Students examine art of the California Gold Rush. In this visual arts lesson, students analyze the photography and art of Isaac Wallace Baker. Students also conduct further research about the miners of the era in order to create...

Students explore the role of women in ancient Mesopotamia. Several excerpts from the Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets and artifacts are analyzed to determine the treatment, rights, and powers of women in this era.

Students Examine how earthquakes work and what plate tectonics and fault lines are.  In this earthquake lesson students complete an earthquake scavenger hunt.

Eleventh graders examine the effect of the Vietnam War on California. They work together to research social movements that occured during this period and its outcomes. They also interview veterans to better understand the impact of the...

Fourth graders examine the conflicts over land ownership and water in the second half of the 1800s in California. They write a criticism about the problems that farmers faced, and work in pairs to define key vocabulary terms.

Fourth graders examine the issue of discrimination against new immigrants to California. They develop a class word web, read and discuss text, create a poster, and write a picture poem.

Eighth graders read standard road maps and topographical maps, and examine the lives of pathfinders who opened the trails to the West. They develop Living History presentations, role-playing a character from the past.

Students discover details about the genus Ardipithecus. In this prehistory instructional activity, students listen to a lecture about the attributes of Ardipithecus. Students then conduct further research on either Ardipithecus ramidus...

Groups research participatory democracies and compare the role and rights of citizens in ancient history with those in recent U.S. history. Guided by a series of questions, individuals compose a persuasive essay in which they discuss the...

Does increasing the pressure between two moving plates provide a stabilizing force or create more destruction? The hands-on lesson encourages exploration of strike-split fault models. The sixth lesson in a 20-part series asks...

At the heart of this resource is a beautifully detailed PowerPoint presentation (provided in PDF form) on the overall physical geography of Australia, basic facts about the country, Aboriginal history, and Australia culture and lifestyle.

Learn more about the policy of the United States to contain communism during the Cold War. The fifth installment of an eight-part series looks at primary and secondary materials about a challenging time in history. After analyzing the...

Immerse your young marine biologists in the world of marine animals. The lesson includes several activities that are age-appropriate for preschoolers and kindergartners, including coloring pages, gluing feathers and sand onto paper...

One of the great things about technology is that it lets youngsters visit museums that may be many miles away. With this resource, middle and high schoolers can visit the portrait galleries at J. Paul Getty Museum, located in Los...

Genocide. Scapegoat. Propaganda. Words are powerful. Words carry the weight of history. To prepare for a visit to The Museum of Tolerance, class members consider the weight of meaning in words related to intolerance.

As the saying goes, you are what you eat. A useful set of lesson plans encourage young readers to take a second look at their eating habits. Pre- and post-reading questions bring in reflective writing and discussion while extension...

A whale of a activity is sure to intrigue your elementary oceanographers! Learn about the mammals of the sea with a series of activities about whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Kids complete worksheets about the anatomy of a whale, create...

Learners use documents from California As I Saw It: First Person Narratives, 1849-1900 , in American Memory to create a script depicting the motivations, expectations, fears, and realizations of immigrants who settled California between...

How can climate change affect our water supply? Have kids read a passage about the water cycle and water conservation, which includes six questions that challenge them to use context clues.

Young scholars research patterns of immigration throughout American history. The focus is on the process of how immigrants came through Ellis Island. Students reflect upon the topic to develop critical thinking skills.

Here is a lesson designed to be an ongoing task for the entire year. Each day of the week, learners must perform research to answer a simple historical question. This particular lesson covers the month of April, but the template...

As if surviving a journey to America wasn't enough of a feat for early 20th century immigrants, they then needed to settle into American life. Learn about the ways New York public education attempted to meet the needs of its students,...

Students research their family's heritage. They follow a guide, document their family's history and put it together in report form.

Fourth graders examine the effect of the Great Depression on California. After reading a summary, they discover how the depression and Dust Bowl led to the immigration of great numbers of farm workers into California. They also...