Essential Questions Guiding Our OCSW Inquiry 

How is a community affected by its form of governance?

What effect does a community’s history have on it today?

How does a community benefit from assessing and protecting its natural resources?

What role does a community’s ability to adapt play in its survival?

What are the qualities of a resilient community?

What is the value of preserving the past?

What is the best way to honor those who served in America’s wars?

What is the benefit of engaging in the practices of our nation’s democratic values?

How does a community measure change?

How do communities encourage economic growth?

Does racial, ethnic, religious and other forms of diversity make a community stronger or does it
weaken it?

What role do disruptors play in the creation of a more just and equitable society?

What is the benefit of those in the dominant culture recognizing and learning more about the
people their predecessors displaced or oppressed?

What role do innovators play in the health and wealth of a community?

What has attracted people to North Olmsted, Ohio 0in the past? What attracts them today?

What are a communities most valuable resources and assets?

Which community values have endured since the founding of North Olmsted, Ohio? Which
have perhaps been lost? Which of those that were lost are “no great loss” for us?

What is the role of education in a community? How do a community’s schools reflect the values
and priorities of its people?

1 ​One Community; Six Words

Of what value is understanding a communities geologic history?

How do people in a community learn to get along in spite of gaps in wealth (socio-economic
status)?

What is the best way to keep the members of a community safe?

What is the role of young people in the life of a community?

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 In addition, our community boasts the first African American settlers in Northeast Ohio and the
first woman pastor in the Universalist Church.

Because of its proximity to Lake Erie, our community was also a stop on the Underground
Railroad. Here fugitive slaves waited until a conductor was able to help them cross Lake Erie to
the safety of Canada on the other side. The first European Americans to settle North Olmsted,
or Lenox as it was called when it was first settled, kept records of their interactions with the
Native Americans living on the land when they first arrived. Though these records are
incomplete, we are confident that with the help of the NMAI we can clarify the history of the First
People who lived here at various times before and at the time Lenox was settled by European
American pioneers from the east.

Finally, among the physical resources our community offers is a cemetery with graves of
soldiers dating back to the French & Indian War, and a multiple-building living history museum
called Frostville. from the Revolutionary to the Vietnam Wars and a recreated historic
multiple-building settlement called Frostville Museum.

We have visited the Western Reserve Historical Society’s special collections library where our
students have uncovered letters, journals, and other primary documents that are unavailable
online. As students discover each new piece of information, their questions multiply, and they
only want to dig deeper into our community’s history.
To dig deeper into our history our students will visit these sites, read primary documents and
other historical texts, and interview librarians, scholars, scientists, and community members to
weave together and write about our local identity and history.

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Timeline

Month Essential Question or Inquiry Activities The “Specifics”

Topic

September Topic: Personal and National Lessons 1 - 5 Lesson 1:

Identity SS - Activities 1 and 2
ELA - Activity 3 (Maria
Resource: ​My Part of the Hinojosa Reading)
Story ​from Facing History and
Ourselves

Lesson 2:
ELA - Entire Lesson (except
the “Online Search Identity
Chart”)
SS - In place of the Identity
Chart, students will create a
“Cultural Condominium” with

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5 ​One Community; Six Words