Labor Day Activity to Start the Year

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Introduction: The History of Labor Day
In 1884 the first Monday of September was designated as a holiday to celebrate the American worker. Since then Labor Day has become established as a national holiday throughout the country.

We all know that life in the United States has changed dramatically in the last century since the first Labor Day celebration. Labor and industry have driven many of these changes.
http://www.dol.gov/laborday/history.htm

Student Activity

For a quick activity do steps 1, 2 and 3. To explore this topic further continue with steps 4­-7. Note: This activity uses the Geographic Inquiry Method as a framework to guide students in the exploration of the topic of labor trends in the U.S. The following link explains the Geographic Inquiry Method:
http://www.esri.com/Industries/k­12/education/~/media/Files/Pdfs/industries/k­12/pdfs/geoginquiry.pdf

  1. Ask a Geographic Question
    What were the dominant industries in the U.S. from 1990 ­- 2013? Follow-up question: How do demographics, policy and legislation affect labor trends?

2. To test your knowledge about labor and industry trends that have occurred during recent times complete the quiz below. Consider national and global events as well as demographic shifts when choosing your answers. After completing the quiz scroll click on the link below to see an animated map on the Bureau of Labor Statistics website to see how you did on the quiz. Good Luck!

3. Did you complete the survey? If so, see how you did by clicking on the following link to an animated map showing employment trends in the USA http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2014/ted_20140728.htm

4. Acquire Data: The following are just a few online sources that might help you understand what societal changes occurred during that time that could have influenced employment trends.

a. USA Demographics for Schools v2 http://esriurl.com/usademographics (Teachers, be sure you are logged in to your ArcGIS Online Organization account in order to view the maps. If you don’t already have an account visit http://www.esri.com/connected to sign up for an education account. This valuable educational resource is free to teachers.)

b. Comparison of median age in Illinois Counties in 2000 and 2010 (Swipe Map) http://arcg.is/1UzvC91

c.Bureau of Labor Statistics resources for students
http://www.bls.gov/k12/

d. Mapping Our World for ArcGIS Online, “Share and Share Alike” Module 6, Lesson 2 https://www.esri.com/training/catalog/57967874fa50cd7e5a4b5a75/mapping-our-world/

5. Explore Data
The following are just a few online sources that might help you understand what societal changes occurred during that time that could have influenced employment trends.

4. Data Analysis
What events (public policy, legislation or demographics) occurred during this time period that might have influenced these changes? Does your own community follow these trends?

5. Action Plan
How could information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics website be used by educators and students?
Bureau of Labor Statistics, Career Exploration
http://www.bls.gov/k12/content/students/careers/career-exploration.htm

Supplemental Material

Creative Commons License
Labor Day Lesson to Start the Year by Jenni Dahl is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at http://www.dol.gov/laborday/history.htm.