Last updated: August 25, 2023
Lesson Plan
Little Kinnakeet Life-Saving Station: Home to Unsung Heroes
- Grade Level:
- Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade
- Subject:
- Literacy and Language Arts,Social Studies
- Lesson Duration:
- 90 Minutes
- Additional Standards:
- NATIONAL/STATE STANDARDS:
National Standards for...
History: Standard-
Grade 5-12: Era 6- Standard 3
Social Studies: Standards: 3, 6, 9 - Thinking Skills:
- Remembering: Recalling or recognizing information ideas, and principles. Understanding: Understand the main idea of material heard, viewed, or read. Interpret or summarize the ideas in own words. Applying: Apply an abstract idea in a concrete situation to solve a problem or relate it to a prior experience. Analyzing: Break down a concept or idea into parts and show the relationships among the parts.
Essential Question
Why did the Federal Government take an active role in protecting mariners by creating the U.S. Life-Saving Service?
Objective
The learner will be able to:
Understand why the Federal Government took an active role in protecting mariners by creating the U.S. Life-Saving Service.
Explain the nature of duties in the U.S.L.S.S., including the daily routine and rescue activities.
Describe how the U.S.L.S.S. was perceived by some of the Atlantic Coast sailors whose lives were saved.
Examine modern rescue methods in their communities and compare them to U.S. Life-Saving Service operations.
Background
The lesson could be used in U.S. history, social studies, and geography courses in units on 19th-century commerce or transportation, civics, or the chronological period after Reconstruction. Little Kinnakeet will help students understand the need for the U.S. Lifesaving Service (U.S.L.S.S.), a government agency that often has been forgotten but was responsible for saving more than 175,000 lives during its 44 years of operation. In 1915 the U.S.L.S.S. merged with the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service to become the U.S. Coast Guard.
Preparation
- Download the pdf (see link at top of page)
- Read the directions for teachers
- Make copies for the students
- Teach and discuss with the students
Materials
Using Little Kinnakeet Lifesaving Station as an example, students will learn about the importance of the U.S. Lifesaving Service to shipping along North Carolina's coast.
Download Little Kinnakeet Lifesaving Station: Home to Unsung Heroes
Lesson Hook/Preview
Using Little Kinnakeet Life-Saving Station as an example, students will learn about the importance of the U.S. Life-Saving Service to shipping along North Carolina’s coast. They will also the close tie the U.S. Life-Saving Service had to Cape Hatteras National Seashore.
Procedure
Please review procedures in the Lesson Plan, underneath "materials."
Vocabulary
USLSS, Lifesaving Service, North Carolina, Rescue, Cape Hatteras, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, technology, Lifesaving
Assessment Materials
- Students will be able to discuss two reasons the federal government felt it was important to create the U.S. Life-Saving Service.
- Students will be able to discuss three reasons a lifesaver's job was complex.
- Students will be able to discuss three similarities and differences of rescue by members of the U.S.L.S.S. and lifesavers today.
Additional Resources
The Little Kinnakeet Lifesaving Station is located within Cape Hatteras National Seashore. The seashore was home to over ten Life-Saving Service stations.