Lesson Plan
National Woman's History Museum

Breaking Through Gender Roles: The Women of NASA

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Whether recognized or not, extraordinary women were integral to breaking gender barriers and putting Americans into space. For Women's History Month, explore a series of video clips and biographical information that profile these...
Lesson Plan
C-SPAN

Choice Board - Conversations with Suffragists

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Celebrate 100 years of women's suffrage by planning a re-enactment of famous women discussing their fight. After learners view a series of interviews with famous women played by actors, including Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth, and...
Lesson Plan
C-SPAN

Wonder Girls - Advocating for Global Issues

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Move over Wonder Woman ... here come the Wonder Girls! Using video clips of photographer Paola Gianturco talking about her work, pupils consider the life experiences of girls around the world, including places such as Tonga and...
Lesson Plan
C-SPAN

Women's Contributions in the Civil War

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Women's history is often hidden, but pupils discover the role women played in the Civil War using a series of video clips. After reviewing the interview with a scholar of women's history, class members fill out a chart and then research...
Lesson Plan
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Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media

The Revolutionary Times as Seen Through the Eyes of Women

For Teachers 8th Standards
The role of women before and during the American Revolution changed dramatically. To gain an understanding of these changes, middle schoolers analyze primary source documents, including letters from women that supported the patriot cause...
Interactive
DocsTeach

The Impact of Westward Expansion on Native American Communities

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
Although Westward Expansion is often romanticized, its impact was devastating on Native American communities. Primary source documents, including pictures of United States troops invading indigenous lands and Native American tribes, tell...
Interactive
DocsTeach

Patent Analysis: Joseph Glidden's Barbed Wire

For Teachers 3rd - 6th Standards
Barbed wire may have made cattle farming easier, but it brought to an end the free-roaming days of the plains. No longer could Native American groups continue their nomadic lifestyle, and the days of cowboys herding large groups of...
Lesson Plan
National Park Service

The Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March: Shaking the Conscience of the Nation

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Travel back in time to examine how tragic events can spur positive change. Scholars explore the impact of the Selma Voting Rights March, including the tragic loss of life and the later signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Academics...
Interactive
DocsTeach

The Settlement of the American West

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
What do Abraham Lincoln and the Transcontinental Railroad have in common? Using a set of primary source documents, including pictures, maps, and treaties, class members link together the common themes of expansion into the American West....
Interactive
DocsTeach

Reasons for Westward Expansion

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
"Go West, young man!" is a familiar refrain in American history. But why did people leave their homes in the East to travel westward and what impact did that movement have on people already living in the American West? By examining...
Interactive
DocsTeach

Patent Analysis: J.W. Davis and Levi Strauss's Fastening Pocket Openings

For Teachers 3rd - 6th Standards
Commonplace today, the zipper and button construction of blue jeans was a major innovation. Using the patent for the J.W. Davis and Levi Strauss innovation, individuals comb an image of the fly for clues. Afterward, they discuss its...
Interactive
DocsTeach

Patent Analysis: Alexander Graham Bell's Telephone

For Teachers 3rd - 6th Standards
Believe it or not, the plugs and wires on Alexander Graham Bell's patent application for telegraph improvements has a direct connection to devices today. Young historians examine the fine details of the patent application. After they...
Interactive
DocsTeach

Patent Analysis: Thomas Edison's Lightbulb

For Teachers 3rd - 6th Standards
Watch lightbulbs go off in learners' heads as they look at a patent for Thomas Edison's most famous invention. After examining the light bulb patent, young historians speculate on how the invention changed life in the 1880s and its...
Interactive
DocsTeach

Mrs. Bloomer's 'Political Disability'

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
It's hard to believe that women had to argue for the right to vote a mere 100 years ago. Today, young historians can examine their case left behind in primary sources. Using a letter from a woman who claimed she should be able to vote...
Interactive
DocsTeach

Lincoln's 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation

For Teachers 5th - 8th Standards
While most Americans connect the celebration of Thanksgiving to a colonial celebration of pilgrims and Native Americans, the national holiday was actually the product of a war-time measure by Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War....
Interactive
DocsTeach

Analyzing a Map of the Louisiana Purchase

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
With the stroke of a pen, Thomas Jefferson roughly doubled the size of the United States. The Louisiana Purchase not only grew the new country, but also it gave rise to the legends surrounding westward expansion and accelerated the...
Interactive
DocsTeach

Black Soldiers in the Civil War

For Teachers 7th - 10th Standards
Get hands on virtually with recruitment posters for African American soldiers during the Civil War with an interactive online resource. By highlighting key phrases in the posters using an Internet tool, learners discover how African...
Lesson Plan
Teaching Tolerance

The True History of Voting Rights

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Explore what voting rights really are in an intriguing lesson that explores the history of American voting. The resource examines the timeline of voting rights in the United States with group discussions, hands-on-activities, and...
Lesson Plan
Teaching Tolerance

The Truth About Voting

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
True or False: Only Presidential elections matter. Academics delve into common voting myths to understand what is true and why the election process is critical to democracy. The lesson uses group discussion, activities, and handouts to...
Lesson Plan
National Endowment for the Humanities

Chronicling and Mapping the Women's Suffrage Movement

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
While women's suffrage is often believed to be the result of a single constitutional amendment, the effort of women to secure the vote spanned decades and continents. Using primary sources in online archives, class members explore the...
Lesson Plan
Teaching Tolerance

Digital Activism Remixed: Hashtags for Voice, Visibility and Visions of Social Justice

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
It's time to discover hashtag activism! Using an engaging resource, learners explore viral hashtag campaigns relating to diversity, identity, and justice. Next, they either design their own hashtag campaigns or respond to existing ones.
Lesson Plan
Teaching Tolerance

The Privacy Paradox

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
What's more important: privacy or convenience? Scholars consider the question as they take a digital privacy quiz and read a transcript of an NPR podcast about the privacy paradox. As a culminating activity, pupils develop a list of five...
Lesson Plan
Teaching Tolerance

Why Local Elections Matter

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Uncle Sam wants everyone to vote in local elections! Geared toward middle and high school scholars, the resource explores voter turnout and the importance of local elections. Academics participate in group discussion, complete...
Lesson Plan
National Endowment for the Humanities

“From Time to Time”: Presidents and Communicating with the Public

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
While the Constitution requires a "State of the Union" address, it doesn't give many details. In fact, it wasn't until Woodrow Wilson that the periodic update to Congress was given in-person. Using primary sources, recordings and...