Civil War Scavenging

There were two essential questions to go along with the Civil War Scavenger Hunt lesson: Who was the ultimate victor in each theater of the war: East, West, and Naval? and, what are some commonalities you can identify in the reasons for the results of the battle? To start the hunt, each person in class was assigned a different battle in the Civil War; I got the Second Battle of Manassas. Then we were told to make a Google Doc with a rundown of our battles. After that we each printed out a QR code that linked to our battle information. The next day we all hung up our QR codes around the school and we began the hunt. We had a day and a half to run around the school.

The distinct victor in the Naval Theater was the Union. This is because the United States of America had a much more developed military navy than the Confederate States of America, which had only been established just before the breakout of the war. The battles of Fort Henry and Baton Rouge were examples of Union victories in the Naval Theater. The Confederates were the victors in the Eastern Theater. Their "winning" tactic was causing a lot of damage to the Union army in a short time. This way, the Confederates went away with a smaller number of casualties than the Union. The Second Battle of Manassas and the Battle of Fredericksburg are two battles in the East in which the Confederates display these tactics. The Western theater was dominated by the Union. In this theater the number of Union soldiers greatly outnumbered the number of Confederate soldiers and the Union was armed with better resources and superior strategy. The Battles of Vicksburg and Chattanooga are examples of Union victories in the Eastern theater. My entire class shared their voice on this subject on the Padlet below.

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For the most part I enjoyed the scavenger hunt because it is difficult not to have fun when wandering around the school. It was refreshing to be learning at your own pace. What was lacking for me was a sense of closure, because I did not have time to finish the hunt. I think that it would have been easier to finish if the consecutive QR codes had been hung up relatively closer to one another. Instead of for example having 2, 9, and 14 on the fourth floor, it would have been kinder to the scavenger if 13-15 had been on the fourth floor. At the same time, that might take some of the fun out of it. Having the freedom to choose where to place my battle was one of the things that made the scavenger hunt enjoyable. Overall, the scavenger hunting was a pleasant way to spend the morning.