This activity is intended as practice for students learning about primary and secondary sources. Students should receive instruction on the differences between primary sources and secondary sources prior to completing this activity. Students will be given a random selection of artifacts. They will be asked to go through the primary source analysis process (adapted from the National Archives) to analyze and make sense of the artifacts. They will create a secondary source about the person represented by the artifacts. 

Students learn about archives and primary sources as they research original historical documents. While preparing an imaginative first-person account as if witnessing an historical event, they learn to appreciate the value of the first-person, eye-witness account and understand its limitations. Note: The literacy activities for the Mechanics unit are based on physical themes that have broad application to our experience in the world — concepts of rhythm, balance, spin, gravity, levity, inertia, momentum, friction, stress and tension.