Library of Congress
Industrial Revolution
Could you live without your phone? What about cars, steel, or clothing? Class groups collaborate to produce presentations that argue that either the telephone, the gramophone, the automobile, the textile industry, or the steel...
University of Minnesota
Neurotransmission Model
Don't lose your marbles — you'll need them for a lesson on neurotransmission. Young scholars build a neurotransmission model using marbles, beads, rubber bands, string, and other elements. After studying specific neurotransmitters,...
Curated OER
The Black Hawk War-Reconstructing "Stillman's Run"
Eleventh graders compare several eyewitness accounts of Stillman's Run, and discuss how a historian might use them. They act as historians and try to reconstruct what happened during Stillman's Run from the eyewitness accounts.
Curated OER
"Logs of Straw: Dendrochronology"
Students act as dendrochonologists working to reconstruct a 50 year climatic history. They make a personal timeline.
Curated OER
Taking a Stand - 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery Voting Rights March
Students examine the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery Voting Rights March. They view pictures reflecting their perceptions of their most important rights as citizens, write journal responses, create collages illustrating courage, and read...
Curated OER
Constitution Day: The 1965 Alabama Literacy Test
Tenth graders examine the United States Constitution. In this American Government lesson, 10th graders read excerpts from President Johnson's speech to Congress and parts of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. ...
PBS
Primary Sources
Students see how to use primary and secondary sources to investigate history. Whether it is a photograph, book, map, letter, postcard, newspaper, or official document, students can use sources to reconstruct and relive history.
Curated OER
AFRICAN-AMERICAN HOMESTEADERS
Students analyze the factors that inhibited and fostered African American attempts to improve their lives during Reconstruction, the role of class, race, gender, and religion in western communities, and the challenges diverse people...
Curated OER
A Race Against Time
Students explore the act of preservation first in the process of preserving food and then in the preservation of historic sites, buildings, landmarks, and artifacts.
Teaching for Change
History Detectives: Voting Rights in Mississippi, 1964
Promises made and promise broken. Spies and activists. Voting rights in Mississippi are the focus of a lesson plan that has class members research the history of the struggle in Mississippi. Learners take on the role of voting rights...
Curated OER
An Act of Courage, The Arrest Records of Rosa Parks
Students research accounts on Rosa Parks and look for differences between the modern form and an older report on Parks. They discuss why information about race and nationality are collected on these and other forms.
Curated OER
The Shot Heard Around the World
Fifth graders examine the events leading up to the beginning of the Revolutionary War. In groups, they put the events into chronological order and create a timeline. As a class, they discuss the reprecussions of the Stamp Act,...
Curated OER
How Do They Know That
Students explore methods for reconstructing the past. In this forest succession lesson, students examine forest succession and how to read the land in order to predict patterns of change. Students will visit a historical site, act as an...
Curated OER
Traveling Southern Style: A Lesson on the Jim Crow Laws
Third graders create a poster of a travel route. In this discrimination lesson, 3rd graders read The Gold Cadillac and use it to discuss the problems African Americans faced while traveling south in the 1950's. Students compare three...
Huntington Library
The Poetry and Prose of Langston Hughes
Eleventh graders discover the poetry of Langston Hughes. In this social issues lesson plan, 11th graders experience the views of Langston Hughes. Students read Hughes' poetry and discuss the basic theme. Students evaluate the political,...
Curated OER
U.S. History Since 1877
Students identify and analyze when the following occurred: the beginning of the NAACP, the enactment of the Pure Food and Drug Act, the ratification of the nineteenth Amendment, and the enactment of the Clayton Anti-trust Act. Students...
Curated OER
Constitutional Change During the Progressive Era
Young scholars analyze the passage of the 16th through 19th amendments during the Progressive Era around the turn of the century. Using research skills, they write papers and create portfolios supporting and opposing the adoption of...
Curated OER
Freedmen & Jim Crow
In this United States history worksheet, middle schoolers utilize a word bank of 10 terms or phrases to answer 10 fill in the blank questions about the African American experience following the Civil War. A short answer question is...
Curated OER
Amazing Grace
Students study the meaning of the term 'Jim Crow'. They examine how this term originated, when it was used, and how it served its purpose? They read two short biographies of Maya Angelou and James Comer discover that both authors...
Curated OER
Awwwk…..Jim Crow Laws/ Constitutional?
Learners examine the constitutionality of Jim Crow Laws. In this civil rights lesson, students read excerpts of the U.S. Constitution as well as examples of Jim Crow Laws. Learners select Jim Crow laws and then find out what portions of...
Curated OER
Civil Rights Movement in America
Eleventh graders explore the Civil Rights movement as a culmination of history and cultural perspectives developed from the Slave Trade and Reconstruction. They identify leading persons and organizations and their personal philosophy to...
Curated OER
Super Seniors
Students research senior citizens who were heroes during the Reconstruction Era. They interview senior citizens who they believe to be heroes and write a biography about them. They explain how small acts can contribute to the common good.
Curated OER
Prairie Project
Students complete a long-term research project on prairie grasses and forbs. They develop research questions, collect and analyze data from reconstructed prairie plots, and publish their research data on a Prairie website.
Curated OER
Take Heed, Scurvy Dogs!
Students examine the use of ghosts in shipping stories. As a class, they assign roles and they act them out in a play. They make it seem as if they are in danger on their voyage and work together to create a script. They ask questions...