National Endowment for the Humanities
On This Day With Lewis and Clark
Walk in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark as they discover the wonders, beauty, and dangers of the American frontier. After gaining background knowledge about Thomas Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase, young explorers use primary...
Curated OER
Feel Empowered! Teaching About Female Inventors
Inspire children to learn and create by teaching the history of female inventors during National Inventors Month.
Overcoming Obstacles
Blowin' in the Wind
Working together isn't as easy as it looks! Small groups of classmates try to keep a balloon in the air using only a straw, their breath, and team communication.
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Preparing for High School and Beyond
Eighth graders might be intimidated about going to high school and they may not think they'll ever go to college. Ease those fears while making college readiness an eighth grade reality. In teams, pupils fill out several worksheets while...
Curated OER
Changes, Choices, and Lessons
The teen years are nothing but a series of personal, social, and academic changes. Help kids understand what to expect as they mature and give them ways to make good decisions. After discussing they types of changes they'll go through,...
Civil Rights Movement Veterans
Timeline of Events: 1960’s Civil Rights Movement of St. Augustine, Florida
A timeline can be a powerful learning tool because it reveals a pattern in events. While few would consider St. Augustine, Florida a hotbed of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, a selection of background information and a timeline of...
Curated OER
A Practical Experiment In Colonization
Role-play and simulation exercises are fantastic ways to help learners understand the reality behind many social and historical events. Pretending they are colonists, upper graders choose a location, create a history, establish laws, and...
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Scarcity and Choice: Mercantilism - the relationships between England, Africa, and the Americas
High schoolers trace the meaning and importance of mercantilism; past and present.
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Practical Experiment in Colonization
Young scholars examine the effects that cultural background and specific historical events have upon the development of a colony. They research the colonies to design their own.
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Writing Pattern Books
Have your older students assist young children with writing in this community service and literacy lesson. Middle schoolers become partners with a local elementary school. They assist the grade school children in writing a pattern book...
Global Oneness Project
What Does it Mean to Be Resilient?
Imagine the determination it would take to build a helicopter out of scrap. Now imagine doing it while hindered by the effects of polio. Everything is Incredible, a short film by Tyler Bastian, introduces Agustin who has been working on...
Scholastic
Lesson 1: What Are Barriers?
Scholars discuss the concept of a barrier with a short passage on Jackie Robinson. The writing process begins with a paragraph and several other sentences about Robinson's unique traits that made breaking a barrier possible.
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The Crash Scene
Fifth graders explore geography by participating in a mapping activity. In this engineering instructional activity, 5th graders identify the differences between latitude and longitude and practice locating precise points on a globe or...
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Social Studies: The Birth of Olympism
Learners complete maps of Ancient Greece identifying key sites of the ancient Olympic games. After watching a video, they complete worksheets about the games and the athletes. Students discuss how the spirit of Ekecheiria, the "Sacred...
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From Airmail to Airlines
Students explore changes in air transportation from 1920 to the present. In this air flight lesson plan, students are introduced to the history of air transportation. This lesson plan contains three different activities that will...
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Literature: Esperanza Rising
Students read and discuss the book, Esperanza Rising. After analyzing and identifying the novel's structural elements, they examine working conditions for migrant workers in the 1930s. As part of the lesson, students in groups choose...
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Writing and Sharing Community Stories
Learners use interviewing skills to explore and express the culture of their community. In this literacy/writing lesson, students interview a community member as a basis for a biographical writing project. Each class member contributes a...
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Who Are the Arab Americans?
Students explore the concept of diversity. In this Teaching Tolerance lesson, students take a quiz titled "Who Are the Arab Americans?" and then use the quiz as a lens through which to discuss misperceptions regarding Arab Americans....
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Earth's Warming Climate: Are We Responsible
Students examine the atmospheric data for CO2. In this web-based atmospheric lesson, student follow instructions to examine and plot on-line scientific data about the CO2 levels in our atmosphere and analyze the changes found in the data.
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LIFE DOESN’T FRIGHTEN ME
Learners examine gender bias and stereotypes. In this discrimination lesson students participate in class discussions and poetry reading in order to examine the gender stereotypes of fears and develop the understanding that both genders...
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A Country Is Born-The American Revolutionary War
Seventh graders construct a historical timeline of events leading up to and during the Revolutionary War. They give a speech pleading the cause of independence and compare and contrast today's news media with the ideals of the...
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How Music Motivates
Students form conclusions regarding the motivational effects of music on the mind during the Civil Rights era. In this Civil Rights movement instructional activity, students describe how music motivates, describe the motivational role in...
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Daily Life During the Great Depression
Young scholars identify what daily life was like during the Great Depression and why oral histories are valuable tools for preserving memories. They develop a list of questions. They conduct an oral history interview. They write down the...
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The Chinese Massacre of 1871
Students discover the events that led to the migration to California for the Chinese people. They examine the effects that a cultural background has on specific historical events with respect to the establishment of a people.