New York State Education Department
US History and Government Examination: January 2012
What led to the United States Civil War? Interested historians consider a variety of political, social, and economic factors using primary sources and an essay prompt in an authentic high-stakes test. Primary sources include political...
Curated OER
Introducing Topographic Maps: Guiding Students from Concrete Models to Graphic Representations
Students interpret topographic maps and infer human activity as it is influenced by the landscape.
Midwest Institute for Native American Studies
Introduction to Pre-Columbian Lessons
Native peoples established civilizations all over Central and North America. Introduce native civilizations with a unit that promotes discussion, reinforces map skills, enhances reading comprehension, and exposes young historians to the...
Polar Trec
Playground Profiling—Topographic Profile Mapping
The Kuril islands stretch from Japan to Russia, and the ongoing dispute about their jurisdiction prevents many scientific research studies. Scholars learn to create a topographic profile of a specific area around their schools. Then they...
Environmental Education in Wisconsin
Biome Travel Guide
In a perfect marriage of social studies and science, groups work together to research and create a travel guide presentation to share with the class. Not only do kids learn about the climate and geography of a biome, but also the...
Curated OER
Mesopotamia
Here is resource that offers a great, organized approach to your unit on Mesopotamia and early civilizations! As learners study the topics in the unit, such as the Fertile Crescent, ancient Sumeria, the Assyrian and Persian Empires, and...
Curated OER
Those Who Have Come Before Me
Class members are transformed into explorers as they work in groups to locate hidden items and map their journey along the way. They then leave clues for other groups of students to follow, and ultimately discover how past explorations...
Curated OER
Mapping My World
First graders make two maps. For this developing and reading maps lesson, 1st graders read Mapping Penny's World, discuss the parts of a map, create a map of their classroom, and create a list of directions of how to get to various...
Curated OER
Gingerbread Forest Map Skills #2
Students are read the story "Gingerbread Baby". They work together to develop a 3D map of the journey the baby traveled in the story. They practice their map reading skills to complete the activity.
Teaching Tolerance
Community Bulletin Board
A project-based lesson has pupils create a bulletin board to share artwork, nonfiction articles, and messages based on social justice themes. The finished board is displayed in the community to create a place for discussion.
McGraw Hill
Study Guide for Bridge to Terabithia
Bridge to Terabithia is a story about friendship that brings magic into ordinary life. Study guides may not be magical, but the guided questions, graphic organizers, extension activities, vocabulary, and discussion questions help...
Curated OER
United States Map Lesson
Students explore basic map skills. In this United States geography lesson, students define "country" and "state," locate their state on a United States map, and identify and trace state boundaries defining their state and surrounding...
Curated OER
United States Map- State Capitals
Students explore map skills. For this state capital lesson, students view a United States Political Map and identify and use post-it notes to label the state capitals.
Curated OER
U.S. Political Map
Students explore the symbols found in a map legend. In this map skills lesson, students locate the legend on a political map and explain what each of the symbols mean. Students locate and identify several symbols on the map.
Curated OER
Political Legends and Map Symbols
Students identify the legend and map symbols. For this map skills lesson, students use a world map to find various locations using a map key.
Curated OER
Globe Skills Lesson 4 The Colonial Period
Students practice their map skills. In this Colonial geography lesson, students complete an activity that requires them to locate English colonial locations using latitude and longitude coordinates.
Curated OER
Globe Skills Lesson 6 The Louisiana Purchase
Middle schoolers explore the Louisiana Purchase territory. In this geography skills instructional activity, students use map skills in order to plot and note latitude and longitude, measure scale distance, and locate landforms that were...
Curated OER
Globe Skills Lesson 11The Vietnam War
Students develop their globe and map skills, In this geography lesson, students examine the Vietnam War as they complete an activity that requires them to plot latitude and longitude.
Syracuse University
Erie Canal
While canals are not the way to travel today, in the first half of the nineteenth century, they were sometimes the best way to move goods and people. Scholars examine primary sources, including maps and pictures, to investigate the role...
Tidewater Community College
Assignment: The “Big Mac” Index
Young economists learn about the method of predicting changes in the exchange rate with Big Macs in an instructional video. After an understanding the index, learners write a post on a discussion board and respond to class members' posts...
University of Pennsylvania
Using Political Postcards to Teach a Revolution of Political Thought
Discuss how political postcards affected everyday people's thoughts and beliefs. Pupils continue a unit on the Dreyfus Affair as they engage in class discussion, watch a video, view a PowerPoint presentation, and fill out worksheets to...
Curated OER
China Quest
Read and research information on China. Young researchers complete a knowledge hunt about China then locate and describe each location using directional words. They recognize the word meaning through context clues and application practice.
Curated OER
Opening Doors to Social Studies with Children's Literature: The Desert Alphabet Book
Students explore the geography of the United States. For this social studies lesson, students identify the major deserts on a map of the United States.
Curated OER
Topographic Maps
Students complete a worksheet about topographic mapping. In this map skills lesson, students examine the features and discuss the uses for topographic maps.