Imagine being able to travel back and forth in time! H.G. Wells uses that scenario in his novel The Time Machine to comment on what he saw as the flaws in Victorian society and the industrial age. This teacher's guide is one of the best...

Lead your readers into the fourth dimension as time travelers with a Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) Teacher Guide of H. G. Wells's The Time Machine. The 144-page guide includes a unit calendar, introduction, nine lessons, teacher...

A 15-page packet includes detailed plans for three activities related to Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. To gather background information, class members research topics and create a newspaper page reporting their findings. After finishing...

Walt Whitman's poem "As I Walk These Broad Majestic Days" offers scholars an opportunity to practice their noticing skills. They first examine a postcard of the Newport News Shipyard listing things they notice about the image and how...

How did the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire change modern working conditions? The engaging resource explains conditions that contributed to the tragic fire, the workers affected by it, and how it changed labor laws and working...

On March 25, 1911, 146 garment workers died in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. Class members use primary source documents to research the tragedy and how it lead to the creation of labor unions and new labor laws. As an exit...

What did railroads, iron, and industry contributed to Birmingham's successful growth? The lesson explains how the iron industry worked. It also describes how the location of Birmingham and its proximity to railroads. played a key role in...

Just how far can the American government go during war time? With primary source documents, learners consider the effects on restrictions of freedom of speech, the detention of American citizens of Japanese descent, and the Patriot Act...

While the Industrial Revolution may have fueled America's rise to the top of world markets, the child laborers often faced dangerous conditions. Using primary source images and other information, scholars consider what these children...

While canals are not the way to travel today, in the first half of the nineteenth century, they were sometimes the best way to move goods and people. Scholars examine primary sources, including maps and pictures, to investigate the role...

Benjamin Franklin was an inventor, and he was fascinated by the mechanics of machinery. Using a fun exploration, pupils examine simple machines from the pre-Industrial era. Then, they must identify and build their own using common objects.

Religion and politics have a complicated history. How were they intertwined with wealth in Europe and Asia in the Middle Ages? Learners explore the question using a prompt based on primary sources. Other activities allow individuals to...

Does a nation define a culture or members of a single political unit? A video summary of Ernst Gellner's Nations and Nationalism, part of a larger playlist about the world's greatest ideas, shares Gellner's definitions of nations and...

Can capitalism have virtue? Adam Smith thinks so! The 12th video in a series of 13 discusses Smith's political and economic views. Pupils discover these concepts and more through primary source photographs and examples that relate to...

American life before the Civil War was very different from American life today. To show this difference in a full spectrum, learners compare two communities that illustrate the differences between Northern and Southern life. Throughout...

Reluctance to accept new technology is not a unique attribute to the 21st century. An informative video from Crash Course World History covers the rollout of the transcontinental railroad during the Industrial Revolution, and whether or...

Is flipping a switch and lighting up a room normal or miraculous? It depends where—and when—you live. Crash Course World History covers historical uses of energy, current uses of energy, and the possible future uses of energy with an...

Do our vehicles really contribute to global warming? In part five of an eight-video series, pupils learn the mechanisms by which car emissions turn into greenhouse gases. Through animation, the class sees how the natural greenhouse...

With so much water everywhere, how is it that people around the world don't have clean water for drinking and bathing? Part three in a seven-part series describing Earth's water resources introduces the class to the process of water...

Have class members eager to enter the workforce? They'll be glad to learn that things aren't how they used to be. Have your young historians examine then discuss four primary source images related to the negative effects of...

America was built on the ingenuity, work ethic, and foresight of our ancestors. Sixth graders learn about the complex Gilded Age in American history, including the prominent inventors and captains of industry, and how they all connect...