Library of Congress
Stars, Stripes and Symbols of America: Comparing Our Flag, Past and Present
Your young historians will compare and contrast the details of the American flag today with an an image of the nation's flag from the post-Civil War era, and identify the flag's importance as a national symbol through analysis...
Curated OER
Making a Mental Map
Students discuss maps and explore the concept of the mental maps they use to navigate their everyday routines including the importance of landmarks. They draw a map of how they travel from home to school.
Curated OER
Exposes in Different Eras: The Work of Dorothea Dix and Burton Blatt
Students discover that Dorothea Dix was the first to make the pubic aware of the terrible living conditions of people with mental illness in the 1800's. They evaluate the influence of citizen action on public policy.
Curated OER
A Sense of Place
Students read "Fish Tale: Falling For a Live One" from The New York Times and discuss the methods and techniques the writer uses to create a strong mental image. Students pick a place in their community they wish to write about and...
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Lesson PlanThe Huexotzinco Codex
Middle schoolers examine primary sources that include pictographs from Puebla, Mexico. In this Huexotzinco Codex lesson, students perform historical analysis as they investigate the codex as they make inferences and draw conclusions...
Curated OER
Storytelling and Culture
Learners examine the cultural tradition of storytelling. In this storytelling instructional activity, students explore stories from 3 different cultures and evaluate the roles that storytelling plays in each of the cultures to pass on...
Curated OER
Mental Map Postcard
Learners visit an outdoor setting and make a mental map of what they observe. They return to the classroom and create a postcard with specified elements such as a description of the land and the ecosystem. Students illustrate the...
Curated OER
Native Lands: Indians in Georgia
Students research what Native Americans looked like in order to dispel common stereotypes. In this Native American history lesson plan, students begin by drawing their mental picture of an Indian, then they research North American...
Curated OER
Where in the World
Students explore the global grid system. In this globe lesson, students identify latitude and longitude lines and how these can tell the coordinates of any place. They use the Internet to find the exact coordinates for their town.
Curated OER
Prairie Activity: Imagist Prairie Poems
Students write an imagist prairie poem. They explore various websites, view images of prairies, read examples of poems, and write an original poem that creates a mental image in the mind of the listener through the use of descriptive...
Curated OER
Design an Island
Students explore islands. They create a two- or three-dimensional map of an island. They explain how the topography of an area influences the location of water sources, ecosystems, and human settlements. Lesson includes adaptations for...
Curated OER
The Lifecycle of a Butterfly
Students study the life cycle of the butterfly. In this butterfly life cycle lesson, students examine and discuss a large diagram of the four stages of the butterfly life cycle. They read books and access web sites that extend their...
Library of Congress
Industrial Revolution
Could you live without your phone? What about cars, steel, or clothing? Class groups collaborate to produce presentations that argue that either the telephone, the gramophone, the automobile, the textile industry, or the steel...
Curated OER
Describe My City
Students explore the functions of cities by creating a visual image of their own neighborhood. Students diagram, list, and label the major businesses and cultural areas of the neighborhood where they grew up, then write a letter to a...
Curated OER
Teenage Boys: Perspectives on the Adolescent Male's Development in an Urban Setting
Students examine the effects of an urban setting on the development of male adolescence. After watching a film, they identify the problems in the relationship of the characters. They discuss the impact of becoming a teenage father and...
Curated OER
From a Distance
Students think about their neighborhood and get a mental picture of their community. They then interpret aerial photography, learning how to use shapes and patterns to describe urban, suburban and rural communities.
US Holocaust Museum
Genocide in Darfur: Darfur Eyewitness Teacher Guide
The events of the Holocaust in World War II would never happen again, right? Scholars research the current genocide taking place in Darfur. Using video and Holocaust Reading Passages, they analyze the horror of this forgotten part of the...
Curated OER
The Defeat of the ERA
Eleventh graders take a closer look at the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). In this women's rights lesson, 11th graders read the Equal Rights Amendment as well as the "Feminine Mystique" and selections by Gloria Steinam and Phyllis...
Curated OER
The Relative Location of Relatives
Students map the distribution of their family members within the town, state, country, or world using their own personal knowledge and information from interviews. They create a mental map of family members, and develop a sketch map...
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My Building, My Community
Learners become familiar with the concepts of community and neighborhood and what buildings are associated with these. In this neighborhood activity, students tour the neighborhood as a class, observing and taking photos of the local...
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The Human Face of Flagstaff
Students make a brochure for Flagstaff, Arizona. In this geography lesson, students look at a map of Arizona and the Flagstaff Chamber of Commerce sheet to find natural and human features of the city. They create a brochure describing...
Curated OER
I Have to Change!? The Role of the Adolescent in the Family
Sixth graders examine the changes occuring during adolescents using children's literature. As a class, they brainstorm a list of the various roles they play in their family. In groups, they use excerpts of plays from Shakespeare to...
Curated OER
Advertise With Geography...it's Free And It's Easy!!
Students establish awareness of how landforms/landmarks produce a visual image of a region and demonstrate how advertisers use the "positive geographical image" to sell their product by creating their own advertisements.
Curated OER
Comparing Northwest Native American Communities
Young scholars review how to use the database from previous lessons. Using the information, they identify the historical and environmental effects on the people living in the Pacific Northwest. They examine the various Native American...