Individually or in groups, propose the founding of a frontier town in 1880. Plat it (that is, draw a map or plan for it) on paper, showing its relationship to rivers, roads, and other features. On the plan show the businesses and services necessary to survival and growth.
Read an encyclopedia entry or other description of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, June 25-26, 1876. One group compose a news account as if by a reporter for a big-city broadcast. Another group compose a story as if by an Indian observer for a tribal news report.
Produce and record radio skits based on incidents and encounters in the life of Buffalo Bill.
Make salt maps showing the path of the Pony Express (1860-1861) across plains, mountain, and desert from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California.
Write and produce skits for PSAs (public service announcements) advocating non-violence. Film them with a video camcorder.
Debate the Kansas-Nebraska act of 1854 with teams representing the interests of both North and South.
Debate before Congress the pros and cons of establishing Indian Reservations. One side represent the American Indian Bureau; the other side represent a group of Plains Indian people.
Girls, as Louisa Frederici, write a diary entry describing your fiance, Will Cody, and the life you expect to lead as his wife.
Boys, as Will Cody, write a diary entry about your prospects for making a living and establishing a home for your wife and family in 1866.
Using a Lokota-English dictionary, learn to greet your Sioux host in his lodge. Make a skit of it in Lakota.
Write a buffalo "bill-of-fare" showing and listing the ways that both Indian people and white settlers used the parts of a buffalo.
Discuss bullying and violence. The students should enumerate as many as they can of the different ways in which bullying is manifested.
In small groups, devise role-playing skits illustrating different ways in which victims and bystanders can respond to bullying.