Objectives
1. Students will brainstorm uses for salt now and in the past.
2. Students will brainstorm ways that they would obtain salt if they could not buy it at the store.
3. Students will rate the importance of salt in their lives.
 

Uses for salt. Procedure
1. Tell students that you are going to be discussing salt in the Civil War.
2. Ask students to think of all the uses they know for salt.  Give them one minute to think silently.
3. Have students get into pairs.  Give them one minute each to tell their partners all the uses they thought of for salt. 
4. Call on each pair to share one or two of their ideas.  Write ideas on the board. 

[Some possible answers- Necessary nutrient for the human body. (Example-used in sports drinks.) Used in cooking.  Used to preserve foods (smoked meat, pickled foods). Necessary in animal feed (salt lick)  Rock salt used in ice cream machines.  Salt used on roads to melt ice.]

5. Share information with students about using salt to preserve meat from Meat Curing and Smoking FAQS (optional).

6. Tell students that during the Civil War, supplies of salt were cut off because of the blockades. 

7. Ask students to think about how they would get salt if they lived in Florida at that time, and could not buy salt.  Give them one minute to think silently.

8. Have students get in pairs.  Give them one minute each to tell their partners how they would get salt.

9. Call on each pair to share their ideas.  Ask for elaboration if necessary.  For example, if they say they would get salt from the ocean, ask them how they would get the salt out (boiling, drying in the sun).  Ask them what kinds of tools they would use (kettles, fires).

10. Ask students how important salt is to them.  Ask them by a show of hands, how many of them would travel a hundred miles to get salt.  How many would risk their lives to get salt?

1. Have students make models or drawings of their ideas.
2. Investigate the properties of salt in preserving meat.
       Materials
        Two jars with holes punched in the lid to allow air in. 
        Two pieces of raw meat. 
        Salt. 

     Put one piece of raw meat in each of jar.  Cover one piece completely with salt (top, bottom and sides).  Put the other piece of meat in the jar as is.  Wait a while and compare the results.  Note to students: do not eat either sample.  If you want to take the extra steps of preserving meat for consumption, follow the complete set of instructions from a recipe.

3.  Evaporate salt water to produce salt.  Put a shallow layer of salt water into a pan and allow it to evaporate in the sun or on a warming plate.