With the stroke of a pen, Thomas Jefferson roughly doubled the size of the United States. The Louisiana Purchase not only grew the new country, but also it gave rise to the legends surrounding westward expansion and accelerated the...

Bring life to your next California geography lesson with this great project! Learners design a three-dimensional wall relief map of California, painting and decorating regions using a variety of materials and labeling major geographical...

Chicago is one city, four neighborhoods, and countless nationalities. The lesson explores the ethnic division of Chicago in the early twentieth century. Academics read primary sources, analyze maps, and tour an online exhibit to...

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...

Four lessons and an at-home connection examine 12 jobs. Beginning with an interactive map, scholars view and discuss each one within their small group. Groups focus on the products provided and on their scarcity. Finally, pupils look...

Shocking! Who knew so many great ideas existed for teaching middle schoolers about electricity? Find them all within this energetic framework. You'll light up at the variety of printable and web-based resources within! After building...

Sick of selling candy and washing cars? How about hosting a Digital Day or a Learning Lunch? The suggestions here make fund raising fun and rewarding. Raise money to preserve important maps and other primary source documents.

Color the town red. Demonstrate the concept of graph theory with a task that involves determining the least number of colors needed to color a map so that neighboring countries are not represented by the same color. Pupils...

Here is a unique and engaging approach to learning about the steps a presidential candidate must take during a campaign. Learners role play the part of a candidate in this online interactive, taking part in a presidential...

When studying artifacts, especially tools, how do archaeologists determine what the devices were used for? In what ways might researchers' previous experiences influence their perception of an artifact? An article about researchers'...

Ever wonder where wool comes from? How it is used to make a woven rug? Introduce the Native American craft of rug making to your preschool or kindergarten class with a discussion. Learners examine and discuss images of a Native American...

How did early American pioneers decide what to take with them on their journeys, and what was their traveling experience like? Here you'll find a collection of activities to help you explore Westward Expansion with your young learners.

Create a scaled model of our solar system in your classroom! Scholars work collaboratively to build paper mache planets and hang them in their proper position to showcase each planet's location in the solar system.   

Class members will dig this activity that has them trying their hand at recovering artifacts. Groups are assigned a section of a sandbox, carefully uncover the artifacts in their section, and then develop theories about who might...

Meet Chuck Spencer, an archeologist who studies the Zapotec people who lived in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico over 2000 years ago. Spencer shares in print his response to questions posed by kids.