BC Archives Time Machine  - Teacher's Corner

 C-09890 Ashcroft School Students in Classroom, 1912

Overview

The British Columbia Archives Time machine is an educational web site which presents issues in B.C. history. The site uses content from the BC Archives collections in a context that relates to the Social Studies curriculum where possible.

This web site project was funded by the Federal Government's SchoolNet initiative, with the British Columbia Archives as the primary sponsor.  Additional assistance was received from other Provincial Government agencies including Ministry of Education, and the Heritage Branch of the Ministry of Small Business, Tourism, and Culture.

The teachers corner section in each gallery is designed to give teachers:

  • Suggestions for classroom activities that target the different grade levels and learning outcomes.

  • Predefined searches on the BC Archives Website Search Gateway that are of educational interest.

  • The prescribed learning outcome for Social Studies grades K through 12 as they relate to this site.

The Galleries

For further information please visit the Teachers Corner for each of the following galleries:

A Note on Additional Research at the British Columbia Archives

Unlike libraries which maintain published material or museums which collect and display artifacts, archives are a repository for original records, often called "primary sources". The mandate of an archives program is to collect, arrange, describe, and make accessible these records. It is the responsibility of the user to intrepret what they mean. Using primary sources helps develop skills in both research and critical thinking. For further information see Primary Sources at the BC Archives: A Guide for Teachers.

Due to the often fragile nature of archival records, the requirements for adult supervision of younger clients, the need for registration of all patrons, and limitations in staffing, the British Columbia Archives does not normally recommend on-site visits as being the most productive for its younger clients.  

In contrast, use of the main B.C. Archives Website is strongly encouraged as it contains a wealth of archival catalogues, finding aids, photographs (e.g., over 30,000 images on-line), maps and other selected records  in an easy to use presentation.  Additional material is always being added to the site on a frequent basis.  The B.C. Archives Website Search Gateway was one of the primary tools used in the research and building of this site.

 The BC Archives also encourages the re-use of its content in classroom projects and activities for non-commercial educational and research purposes.  It is requested that content being used in this manner give specific credit to the BC Archives, and explicit citation of the relevant call number or catalogue number of each object or item used. The latter will help reduce staff and client time spent in attempts to locate and identify material.  A number of school classrooms have already sucessfully initiated their own web projects with hypertext links back to the records maintained and made available on the BC Archives Website.  




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British Columbia Archives, Royal BC Museum.