Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Notorious Four-Color Problem

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Take a walk through time, 1852 to 2005, following the mathematical history, development, and solution of the Four-Color Theorem. Learners take on the role of cartographers to study a United States map that is to be...
Lesson Plan
Syracuse University

World War I

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
World War I was known for its gruesome battlefields and horrific injuries. Using photographs from a battlefield surgeon's scrapbook, scholars see first-hand what life was like in the trenches. After creating a timeline of the war using...
Lesson Plan
Smithsonian Institution

The Sounds of an Island: Jamaican Music for the Classroom

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Introduce young explorers to the music and history of Jamaican culture through game songs and dances. As a bonus, class members get to play simple songs transcribed for the recorder.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Sun and Shadows

For Teachers 4th - 5th Standards
Why do shadows look different in the summer than in the winter? What causes day and night? How can a sundial be used to tell time? Answer these questions and more through two engaging lessons about light and shadows. Fourth and fifth...
PPT
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Curated OER

Middle Ages and Religion

For Teachers 6th - 8th
How prominent was religion and religious figures during the Middle Ages? Learners first answer three review questions in a social studies presentation, then dive into a lecture. Slides provide graphically organized information and images...
Worksheet
The Alamo

The Alamo Crossword Puzzle

For Students 7th - 12th Standards
Sort out who's who from the Battle of the Alamo with a helpful crossword puzzle. Complete with 20 clues and names, the resource helps history learners identify the major players in a pivotal moment in American history.
Lesson Plan
American Institute of Physics

African American Physicists in the 1960s

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Physicists Herman Branson and Tannie Stovall provide young scholars with two very different perceptions of the status of African American physicists in the 1960s. After reading and comparing the bios of these two men, class members read...
Activity
Constitutional Rights Foundation

Saved from the Gallows — the Trial of Leopold and Loeb

For Students 7th - 12th Standards
Was justice served for Bobby Franks? An informative article about the 1924 trial of Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold includes an overview of the murder of Bobby Franks, the defense’s legal strategy, and excerpts of closing arguments from...
Lesson Plan
Center for History Education

How Did the Public View Women’s Contributions to the Revolutionary War Effort?

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
Calling upon the legacies of Joan of Arc, Elizabeth I, and Catherine the Great, Esther Reed rallied Southern women to support the American Revolution. Using a broadside by Reed and other primary sources, such as poetry, young historians...
PPT
Curated OER

The Brief American Pageant:The Triumphs and Travails of the Jeffersonian Republic

For Teachers 8th - 11th
Add these slides into your lecture about the Jeffersonian Era in American history. Slides detail the results of the Presidential Election of 1800, four Barbary states of North Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Tripoli) and the...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

War and International Law: A Brief History of the Law of War

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students investigate the history of the law of war. In this international law lesson, students listen to a lecture regarding the history of international law spanning from Pax Romana to Collective Security. Students respond to...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Evolution and the Fossil Record

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Engage young biologists with four laboratory activities that explore the fossil record. Learners examine fossil images, a fossil kit, the rock record, and geologic time scale. They even experiment with the oxygen production of an Elodea...
Lesson Plan
National Endowment for the Humanities

Hamlet Meets Chushingura: Traditions of the Revenge Tragedy

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Young scholars read texts, view film and video and conduct research in an analysis and comparison of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" and the Kabuki piece "Chushingura". They focus their analysis on the theme of revenge.
Lesson Plan
Cheryl L. Mason and William G. Thomas

Comparative Effects of Financing the Civil War

For Teachers 9th - 12th
How do countries fund wars? Learners examine the economics of warfare through a comprehensive study of what measures were taken to fund wartime activities during the American Civil War. They'll start by reading a newspaper article from...
PPT
Curated OER

The Brief American Pageant: American in World War II

For Teachers 8th - 11th
From the home front to the middle of Europe, America's presence in World War II was forever transitioning with the strain of war. The variety of maps and charts offered in this presentation helps to contextualize the 1940's. The amount...
Lesson Plan
Alabama Department of Archives and History

Alabama's 1901 Constitution: What Was at Stake?

For Teachers 11th - 12th Standards
Who should be able to vote? As part of a study of the 1901 Alabama Constitution, class members examine primary source document that reveal the reasons the authors gave to support their positions on this question and their assumptions in...
Activity
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Teach Engineering

Who Can Make the Best Coordinate System?

For Teachers 7th - 9th Standards
Working with a map that does not have a coordinate system on it, small, collaborative teams must come up with a coordinate system for their map. Groups then explain their coordinate structure to the class.
Lesson Plan
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University of California

Containing Communism Abroad

For Teachers 11th Standards
Learn more about the policy of the United States to contain communism during the Cold War. The fifth installment of an eight-part series looks at primary and secondary materials about a challenging time in history. After analyzing the...
Lesson Plan
Civil War Trust

Transcribing Civil War History

For Teachers 4th - 12th
Primary sources are valuable for understanding the context of historical events, but the diction and dialect in these documents can be difficult to understand. Middle and high schoolers participation in a transcription process in which...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Learning from Light: The Big Bang

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students explore what astronomers are able to examine our galaxy and universe by examining light. They explore in this sub-unit the formation of the universe, commonly called "The Big Bang," and it follows studying from the Light: The...
PPT
Curated OER

The Brief American Pageant: The American People Face a New Century

For Teachers 9th - 12th
The political landscape of Y2K is the focus of this series of slides, which cover the later years of the 20th century. Charts detail the poverty and social welfare rates in the 20th century, as well as a pie graph displaying the sources...
Lesson Plan
Alabama Department of Archives and History

Birmingham, Fall 1963

For Teachers 11th - 12th Standards
Can any good come from acts of evil? The 1963 bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, and the eventual outcomes of the tragedy, are the focus of a lesson that asks groups to examine primary source documents...
Worksheet
Curated OER

Chart of the Voyages of the Slave Ship Brookes

For Students 8th - 12th
In this primary source analysis worksheet, students analyze the chart of voyages for the slave ship Brookes. Students respond to 2 short answer questions based on the information in the chart.
Lesson Plan
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University of California

The Civil War: Lincoln’s Speeches

For Students 7th Standards
Abraham Lincoln is responsible for uniting the states during the most tumultuous periods in American history, and for his elegant oratory that kept the Union believing in its cause. Young histoians analyze various speeches by America's...