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Social studies activity

Iowa's Story: Tall Corn, Civil War Sacrifice & the Heartland's Hidden Firsts

Iowa's soil is so dark and rich it looks almost BLACK — and it is one of the most precious things on Earth. Farmers come from all over the world just to see it. Why would DIRT be famous? Let's find out!

Hands OnAbout 25 minutesScreen-freeParent help expected

Materials and setup

How this changes by age

Pre-K (ages 3–4)

Iowa's soil is so dark and rich it looks almost BLACK — and it is one of the most precious things on Earth. Farmers come from all over the world just to see it. Why would DIRT be famous? Let's find out!

Difficulty 1 of 3

Steps

  1. Look at two pictures: regular sandy or pale soil, and Iowa's dark black topsoil. Ask: 'What do you notice? Which one looks like it might grow better plants?'
  2. If possible, hold a small handful of potting soil. Ask: 'What does it feel like? Smell like?'
  3. Draw a row of giant corn plants taller than a house, growing out of dark brown/black soil.
  4. Say: 'Iowa's special black soil was made over thousands of years by prairie grasses whose roots turned into food for plants. People call it black gold.'
  5. Ask: 'If Iowa's soil disappeared, what do you think would happen to food in America?'

Learning objectives

  • Wonder at why soil quality matters for feeding entire countries
  • Notice that Iowa's dark topsoil is different from ordinary dirt and why that matters
  • Ask: where does our food come from, and what makes some places better at growing it?

Kindergarten (ages 5–6)

Before Iowa was farmed, it was covered in TALL-GRASS PRAIRIE — grass so tall a person on horseback could disappear into it! The Meskwaki and Sioux nations hunted buffalo here for thousands of years. Then in just 50 years, nearly ALL of the prairie was plowed under. Draw the prairie before and after, and ask: what was lost and what was gained?

Difficulty 2 of 3

Steps

  1. Look at a picture of tall-grass prairie — grass waving above a person's head, buffalo in the distance, hawks circling above.
  2. Fold your paper in half. Label left side 'Prairie 1800' and right side 'Farm 1870.'
  3. Left side: draw tall grass taller than a person, buffalo, and a Meskwaki family. Add the sky full of birds.
  4. Right side: draw a farmhouse, plowed fields in neat rows, a pioneer family. The sky has fewer birds now.
  5. Ask: 'What do you see that disappeared between 1800 and 1870?' (buffalo, tall grass, birds, Native families)
  6. Write or dictate: 'When the prairie was turned into farms, what was lost was _____ and what was gained was _____.'

Learning objectives

  • Retell the transformation of Iowa from tall-grass prairie to farmland over 70 years
  • Begin to compare what existed before and after — noticing both gains and losses
  • Name the Meskwaki and Sioux nations as Iowa's first peoples

Early elementary (ages 6–8)

Iowa became a territory for just 15 years before it had to prove itself in the biggest crisis in American history. When the Civil War began in 1861, Iowa sent a higher percentage of its eligible men to fight than ANY other state in the Union. Iowa was barely out of its frontier days — and it put nearly everything it had into preserving the country. Create a 'Sacrifice Map' showing Iowa's extraordinary Civil War contribution.

Difficulty 2 of 3

Steps

  1. Draw a large outline of Iowa on your paper.
  2. Write this fact in big letters across the center: 'Iowa population in 1860: 675,000. Iowa soldiers sent to war: 76,000 — more than 1 in 10 people.' Calculate: if your class had 30 students, how many would have gone to war?
  3. Draw small soldier figures along the border of Iowa — one for every 10,000 Iowans who served (so draw about 7-8 figures).
  4. Write the names of two Iowa regiments you research and what battles they fought in.
  5. Add an arrow to the Mississippi River on the east side: 'Many Iowa soldiers crossed here — the river they had crossed as settlers became the road to war.'
  6. Write at the bottom: 'Iowa fought so hard for the Union because _____.' (Write your hypothesis — there is more than one right answer.)

Learning objectives

  • Analyze Iowa's disproportionate Civil War contribution using real numbers and percentages
  • Connect Iowa's identity as a young free state to its willingness to fight for the Union
  • Form and write a hypothesis about motivation using evidence

Upper elementary (ages 8–10)

Iowa was a state for barely 15 years when the Civil War began — and sent a higher percentage of its population to fight than any other Union state. Why would a brand-new, mostly rural state sacrifice so much? And here is another puzzle: Iowa admitted Black students to its state university in 1862, allowed women to practice law in 1869, and held the first presidential caucus — all firsts for a rural Midwestern state. What explains Iowa's pattern of being quietly ahead of the curve?

Difficulty 3 of 3

Steps

  1. Research Iowa's Civil War numbers: what percentage of eligible Iowa men served? How does this compare to other states? Write a paragraph proposing WHY Iowa fought so hard. (Consider: Iowa was a free state carved from territory where slavery had been debated intensely. Bleeding Kansas was right next door.)
  2. Research Iowa's progressive firsts: Iowa Supreme Court ordered school integration in Clark v. Board of Directors (1868, 86 years before Brown v. Board), Arabella Mansfield became the first woman admitted to the bar in the United States (1869), and Alexander Clark Jr. became one of the first African Americans to graduate from a U.S. law school at the University of Iowa (1879). For each, write one sentence explaining WHY Iowa did this before other states.
  3. Research the Meskwaki people today — they are one of the only Native nations to have BOUGHT BACK their ancestral land in Iowa, purchasing it in 1856. Write: what is remarkable about this? How did they do it?
  4. The analytical question: Iowa is a mostly rural, mostly white, mostly quiet state. Yet it was first on multiple civil rights issues. What does this tell us about the relationship between geography, culture, and social progress?
  5. Write a 5-7 sentence analytical paragraph: what factors — geography, immigrant culture, frontier values, or something else — made Iowa a quiet leader in American democracy?
  6. Connection: Iowa sends the first signal of every presidential election through its caucus. Why does a small farm state have this much influence on who becomes the most powerful person on Earth?
  7. A farmer in 1860 Iowa could turn prairie into cornfield. Look up corn's price in 1860 (about 30 cents per bushel) versus today (around $4.50, estimate). With 100 acres yielding roughly 30 bushels each, calculate annual revenue then versus now. How many years until profit if equipment cost $500 in 1860?
  8. Iowa blacksmith John Deere built a steel plow in 1837 that sliced through sticky prairie soil. Draw the plow's share, moldboard, and handle, and explain why steel worked better than iron. Sketch one improvement and explain how it would save a farmer time.

Learning objectives

  • Analyze Iowa's extraordinary Civil War sacrifice using specific statistics and form a hypothesis explaining it
  • Identify Iowa's progressive firsts and explain each in historical context
  • Research the Meskwaki land purchase and explain why it is historically unusual
  • Write an analytical paragraph arguing a nuanced thesis about how geography and culture shape political character
  • Connect Iowa's caucus to the national political process

Safety and evidence note

Read the full activity before beginning. An adult should supervise tools, heat, food, outdoor work, movement, and experiments as appropriate. Completion records that the activity was done; the child’s explanation, work sample, photo, or demonstration is stronger evidence of learning than a completion check alone.

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