Padlet Unit Plan

http://padlet.com/wall/9mj8irrp8gm4

I chose this topic for my unit lesson because I think it's effects can still be felt within the educational system in this country today.  The emphasis on STEM was propelled by the Cold War and the ensuing space race.
My essential questions aimed to ask students to think critically about the time period and how both countries were affected politically, socially, and economically.  Why exactly were we in such a state of competition with the Soviet Union and what were we hoping to accomplish?  I have never been particularly fond of lesson plans that emphasize dates and facts.  This lesson plan, guided by my essential questions will steer the discussion in a more conceptual and analytical direction.  Students will be required to consider the time period as a whole and make key critical and responsible evaluations and draw reasonable and thoughtful conclusions.
There is avery interesting, albeit short, TED talk on Sputnik and the mass changes to the United States educational system that were made in response to it.  I am a huge fan of TED talks because they encourage viewers to ponder what was, what is, and what could be.  Evernote is a very useful tool that will help the students to organize information from what is a very long time period into categorical and easily accessible topics.  This will make the processing of the information, as well as future studying of the information more manageable.