Germany seemed to be unstoppable in the early years of World War II, but the tireless and sacrificial work of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) helped to steer the war in another direction. After exploring primary source documents,...

The inevitability of World War II has arrived: Berlin has fallen. Young historians watch contemporaneous footage of the event, analyze primary source documents, and write a news report that details the roles of the Soviet, British,...

The most dangerous line of attack during World War II wasn't the German planes soaring above Britain, but the U-Boats cutting off their supplies of food and equipment. Learners research the Battle of the Atlantic, the German campaign to...

Is the right to wear a band t-shirt included in our freedom of speech? Budding historians consider the question by using a video game. After a brief animated video, users drop in and listen to Supreme Court justices as they debate the...

Benjamin Franklin was many things: a scientist, businessman, diplomat, politician. Learners explore facets of the legendary figure with a matching activity. By matching primary source documents to their descriptions, they analyze the...

What is progress? Who bears its cost? High schoolers consider the questions as they review data on families displaced by urban renewal projects in the 1950s and 1960s. An interactive, curated data project asks historians to consider the...

Was Nat Turner a hero or a violent criminal? Using primary sources and images that discuss the rebellion of enslaved people he led in antebellum Virginia, scholars consider the question. Then, they create memorials to Turner and...

The propaganda of World War II was a key factor in galvanizing the home front. Class members examine images—without their text—to consider their messages, including those around race and gender. Using pictures and discussion questions,...

While the Industrial Revolution may have fueled America's rise to the top of world markets, the child laborers often faced dangerous conditions. Using primary source images and other information, scholars consider what these children...

What was it like to know the Civil War was coming? Using a graphic timeline activity and excerpts of speeches from Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, learners consider the early days of the conflict. The resource includes prompts for...

Fake or fact? Learners must decide while looking at two published "news" stories. A reading about why fake news exists and a checklist on how to evaluate sources rounds out the activity. 

While some of your students may be too young to vote, they can get involved in the election process by creating a nonpartisan campaign encouraging voter registration. After researching how to register to vote, class members design PSAs,...

In an age of inflamed politics, who votes, who doesn't vote, and why are the questions everyone is trying to answer. Pupils listen to scholars, journalists and data crunchers on voting statistics to make their own conclusions. A chart...

A good diplomat needs to know how world events can affect their country. First, class members examine the Papal Bull that excommunicated Queen Elizabeth I from the Roman Catholic Church. Then, learners playing the role of diplomat from...

African Americans fought in the Civil War, and they were recruited by both the Union and the Confederacy! By comparing the wording of posters—one directed at freedmen and another to the owners of enslaved people—young historians discover...

Some scholars consider the Civil War and Reconstruction a second American Revolution. Class members weigh in after examining primary sources, including a Congressional resolution calling for the Fifteenth Amendment and the credentials of...

Although popular culture tells the story of the American West simplistically, its reality is far more complex. Native American tribes—while already on the land—didn't have the same interests, and conflicts between white settlers and...

Watch lightbulbs go off in learners' heads as they look at a patent for Thomas Edison's most famous invention. After examining the light bulb patent, young historians speculate on how the invention changed life in the 1880s and its...

Believe it or not, the plugs and wires on Alexander Graham Bell's patent application for telegraph improvements has a direct connection to devices today. Young historians examine the fine details of the patent application. After they...

Commonplace today, the zipper and button construction of blue jeans was a major innovation. Using the patent for the J.W. Davis and Levi Strauss innovation, individuals comb an image of the fly for clues. Afterward, they discuss its...

Barbed wire may have made cattle farming easier, but it brought to an end the free-roaming days of the plains. No longer could Native American groups continue their nomadic lifestyle, and the days of cowboys herding large groups of...

The third lesson in a unit that traces the history of African Americans serving in the US Congress examines the period from 1929 through 1970. After reading a contextual essay that details the few African Americans elected to Congress...

Simulate the Situation Room and analyze the US's relationship with North Korea. The plan starts off with a quick review and an examination of a online timeline that updates as the situation continues. Next, the class reads an article and...

Third graders participate in decision-making situations. For this social studies lesson students make connections between rules and laws and the purposes for those rules and laws. Students use critical and creative thinking skills to...