Story Summaries and Understandings:


AMERICAN ADVENTURES PART ONE - 1770 TO 1870:

AMERICAN ADVENTURES PART TWO -
1870 TO PRESENT:

#4 “A Matter of Honor”
American naval hero Stephen Decatur accepts a challenge to fight a duel. Unfortunately, early Americans insist on interpreting dueling codes even more severely than do Europeans. The result is tragic.
Understanding, respecting and appreciating:
-the importance of our justice system in resolving disagreements
-ways of settling quarrels without turning to violent action
-how our system of justice evolved over many years

#1 “The Woman Who Dared”Abigal Duniway’s mother and brother die on the family’s difficult journey to Oregon. In the years that follow, calamity and defeat seem to follow Abigal everywhere. Instead of giving up, Abigal perseveres with a will that defies belief. Her struggle for women’s rights is the ultimate test of her endurance.
Understanding, respecting and appreciating:
-the importance of perseverance and courage in overcoming obstacles
-the courageous Americans who came before us
-the early sacrifices and struggles to obtain more rights

 


#7 “The Stubborn School Teacher”
Never mind that no medical college in the country will accept a woman. Elizabeth Blackwell wants to be a doctor. The determined school teacher turns a prank aimed at her into the opportunity to become America’s first woman doctor.
Understanding, respecting and appreciating:
-the early sacrifices and struggles to obtain more rights for women
-the importance of judging others as individuals, and not as stereotypes
-individuals who were willing to overcome obstacles in the struggle for more rights		 #2 “The Mysterious Cloud”When hordes of grasshoppers descend on America’s farmlands, farmers try stopping them with one imaginative trick after another. The armies of grasshoppers however, keep coming. The unrelenting waves devour every crop, leaving farms as barren as if fire had swept across the land. The farm family’s endurance becomes a monument to the American spirit.
Understanding, respecting and appreciating:
-the importance of overcoming adversity to reach a goal
-the contributions and sacrifices made by each American generation
-the need to persevere
#12 “Bloody Antietam”
Two Northern soldiers discover three cigars wrapped in paper on a Southern camping ground. Their amazing discovery helps tip the balance of a major battle, and alters the course of the Civil War.
Understanding, respecting and appreciating:
-the importance of making well thought out decisions
-the tremendous cost of war
-the contributions and sacrifices made by each American generation		 #7 “Lincoln Beachey, Master of the Sky”
Lincoln Beachey takes to the skies when planes are made of wood, cloth and wire, and when a man’s skills – not instruments – determine whether he will survive. Beachey thrills spectators in ever more daring feats, until, on a March day in 1915…To some, aviators like Beachey were foolhardy exhibitionists; to others, they were courageous pioneers who spurred the progress of aviation.
Understanding, respecting and appreciating:
-our own limits
-the value of trying out new ideas
-the importance of early American pioneers in all fields

#14 “The $300 Baby”
A farmer exchanges a race horse worth $300 for the infant son of a slave. Little does he realize that the infant – George Washington Carver – will grow up to become a great American scientist.
Understanding, respecting and appreciating:
-the need to persevere
-the importance of an education
-the contributions made by different Americans toward the growth of our country

#12 “Moment of Decision”Americans at home argue over our involvement in the war in Vietnam. Meantime, Private Fernandez is on a patrol in Vietnam when he spots an enemy grenade on the ground. Fernandez has seconds to make a decision: do I save myself or try to save the others?
Understanding, respecting and appreciating:
-the sacrifices made by earlier generations
-the dangers of turning to violence at home to resolve our differences
-the contributions made by different Americans in the struggle for freedom

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