Take a quick tour through the history of Blues. Elementary learners will find this presentation easy to understand and full of interesting information. There are web links that direct viewers to additional information but none that...

Chicago is one city, four neighborhoods, and countless nationalities. The activity explores the ethnic division of Chicago in the early twentieth century. Academics read primary sources, analyze maps, and tour an online exhibit to...

Who was the originator of the Blood Bank? What fur and grain trader founded the city of Chicago? Who invented the ironing board and lawn sprinklers? A 10-clue matching activity launches a scavenger hunt for information about famous, yet...

Students examine the building of the I & M canal in Chicago. Using the internet, they research the lives of the individuals who worked on the construction and develop a timeline of events. They explore the impact of the canal on...

Chicago, Chicago, that toddlin' town! Involve your Spanish class in a mini research project about a major event in the Windy City's history. They can choose the event (or you can assign one), and then they complete an eight-page packet...

Chicago, a city that is ever changing. A thought-provoking lesson, geared toward third-grade social studies, explains how the city of Chicago has changed over time. It discusses important leaders to the founding of the city, like Daniel...

Your class can explore standard and expanded notation, as well as computation with regrouping. They listen to a make-believe story about cavemen and the origin of numerals and place value. Then apply what they learned about renaming and...

How can you tell when an author is expression an opinion or stating a fact? Use two short reading selections to emphasize the difference between a statement that you can prove and one that you can't. The first passage explains food...

Carl Sandburg composed poetry that conveyed a time and place in American Literature and history. Learners identify the literary techniques he uses to describe the historical and cultural context of living in Chicago. They define the...

Did you know horsepower is actually based on the power of a horse? 60 horse power is the equivalent of being pulled by a team of 60 horses! Viewers will learn other interesting facts like this from a presentation that begins with the...

Explore ethnicity and identity with a research and writing assignment. Class members conduct online research, looking in particular at images and carefully noting down their sources on notecards. They read about identity and compose...

High schoolers analyze the movement of the blues from rural Mississippi to urban Chicago and how place and the environment affected the development of the blues. They define the blues, where it originated and how and why it moved to...

Are the Olympic Games a benefit for their host countries and cities? Scholars decide for themselves in preparation for a class debate or discussion. After reading a brief background and overview of the topic, pupils read the top three...

Students identify connections between agriculture, advertising, and mail order catalogues during 1890s as expressed at World's Fair of 1893. Students interpret photographic exhibit and discuss how reactions of rural fair visitors...

Rotating through five stations, evolutionary biologists explore the question of how changes in DNA facilitate the changes in a population over time. High-quality, colorful cards of animals, skeletons, skulls, and DNA sequences can all be...

Should democracies include hate speech as a protected right? Scholars analyze the rights found under the First Amendment to the Constitution through researching evidence. Freedom of expression becomes the focal point of the...

Taking on the roles of a fiery Boston patriot, a Philadelphia merchant's wife, and a prominent abolitionist, your young historians will consider the reactions of these early Americans to the creation of the Declaration of...

Twenty-nine percent of Americans want to abolish the one-cent coin, which begs the question: Is a penny saved really a penny earned? Scholars read fascinating facts about the history of the penny in preparation for a class debate or...

Ezell Blair, Jr., David Richmond, Franklin McCain and Joseph McNeil changed history. Their sit-in at the lunch counter of the Woolworths in Greensboro, North Carolina on February 1, 1960 became a model for the nonviolent protests that...

Young scholars examine the history of the Chicago River. In groups, they identify the problems of the watershed and develop possible solutions. As a class, they examine the importance of the river to the Chicago area by reading a story....

One of the most striking pieces of evidence for Darwin's Evolution of Species was his observations of finches and how their beaks differed from island to island, depending on their primary food sources. So what would happen to the theory...

Students examine aesthetic movement known as modernism, discover why organizers chose modernism as World Fair's design pattern, interpret photographs of modernist fair buildings and identify artifacts that reflect modernist ideas, and...

Here is a complex lesson plan that interweaves the history of the Jim Crow South and the Great Migration with the study of poetry, art, and blues music from the Harlem Renaissance. The plan helps young historians develop a deep...

Students examine the role of John and Mary Jones in the abolitionist movement. Using primary source documents, they discover the importance of an oral history and take notes on the Jones' role. They write a summary of the data to...