Oklahoma History Academic Standards

4.4.3 Explain how economic activities can threaten the physical environment.

Oklahoma History Center Education Resources

Traveling Trunks
Oil and Gas

The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture

Kenny A. Franks, "Petroleum Industry"
Ken Anderson, "Natural Gas"

Research Center Resources

Kenny A. Franks, The Oklahoma Petroleum Industry (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1980)
Paul Lambert, "Natural Gas: Fuel for the Future," in Drill Bits, Picks, and Shovels: A History of Mineral Resources in Oklahoma, ed. John W. Morris (Oklahoma City: Oklahoma Historical Society, 1982)

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A. Identify ways in which humans can change ecosystems, such as clearing forests, draining wetlands, and diverting waterways, by examining present-day issues related to the use of resources.

Oklahoma History Center Education Resources

History Alive! Living History
Dust Bowl Housewife
Bison Hunter

Traveling Trunk
Dust Bowl and Great Depression

E-Exhibit
The Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, and the New Deal in Oklahoma

The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture

Donald A. Wilhite, "Dust Bowl"
Kenneth S. Johnson, "Lakes and Reservoirs"

Research Center Resources

Michael L. Cooper, Dust to Eat: Drought and Depression in the 1930's (New York: Clarion Books, 2004)
Angus Henry McDonald, Erosion and Its Control in Oklahoma Territory (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, 1938)

Audio/Visual

Additional Resources

"How People Modify the Environment"
"Human Interactions with the Environment," The Open University

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B. Identify examples of changes in land use in local communities and how the physical environment can be stressed by human activities.

Oklahoma History Center Education Resources

Traveling Trunks
Colonial Agriculture
Oklahoma Agriculture
Fur Trade in Oklahoma

The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture

Brian Vance, "Water Quality Acts"
Larry O'Dell, "Agricultural Mechanization"
Richard Lowitt, "Environment and Cultural Ecology"

Research Center Resources

Oklahoma Comprehensive Water Plan, Oklahoma City: Oklahoma Water Resources Board, 1980

Audio/Visual

Additional Resources

"Land Use," The Environmental Literacy Council
Bonnie Lynn-Sherow, Mechanization, Land Use, and Ownership: Oklahoma in the early Twentieth Century, Madison, Wisconsin: Land Tenure Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1996

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