Students will enter the project by investigating local-history clues, sorting source types, and practicing the first habits of historical inquiry. They will generate initial questions, compare evidence across artifacts, and connect community sources to stories they already know while preparing for deeper source analysis in the next phase.

Students will turn local-history curiosities into focused investigation questions, test possible methods, and build a team research plan with a working hypothesis and CER outline before collecting major evidence.

Students will gather, annotate, and organize local history evidence from digitized archive sources, track chronology, test source credibility, and use peer feedback to strengthen corroboration and contextualization before moving into argument writing.

Students will analyze patterns, contradictions, and context in their collected local history evidence; draft and revise a CER-based claim that connects past and present; and prepare a mini gallery-walk presentation and Storywalk materials that communicate a defensible then-and-now community story.

Students will present their completed local history investigations to an authentic audience through a Then and Now Storywalk, defend their evidence-based claims with visuals and annotated sources, respond to visitor questions, and reflect on how their investigation changed their understanding of community history and their own connection to local stories.