ROOTS AND ROUTES is helping students of all ages connect across time and collaborate across space. We want to facilitate co-operative research and writing projects not only within but between communities. ROOTS AND ROUTES implies both reaching out and venturing forth — so lets do both!

CO-OPERATION
Students can join in the co-operative project of putting their town's heritage tourism riches "on the map." (Maps, literally, because each "do-it-yourself" theme tour is a mosaic of original pages and links, organized by an inter-active map.)

COLLABORATION
We also want to encourage direct collaboration among towns across a region. These might be joint research projects that build on existing historical connections, comparative cultures projects, or bicentennial outreach and homecoming initiatives.

HOW TO CONNECT
Start with the lists we're assembling in ROOTS/CONNECTIONS. If your town has the same name as a town back East, it's easy to find out if there is a real connection. But pioneer settlers did not always name their frontier towns for the place they came from. So students may need to do a little digging in local history books to see who founded their town and where they originated. Then you can look for letters, journals and biographical materials in both places. For an idea of what students can learn from them, take a look at Learning from Letters.

Here are some other places to look on ROOTS & ROUTES for possible connections:

• Travel Now
  Look up your local historical and natural resources on the Internet. Then check our theme tour pages to see if they are there. (If not, let us know, and we'll make a link.) If your town has a living history farm or nature center find one in another city to partner with. See if you can use these collections to compare early farming and crops, naturally growing plant species, transportation, manufacturing, invention, or schooling.
• Travel Then
  Nearly every town in the USA is located near an old road, waterway, or early railroad. Where did it go? What kinds of goods passed over it centuries ago? Where did they originate? Use the examples in our Travel Then section as models for your own digital project.
• Western Reserve Memoirs
  Teachers living in Northeastern Ohio will find many special connections to Connecticut and other parts of New England in this volunteer-written collection of memoirs and letters.

Keep checking back and send us your ROOTS Connections queries and ideas. If you make a connection through ROOTS & ROUTES, we'd be pleased to publish the classwork you develop.