Facing History and Ourselves
What Makes Memphis a Community?
Sixth graders explore the community identity of Memphis, Tennessee. After examining primary and secondary sources, class members describe the city and its attributes that make it a unique community.
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Political Cartoons: Finding Point of View
Students examine political cartoons. In this colonial America lesson, students analyze political cartoons pertaining to the Stamp Act.
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The Grapes of Wrath: Scrapbooks and Artifacts
Learners interpret historical evidence presented in primary and secondary sources. In this Great Depression activity, students read John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and use ethnographic research...
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Countries on the Internet
Students discover interesting and factual information about another country using the Internet and produce a flyer consisting of the information they find.
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An Internet Activity for The Introduction Of The Civil War
Students research, using the Internet, specified Civil War battles in order to prepare an oral presentation for the class. They, in small groups, present using images and maps. They take a quiz on the subject matter and evaluate the web...
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What is Hunger and Who are the Hungry?
Young scholars aim to explain why we need food, to know that we need many different foods and to know who is hungry in the world.
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It's Not Conjecture, Look! It's Architecture!
Students examine how architecture reflects historical time periods. They conduct research on the History Detectives website, complete a fact sheet, sequence photographs of different architectural styles, and create an illustration of a...
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Are We Free Yet?
Students read excerpts from several Freedom Documents, evaluate amount of freedom guaranteed by each document, and rank documents on scale to determine which grant greatest and least amount of personal freedom.
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Giggle Water & Struggle Buggies
Here is a lesson that acquaints learners with the 1920s. They will use primary source documents to create original skits. Students choose a character from the 1920s, become that character, and then share what they have learned through...
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Entrepreneurs in History
Students examine the contributions of American entrepreneurs. In this industrialization instructional activity, students complete the provided handouts to determine how Vanderbilt, Carnegie, Hill, and Rockefeller impacted American...
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Watersheds: The San Francisco Bay Watershed
Sixth graders make a model of a watershed. In this geography lesson, 6th graders view a shaded relief map of California and locate landmarks. Students examine the San Francisco Bay Watershed by following the journey of water through...
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Protecting the Past: Give a Hoot, Don't Loot!
Students, in small groups, simulate an ancient civilization and the art they created, another group represents vandals, and the final group represents archaeologists who try to figure out what life was like for the "ancient peoples". ...
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Making the Invisible Visible
Students evaluate the various ways in which cyberspace is beginning to be mapped by geographers, cartographers, artists, and scientists and use their understanding of the information these new maps can convey to create their own maps of...
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All Fired Up
Students brainstorm images and themes associated with the American Fourth of July holiday. They create illustrated posters to explain the processes or history behind these themes.
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Hot Commodities in Turm-Oil?
Students assess their daily consumption of oil and petroleum-based products. They examine current global oil supply situation.
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What a Wonder-Full World
Students investigate the historical and cultural significance of various 'wonders of the world,' both of ancient and modern times, and develop travel posters and guides exploring them.
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Respect, Prejudice, and Race
Middle schoolers' examine their opinions about respect, race, and stereotypes and their beliefs as a group. They complete a short questionnaire and then write an essay on reducing prejudice and discrimination.
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Martin Luther King, Jr.
Middle schoolers learn what goals Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had when he wanted to change the inequality of the United States.
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Fighting for Fair Farming
Young scholars consider various economic terms, examine the impact of subsidies on farmers and other industries, write essays explaining the subsidy process, and illustrate through posters how subsidies affect both domestic and foreign...
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Phishing Tales
Students research different types of identity-theft fraud and ways to avoid falling victim to various scams. They create focused public service announcements in different media, targeted to individuals most susceptible to consumer fraud.
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A Sea-nic Perspective
Students brainstorm topics related to the health of our world's oceans. They create presentations about specific issues affecting oceans for display in a classroom exhibit. They write letters of invitation to guests to view the exhibit.
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A Civil Action
Learners explore the roles of law enforcement officials, the news media, and civilians in crime prevention and criminal apprehension. They envision ways to build and strengthen community partnerships to address concerns about crime.
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Community Building
Young scholars explore the issues of urban and suburban sprawl. They work in small groups to create their own planned communities.
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Home Away from Home
Learners explore ways that diverse populations impact cities by investigating local immigrant populations. They, in small groups, create 'immigration profiles' of the nationalities of immigrants reflected in their community's or city's...