K-3 Students should be able to:
Explore a topic by posing questions, making observations, and recording information based on those observations.

1. as a group in class make a list of questions about how an old tool was used -- examples are household tools, farm tools, manufacturing tools, logging tools.  Take a field trip or invite an artisan in to demonstrate use of the tool.  Observe and take notes or draw diagrams.  Using the notes and diagrams, students try to answer their own questions.  Ask the artisan the same questions and compare.

2. write down questions to ask an imaginary student from Era 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9 about how people used to dress during different seasons in New Hampshire.  Observe the dress of people in old photographs and imagine what the answers to the questions would be.

3. decide on a simple research question about the kinds of housing people have built in a neighborhood around the school or in the students' own community, such as: What kinds of roofs do the houses have on this street?  Take a walking tour and try to answer the question by using observation.  Draw a picture of the evidence (i.e. sketches of the roofs).  Compare the sketches with old photos of the same buildings and note similarities and differences.