Upper Merion Area High School History & Formative Assessment


CREDITS & RESOURCES

Aerial photos were purchased from the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission and stitched together by me, except for 1965 which was purchased from historicaerials.com, and 1942 which was downloaded for free from pennpilot.psu.edu.

The whiteboards we used were from The Markerboard People (highly recommended - mine are 10+ years old and still in pretty good shape).

Colored cups were purchased for about $20 from Amazon.com. (I have recently seen similarly colored cups cheaper at Acme.)

The turnpike map was downloaded for free from mapsofpa.com.

The population data came from census.gov and was graphed by me in Excel.

The online survey was a google form.


OTHER RESOURCES

The King of Prussia Historical Society - I'm a member. Michael Morrison, the president, is a great resource. They meet monthly at Christ Church (Old Swedes) Hall on River Road in Swedesburg.

Historical Franklin Maps of the area available as PDFs on the website, or paper copies can be purchased - framed or unframed.

Historic Map Works. More maps of the area can be purchased framed or unframed, or as high-resolution downloads. In our family room we have a framed township map from 1881, and framed maps from 1912 and 1955 of our corner of Upper Merion with property lines marked and propery owners listed.

The idea of sorting aerial photos came from an amazing week-long workshop that Lynda and I attended in Gettysburg called P.L.A.C.E.. It was a mix of environmental science, civics, history, PA state law, engineering, land-use planning, and more run by Estelle Ruppert, a wonderful woman who is passionate about teaching. We did a stream study; we went on a walking tour of the town of Gettysburg with an architect and a town planner who explained history and future plans of the downtown area; we toured the park escorted by the ranger whose job it is to balance environmental concerns with keeping the park accessible and true to the landscape it had in 1863; we traveled to a local winery and a local farm, and many other interesting activities. Highly recommended.