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...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

Without the benefit of history, Western Europe in the 1940's had no idea what was about to befall them. Class members use primary sources, including political cartoons, videos, and internal documents, to analyze how much of a threat...

Warsaw, Poland, suffered much of the blunt of World War II—but according to Polish letters from the early days of Nazi occupation, other parts of the country were much worse off. High schoolers use the letters and contemporaneous...

Was bombing German cities an effective means to an end, or was it a war crime? Could it be both? Young historians ponder these questions with an activity that prompts them to use primary sources to summarize the debate surrounding RAF...

Of the images that have permeated history to define American courage, perseverance, and patriotism, the 1945 photograph of United States Marines raising the flag at Iwo Jima is one of the most well known. After researching the pivotal...

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...

Moldy canned goods, exploding ketchup, and filthy conditions: These were some of the issues the reformers of the Progressive Era targeted with legislation such as the Pure Food and Drug Act. Using images of food factories and documents...

When Rosa Parks took her seat on a public bus to protest segregation, she also took her place in history. Learners examine a clue from this story—a diagram of the bus—to see if they can figure out the pivotal role of  this...

History enthusiasts participate in an interactive website that brings Abraham Lincoln to life as he shares his personal experiences between 1854-1864. Scholars listen and read carefully to form their own opinions and discover if they...

In this ecological dilemmas in wetlands instructional activity, students select a topic, use  the links to websites for research, describe the topic, explain its impact on wetlands, identify alternatives and decide on possible...

It's pandemonium at Pet Paradise Hotel! The picky pets are quite particular about where they are staying. Can you figure out the puzzle correctly so that each dog, cat, mouse and bird is happy?

Play a game of concentration by matching terms used in the scientific method to their proper description.

Review the nature of science with on-line flash cards.