1. Sample Slide with Image
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1) Describe what you see in this picture.
2) When and where do you think this picture was taken? Explain your answer.

2. The Dust Bowl

3. The Dust Bowl
The Dust Bowl refers to a period of severe dust storms and soil erosion in the Great Plains during the 1930s.
This region included Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Colorado, and smaller parts of New Mexico and Nebraska
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4. Dust Storms
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There were more than 300 dust storms, also known as “Black Blizzards,” between 1933 & These storms often featured fast moving clouds of dust several miles wide that covered farms and homes, destroyed crops, and made people sick. One of the hardest hit areas was the Oklahoma Panhandle.

5. Displacement and Migration
Many people left the Dust Bowl region, abandoning their homes and to look for work in Western states, such as California. However, many stayed behind.
Left image source:
Right image source:
Migrant family in San Francisco, 1935
Farmer leveling dust hills in Texas, 1938

6. Central Historical Question
What caused the Dust Bowl?
Since the 1930s people have debated what caused the Dust Bowl. Historians continue to address this question: Was the Dust Bowl a natural disaster or was it caused by people’s actions?
Today we are going to analyze and compare a set of primary and secondary sources to better understand what caused the Dust Bowl.

7. The graphic organizer will go on your LEFT SIDE.
You will put your answers to the guiding questions in your RIGHT SIDE

8. Initial Hypothesis
Write your initial hypothesis responding to the Central Historical Question: What caused the Dust Bowl?
Use any information you already know about the dust bowl to create this…

9. SHARE OUT!

10. Documents A and B
You will now read and compare accounts of the Dust Bowl from 2 people who lived through it.
Think about what life was like, compare the similarities and differences of the documents, and consider how the documents help answer the Central Historical Question.
In pairs, read the documents, answer the guiding questions (in your RIGHT SIDE), and fill out the correct portion of the graphic organizer (in your LEFT SIDE)

11. Documents A and B Document A: Henderson Document B: Svobida
According to Henderson, what are three changes that happened in Oklahoma during the 1910s and 1920s? What is her attitude about these changes? How does the author describe life in Oklahoma in 1935? What are two examples of how people experienced the Dust Bowl?
According to Svobida, how did the dust and wind affect crops?
What exactly does Svobida mean by the phrase “power farming”? What would be the difference between traditional farming and “power farming”?
What, according to this Svobida, were two causes of the Dust Bowl?

12. Use information you just read to help you create your new hypothesis.
Second Hypothesis
Individually, come up with a new hypothesis to answer the Central Historical Question (What caused the Dust Bowl?)
Use information you just read to help you create your new hypothesis.

13. SHARE OUT!

14. Document C
For document C make sure to address the Central Question and compare (corroborate) this document with Documents A and B.
In pairs, read the documents, answer the guiding questions (in your RIGHT SIDE), and fill out the correct portion of the graphic organizer (in your LEFT SIDE)

15. Document C Document C: Government Report
What problem is this report addressing?
What, according to this report, were three causes of the Dust Bowl?

16. Third Hypothesis
Individually, come up with a new hypothesis to answer the Central Historical Question (What caused the Dust Bowl?)
Use information you’ve read so far to help you create a new hypothesis.

17. SHARE OUT!

18. Documents D and E
Address the Central Historical Question and compare (corroborate) this document with Documents A, B, and C.
In pairs, read the documents, answer the guiding questions (in your RIGHT SIDE), and fill out the correct portion of the graphic organizer (in your LEFT SIDE)

19. Documents D and E Documents D and E: Professors Worster and Hurt
What does Professor Worster identify as the primary cause of the Dust Bowl?
What are 4 causes of the Dust Bowl that Professor Hurt identifies?

20. Final Hypothesis
Individually, come up with a new and final hypothesis to answer the Central Historical Question (What caused the Dust Bowl?)
Use information from all the readings to help you create a new and final hypothesis.

21. SHARE OUT!

22. Discussion What caused the Dust Bowl?
Whose hypotheses changed across rounds?
How?
Why?
Which documents and what evidence did you find most convincing?

23. Death Rates During the Great Depression
What do you think were the top 5 causes of deaths during the Great Depression?
Do you think death rates increased, stayed the same, or decreased during the Great Depression? Why?

24. Let’s read this article…
Were your predictions correct?
Were you surprised by anything?

25. Would You Stay or Leave?
Background: The granddaddy duster had struck on April 14, In Baca County, Colorado, they called it Black Sunday and it just about did everybody in. Now it was late May and the Osteen family had a decision to make. The little dugout with its dirt floors had been home to 9 children. Now with father dead and the older kids mostly gone, it was just mom, Ike, his older brother Oscar and the 2 girls. Mom had already said she was walking away and taking the girls to live in town. Oscar and Ike could have the 320-acre farm. She was through with it. Ike had just graduated second in his class at Walsh High School and had given a little speech about how he loved Baca. He was the 1st Osteen ever to graduate from high school. But now what to do? Oscar said he was staying. He didn’t know anything else and some day the rains would come back. The orchard was all dead but the elm tree was still alive…and so was the mule.
Decision: You are Ike Osteen. You are 17 years old. It is dawn on May 28, You have a bundle of clothes tied up in an old shirt, a paper bag with 2 jackrabbit sandwiches, and a canteen of water. You are sitting at the table writing a note to Oscar saying he can have the farm, that you are walking up to Springfield to try to get a job with the railroad. But you stop writing. Is this what you really want to do? The job is a long shot. You look out the open door at the fields of dust and dirt. You don’t have a dollar to your name.