National Park Service
Remembering Pearl Harbor: The USS Arizona Memorial
Young historians use primary source materials to investigate the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor and the sinking of the USS Arizona. After reading background articles and studying maps and images of the attack, class members consider whether...
Center for History Education
U.S. Foreign Policy and the Iran-Contra Affair: Was Oliver North a Patriot, a Pawn, or an Outlaw?
If you had to write a song about Oliver North, would it be a ballad or a dirge? If you had to put him on a trading card, would he be a hero or the bad guy? Young historians decide for themselves after examining documents from the...
Center for History Education
Guatemalan Coup of 1954: How Did the Cold War Influence American Foreign Policy Decisions?
Was it all about the bananas—or the fear of a communist threat? Young historians use a history lab to examine documents from the American-led 1954 Guatemalan coup. Using graphics, government documents, and speeches, they examine the...
Center for History Education
Reshaping American Society: How did Immigration and Urbanization Affect America in the mid 1800s?
From the Know-Nothings to the Bible Riots, immigration and urbanization changed the face of America in the middle of the 1800s. Using documents that range from immigrant experiences to renderings of violent conflict between immigrants...
Center for History Education
The Louisiana Purchase: Real Estate Deal of the Century?
It's about real estate! Almost overnight, Thomas Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase about doubled the size of the young United States ... but was it constitutional? Using a variety of secondary and primary sources, including Jefferson's own...
DocsTeach
The Suffrage and the Civil Rights Reform Movements
It's the American way to put one foot in front of the other and march. Using images of protests from the civil rights and women's suffrage movements, young historians analyze similarities between the two watershed moments of social...
PBS
Decoding Media Bias
Alternative facts? After watching the We The Voters film, "MediOcracy," viewers compare how cable news outlets CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC report the same story about politics or public policy. After a whole-class discussion of their...
Center for History Education
Where Did Thomas Jefferson Stand on the Issue of Slavery?
Thomas Jefferson was a complicated man with a complex legacy. Middle schoolers examine a series of primary source documents to gather evidence for an essay in which they answer where Jefferson stood on the issue of slavery.
DocsTeach
The Vietnam War Timeline: Understanding the Nature of a Controversial Conflict
The story of the Vietnam War is often told through images. Young historians analyze images and primary sources —including the Vietnamese Army's Seven Commandments poster and photos of the daily life of soldiers—to construct a timeline of...
DocsTeach
We Shall Overcome: March on Washington
Unlike most children, Edith Lee-Payne of Detroit went to the March on Washington with her mother to celebrate her 12th birthday. Pupils walk the march with her by analyzing a closeup image of her that has come to represent the pivotal...
DocsTeach
The War in Vietnam - A Story in Photographs
The Vietnam War was the first war to come into American living rooms with its images of American soldiers fighting in jungles far, far away. Young historians analyze and curate photos from the conflict, deciding how they would create a...
Center for History Education
African Americans and the Democratic Party
Why did African American voters switch from the Republican Party to the Democratic party during the Depression Era? That is the question young historians attempt to answer as they study primary source documents from the period. The focus...
Center for History Education
Blockbusting: Social and Economic Change through Real Estate
"Redlining," "Blockbusting," and "White Flight" may not be terms familiar to young historians. Here's a lesson that introduces middle schoolers to these terms and the actions associated with them. Class members examine a series of...
Center for History Education
Did Southern Free Men of Color Fight for the Ideals of the South?
Much of history is distasteful. Primary sources often reveal attitudes acceptable at the time that no longer are. But to understand controversial historical events, historians must examine primary sources that represent a wide variety of...
Center for History Education
The Federal Theatre Project: Analyzing Conflict Among Relief, Art, and Politics in 1930s America
In the effort to soothe the suffering of the Great Depression, New Deal programs funded a variety of approaches - including a theater project that proved controversial! Using documents such as oral histories, as well as photographs of...
Center for History Education
Maryland During the Secession Crisis
While many think the United States was neatly divided between Northern and Southern states during the Civil War, border states like Maryland are more complicated. Using hands-on activities to measure distance and primary sources,...
Center for History Education
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper: 19th Century African-American Writer and Reformer
Although some African American abolitionists—such as Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglass—are well known, others, like Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, remain in the shadows of history. Harper was a poet and activist who played an...
Center for History Education
Civil War Weaponry and Medicine: A Disastrous Mismatch
Ironically, science was the reason why the Civil War was so deadly. Despite the use of medical practices now considered barbaric—such as conducting surgery with bare, dirty hands—developments in weaponry meant that more men died on and...
Center for History Education
Lincoln and the Republicans: The Cause of the War?
In today's political rhetoric, many forget the pivotal role the Republican Party played in the causes of the Civil War. The party's formation was the final straw for Southerners who saw the enslavement of people of African descent a...
Center for History Education
Slavery and Civil Disobedience: Christiana Riot of 1851
When is it a moral obligation to disobey the law or to fight back? Using primary sources that document the "Christiana Riot" of 1851, learners consider these questions. The firsthand accounts tell the story of the riot, which happened...
Center for History Education
Speaking Up and Speaking Out: Exploring the Lives of Black Women During the 19th Century
Young historians investigate the often-hidden history of free and enslaved African American women before the Civil War. Using a collection of primary and secondary sources, including speeches, diaries, and poems, they evaluate the often...
Center for History Education
Nineteenth Century Reform Movements: Women's Rights
It's hard to imagine a world where women were marginalized from the seats of power. Yet, there are women today who remember what it was like to not be allowed to vote. Using a DBQ of images and other primary sources, such as political...
Center for History Education
Methods of Reform: The Lowell Mill Girls
Although the girls and women who worked in the Lowell Mills are not often seen this way, they are the forbearers of the American labor movement. Pupils examine primary sources, including testimony about life at Lowell and labor laws, as...
Center for History Education
The Star-Spangled Banner: Fact or Fiction?
Is the Star-Spangled Banner an actual account of a gripping battle, or is it just a catchy tune? Young scholars compare eyewitness descriptions of the War of 1812 battle that inspired "The Star-Spangled Banner." They also examine images...