Our local history is worth sharing!  Our historic Deere family homes serve as resources for local teachers. 

We are excited to partner with local educators to create lesson plans for local history topics for elementary, middle and high school students.

We're looking for Discover and Dig Deeper levels of lesson plans.  Our Discover level is a basic recipe for what a lesson would include and the Dig Deeper level is a comprehensive lesson plan narrative.

As our collaborators, we are offering $50 for the Discover level lesson plan and another $200 for the Dig Deeper lesson plan associated with the Discover topic.  Use the Lesson Plan Submission Form to send your plans today!

Your plans will be vetted by our staff for inclusion in our local history lesson plans project.  Plans will be posted on our website and shared with local schools, libraries and museums.

Both Iowa and Illinois require teachers to include local history at all classroom levels. To help meet that requirement, in collaboration with a growing number of local historical organizations—such as the John Deere Archives, Putnam Museum, and Rock Island County Historical Society—the historic Deere family homes will serve as resources for local teachers.

This project began in Spring 2024 with input and lesson plans from local high school history teachers with intentions to add both middle school and elementary levels in the future. Please continue to watch this project grow as plans become available to introduce more students to our rich local history.

If you are a teacher and would like to participate,  please complete the Lesson Plan Submission form.  If you would like additional information, please contact Kara Fedje, Director of Programs and Collections at  kfedje@butterworthcenter.com.