Devastation of the Dust Bowl: Impact and Consequences

1. The Dust Bowl

2. The Depression impacted rural areas • The poor economy led to reduced demand for food, which led to reduced prices for crops • Farmers who could not make money could not pay the banks and were foreclosed on • Mother nature and poor farming practices made things worse • Farmers in the great plains had used tractors to put ever-larger pieces of land into agriculture • Monocropping (only planting one crop) was common • This exhausted the soil • A drought in the 1930’s killed many crops • With no crops and no prairie grass or trees, winds created massive dust storms

3. Primary Source – The Dust Bowl Guiding Question: What were the consequences of dust storms? • Analyze the primary source provided

4. Reading and Graph – The Dust Bowl Guiding Question: What were the consequences of dust storms? • Look at the handout “The Great Depression Takes its toll” • Highlight, underline, or circle anything that can help you answer the guiding question, then write a short summary

5. Image – The Dust Bowl Guiding Question: What were the consequences of dust storms? • Look at the Dust Bowl Image • Summarize what this source can tell you about the guiding question

6. The Dust Bowl Guiding Question: What were the consequences of dust storms? • Come up with 3 main ideas and 3 pieces of supporting evidence to answer the guiding question • Main Ideas: Should be your own analysis of the facts • Supporting Evidence: Should be detailed facts that support the main ideas

7. The Dust Bowl - Brevity Guiding Question: What were the consequences of dust storms? • Come up with a topic sentence that would answer your question • Must contain both a good thesis and a good hook • Must be a single, grammatically sound sentence