Your job is to dig up some background information on any topic related to this section.  The idea is to find one bit of information or material that helps your group understand the book better.  Investigate something that really interests you--something that struck you as puzzling or curious while you were reading.

-Places to obtain information:
    -magazines
    -encyclopedia
    -books
    -internet
    -interviews

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-Your job is to complete your role sheet for this section.

Examples:
-Use the following websites to help you find information and to answer the questions.

-Milking a Cow

    http://phoenix.about.com/library/weekly/aa020101a.htm
    http://www.moomilk.com/tour.htm
    http://www1.oecd.org/puma/sigmaweb/cow2kid/private/cow2a.htm
    http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Hills/1092/tour1.html

Questions:
    1-How do you milk a cow?
    2-How long does it take to milk a cow?
    3-How is milking today different from milking cows during the 19th century?

Answers:
    1-Pull on the udders of a cow.  The milk will come out in a thin stream.  Fill your bucket full.
    2-Milking a cow would have taken a while to do during the 19th century, however with today's technology it would only take 5 to 10 minutes to milk a cow.
    3-Today milking is done with a machine.  The machine sucks the udder of a cow.  The milk that is coming out of the cow goes into a pipe called a pipeline, from the pipeline it goes into a big tank called a bulk tank, which is like a big refrigerator that stirs and keeps the milk cold. A cow can produce up to 8 gallons of milk a day.  During the 19th century, people had to milk cows by hand.  They would sit on a stool and gently pull on the cow's udder.  The milk would come out in a thin, small stream.  If you wanted milk, you would have to milk your cow(s) daily.

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-Haymows

    http://www.lincolnne.com/nonprofit/nhc/barnagainstories.html
    http://www.catskill.net/rbbtman/RAB12.HTM

Questions:
    1-What are haymows? What did they look like?
    2-What were haymows used for?

Answers:
    1-Haymows were like a barn loft.  This is where the hay for the animals was kept.  Usually, a haymow had a huge door on one end of the barn.  It extended up to the peak of the roof, but not down to the floor of the hay storage area.  This door was hinged at the bottom so that when it was opened, it folded down against the side of the barn.
    2-Haymows were used to store hay in. 

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