About Our Curriculum Team
The Curriculum Support Committee of the Delaware County Historical Society organized in 2012 under the leadership of Brent Carson, a lifelong Delaware resident and former social studies teacher for Delaware City Schools. Brent recruited retired teachers from local school districts to start this committee. Once this group of teachers got together and saw the wealth of materials at the Historical Society, they recognized its huge programming potential and began to develop programs to share with teachers and students.
The committee started by creating a traveling local history tote bag program based on the third grade Ohio Learning Standards for Social Studies, because local history is emphasized at this grade level. A supportive grant from the William Street Church Foundation allowed this program to grow. In 2016, the tote bag program was recognized with an Outstanding Achievement Award from the Ohio Local History Alliance. (OLHA)
The next project the group developed using the rich local history of the Underground Railroad in Delaware County was The Underground Railroad Experience at the Meeker Homestead. This program provides a field trip experience for students to see reenactments of people from the era and the part they played in the abolition movement in the county. Homes that were used as safe houses are shared through a slideshow as well as other activities from this historical period. Later, another UGRR program was added, entitled “From Slavery to Freedom.” This is a video-based program to be presented in schools under the direction of Watson Walker who introduces the program and provides opportunity for Q & A before and after the video.
School programming continues with research projects based on the American Indians and early settlers to this area, the history of Africa Road and Black Americans in Delaware County, artifact carts that go into the schools as presentations, and tours of Downtown Delaware. The tote bag program continues to evolve with new topics, photographs, and resources being added as we get feedback from teachers and the education community.
Our committee continues to develop and improve school-aged programs as more topics, updated research, pandemics, school curriculum changes, revised learning standards, online learning and areas of interest come to our attention from teachers, parents and community members.