Summary
This presentation is based on our chapter in Teaching Holocaust Geographies in Middle and Secondary Schools, which offers a unique perspective on using geography to understand how this genocide altered people, locations, and landscapes. Using the Geo-Inquiry Progress, students are empowered to use geographic tools to explore Holocaust survivor testimonies to analyze how policies of the Nazi regime impacted Jewish mobility. Investigating persecution across multiple scales, from the local to the global, allows students to develop a deeper understanding of how legislative measures and geography impact the daily lives of individuals. Utilizing survivor testimony in the classroom fosters historical empathy and critical thinking and allows students to connect past restrictions to contemporary issues of forced displacement and migration. The inquiry process engages students in storytelling by creating visual representations of movement and restrictions, allowing them to illustrate patterns of oppression.
This presentation highlights how spatial analysis can enhance historical inquiry in the classroom. Furthermore, by using the Holocaust as a case study, we will illustrate the fragility of democratic societies and promote a deeper appreciation for safeguarding individual rights and civil liberties. Ultimately, our objective is to show how the academic framework of geo-inquiry allows students to examine complex issues at various scales.
Session Focus
Middle School/Junior High | Inquiry | Geo-Inquiry, Scale, Spatial Change
Conference Room
Lewis
Meet the Presenters
Megan Bowes is in her eleventh year of teaching middle school social studies and is a non-degree-seeking graduate student at the University of South Carolina. Currently a teacher in Greenville, South Carolina, Bowes previously taught in Florida, where she was recognized in 2016 by the Florida Council for Social Studies as the Middle School Teacher of the Year for St. Lucie County. She is an Alfred Lerner Fellow through the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous and is part of the 2022-2024 South Carolina Council on the Holocaust Teacher Fellow Program. She has presented at the South Carolina Association for Middle Level Education and continues her Holocaust education through professional development.
Scott Auspelmyer is the Executive Director of the South Carolina Council on the Holocaust. He is a United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Teaching Fellow who also has 19 years of experience teaching high school social studies in South Carolina and was previously recognized as the National Council for the Social Studies Secondary Educator of the Year. He has presented at numerous state and national conferences and regularly conducts professional development training in Holocaust education for teachers in South Carolina and beyond.
