October 25, 2010

By: Kim R. from Philadelphia, PA
Comments: 28

Posted By: Kim Rakosky
On: 5/19/2007 10:05:28 PM

I taught the "Blast from the Past" lesson from Cooper-Hewitt last week (Smithsonian artifacts categorized by purpose: survival or enjoyment). It sparked some interesting commentary from my 4th graders. Surprisingly the 2 items they were most awed by : the Jarvik heart and the squash blossom necklace. (They were upset that no one has designed an artificial leg that is implanted and permanent). We are pretty saturated right now but I think next year I'd like to teach a unit about jewelry history and design. -I'll leave the leg design to you high school teachers.

Posted By: George Latos
On: 5/30/2007 12:38:59 PM

Thats a fun site. I just watched a movie on bicycle design. I think it would go well in a discussion of design thinking. I hope to use some of these movies in the future.

Posted By: Maxine Feldman-Cohen
On: 6/26/2007 11:01:01 AM

How do I find this site?

Posted By: Kim Rakosky
On: 7/1/2007 8:07:34 PM

The Blast from the Past lesson is in the Cooper-Hewitt Educator Resource Center lesson plans list. George was talking about another site from a different thread, he must have clicked on the wrong spot. He was talking about https://www.thefutureschannel.com/index.php

Posted By: mel ruth
On: 4/30/2008 2:32:50 PM

A great place to view fashion from the past, especially non-european fashion is any african-american museum near you. they also usually have a great out reach programs that come to your school with great visuals.

Posted By: Elizabeth Fletcher
On: 4/30/2008 4:47:36 PM

Please don't forget to use your local libraries. Many of the books they have about historical fasion include photos you won't find anywhere else.

Posted By: Jacalyn Moss
On: 5/9/2008 5:08:07 PM

Our students recently researched footwear through time and designed banners depicting footwear worn during each of the ten periods of study. We would like to do the same with clothes/jewelry. Our students loved studying footwear. I'm expecting an even greater reception to this next phase.

Posted By: Karen Thomas
On: 5/11/2008 8:41:30 AM

Two students at Constitution High School in Philadelphia won at the citywide National History Day competition for their project on women's clothing design through history. They are using two photographs I have of my grandmothers for their display in the state competition. My maternal grandmother is shown in 1908 as a 6-year old girl from an upper middle-class Polish immigrant family, dressed in a formal dress, leotards, with a huge bow at the back of her head. She was a feminist flapper during the 20's before marrying and having children. My paternal grandmother, shown at 18 years old, wears the dress clothes of a poor coal miner's daughter in Kentucky, no bows or frills, lace up boots, and a floppy cloth hat. She also went on to marry and have children, many of whom died in childbirth. The girls were fascinated at how much the styles one wore depended upon their economic status at the time. In movies and books we don't often see the styles that were worn by the poor.

Posted By: Viktoriya D'Agostino
On: 12/29/2008 4:47:39 PM

I teach at Constitution High School and we are once again facing National History Day, it is amazing how each year our students come up such new and amazing projects. I am involved with helping with the display boards, there is a lot of designing that goes into preparing a great display board. It takes measuring, planning, art, technology, and much more. The fashion piece that was discussed earlier is a great lesson. Some of our girls are doing their project on CoCo Chanel this year, if will be fun to see the fashion in that project. I teach math, but I am still looking to do a lesson on fashion somehow. I was going to be a fashion design major before teaching came along, so it was always a passion, but I am still looking to fit it in, so if anyone has any suggestions, I would appreciate it. I am always trying to throw in some fun lessons or projects just to keep it fresh an interesting.

Posted By: Debra Buchan
On: 12/30/2008 5:50:46 PM

When I taught at Ben Franklin HS my students got surprisingly involved in NHD, but that's another topic--what I also had at Franklin was a lot of kids who were into fashion design. I somehow got connected with people at the Art Institute of Philadelphia and had some of their students give mini-lessons to my kids. They were a big hit and my students loved the Art Institute students, many of whom were not much older than my own high school kids.

Posted By: Jeffrey Sadoff
On: 11/30/2009 4:49:37 PM

You folks just gave me some great ideas for the National History Day> This is my first year doing it and I'm eager to take any and all ideas. The innovation involved with new designs through history is right on target with the theme this year. JSadoff