU Center for School Improvement and Policy Studies for a U.S. Dept. of Education Teaching American History project. CIHP will develop a number of resources to enhance local and national history education throughout the state.