Battles Blog Post

The lesson our class participated in was about the battles of the Civil War. Each student was assigned a brief description of a battle, numbered 1-20, which they would be required to do research on. The student then would have to make a Google Doc and put their information on there and acquire the link to the doc. The link to the document would then be converted into a QR code. Each student would print their code out and hide the codes throughout the school, with directions on how to get to the next QR code. The students would then start at the code after their own, and carry out the scavenger hunt, taking notes on the battles as they examine the Google Doc. After the hunt was over, the students would contribute their answers to the essential questions on an online wall called Padlet. Each student would post their name and answer to the wall and each answer would be read over.

Example QR code used in Scavenger Hunt

In the Eastern theater, the ultimate victor was the Confederate Army. In the Western and Naval Theaters, the Union was the winner. The Eastern Theater was won by the Confederate Army early on in the Civil War. The Confederate Army won just about every battle at the beginning of the war. Towards the end of the war, about 1863 and on, the Union started to win battles such as Gettysburg and Antietam. The Western Theater was dominated by the Union for the entire war. The Union won so many battles in this theater because they were able to get supplies to their troops much easier than the Confederate Army could. The Union also won the Naval Theater because of the blockade of the Southern ports. The South already had a worse economy than the North, and not being able to ship cotton to Europe in exchange for supplies crippled their economy and lost them the theater and eventually,  the war.