Facing History and Ourselves
Hands Up, Don't Shoot!
Why is it so difficult to develop a clear understanding of the events surrounding the shooting of Michael Brown by a Ferguson, Missouri, police officer? To answer this question class members listen to a NPR discussion of the findings of...
Facing History and Ourselves
The Impact of Identity
How does identity influence the way people respond to events? That is the central question class members grapple with as they examine a political cartoon, read a vignette by Sandra Cisneros, watch of video of police officers discussing...
Facing History and Ourselves
Social Media and Ferguson
How can social media help or hinder civil dialogue? How can information shared on social media be verified? As the investigation of media reports of the events surrounding the shooting of Michael Brown continues, class members read...
Curated OER
Lewis and Clark
Young scholars investigate Lewis and Clark. In this Lewis and Clark lesson, students search the Internet for information about Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery. Young scholars use maps to understand the explorations and decide...
Curated OER
Notes on Notes
Five straightforward strategies to help your pupils organize and retain information.
Facing History and Ourselves
Verifying Breaking News
The attempts of journalists to verify the events surrounding the shooting of Michael Brown take center stage as individuals analyze three of the initial newspaper accounts of the story. The whole class discussion then focuses...
Curated OER
When Art's a Craft
What would it be like to restore modern works of art? By acting as modern art conservators, learners assess the first-hand difficulties faced in restoration efforts. In addition, they create modern art pieces from random materials. Then,...
Curated OER
2nd Grade - Act. 28: Calendar & Weather Book
Second graders will track the weather patterns throughout the school year. This project spans the school year and takes five minutes per day or less. Measuring, data collection, and predictions are all explored throughout this relevant...
Curated OER
Invent It!
Students explore invention and unveiling of world's first Ferris wheel, analyze photographs and poster of first Ferris wheel, and discuss engineering achievements of Ferris wheel, including how it worked, how it was built, and its...
Curated OER
The Visible Spectroscopy Expert Witness Problem
In a simulated crime science investigation, chemistry or physics sleuths use spectroscopy to analyze solutions. The lesson gives learners practice making salicylate solutions, using spectrophotometers, calculating dilution amounts,...
Curated OER
Real-World Projects: Challenges from the Polymer Industry
Two scenarios are presented for chemistry detectives to decipher. Both require the use of an infrared spectrometer and focus on the examination of polymer materials. In the first, lumps in polyethylene bottles are analyzed. In the...
Curated OER
Mary Todd Tours the World
Pupils analyze how distinguishing another culture encourages us to respect each other. They research culture and all its avenues, recognizing and comprehending the relationship between people and geography. Ultimately, they can apply...
Curated OER
Class Birthday Graph
Students analyze the basics of an Excel spreadsheet. They highlight cells in a spreadsheet. They make a column graph. Students are introduced to X-axis and Y-axis. They play various address games on the spreadsheet.
Curated OER
Call of The Wild
Prompt your class to interact with Jack London's Call of the Wild. By analyzing the events in the novel, middle schoolers discover how human experiences create who a person becomes. They critique and analyze the reading, focusing on...
Historical Thinking Matters
Spanish-American War: 1 Day Lesson
After analyzing newspaper articles portraying different perspectives of the explosion of the Battleship USS Maine, your young historians will take a stand on which position is the most believable in both discussion and writing.
Curated OER
The Chesapeake Bay in Captain John Smith's Time
When Captain John Smith visited the Chesapeake Bay in the summer of 1608, what types of animals and habitats did he encounter? Your young historians will analyze primary source documents to answer this question, as well as compare...
Curated OER
The Roots of Prohibition: Examining the Effort to Prohibit Alcohol in America
Five segements from Ken Burns' documentary series Prohibition, easily accessed on the PBS website, are at the center of a terrific short unit on the roots of America's ambivalent relationship with alcohol. Engage your secondary...
PBS
Baseball: The Tenth Inning - Bases Divided
Baseball is a relatively high-interest topic through which social studies classes can explore racial prejudice in the US. Video clips provide much of the background information that groups record on their handout and then share with the...
Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights
Juliana Dogbadzi: Slavery/Trafficking
Progress your learners' comprehension of universal human rights by exploring the violation of human trafficking through the experiences of Juliana Dogbadzi. This activity analyzes and discusses very sensistive and graphic issues but is...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nonviolent Resistance
Was nonviolent resistance the best means of securing civil rights for black Americans in the 1960s? In this highly engaging and informative lesson, your young historians will closely analyze several key documents from the civil rights...
National Endowment for the Humanities
“House by the Railroad”: A Painting and a Poem for the Common Core
Introduce your class to ekphrastic poetry with an exercise that asks them to examine Edward Hooper's painting House by the Railroad and Edward Hirsch's poem "Edward Hopper and the House By the Railroad." After a close reading...
National WWII Museum
World War II in Photographs
A picture is worth a thousand words, and this activity is worth so much more! Learners closely analyze a series of photographs from World War II, matching them with their appropriate captions and sequencing them into a correct...
Louisiana Department of Education
Unit: Hamlet
Encourage readers to determine if Hamlet's madness is actually divinest sense. Class members analyze the words of the play before studying related texts, including T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," scenes from...
Advocates for Human Rights
Nativism and Myths about Immigrants
Where do anti-immigrants myths come from, and how can they be refuted? Learners critically analyze media reports and how to identify reliable sources. After studying a timeline that details the history of US nativism, groups research the...