Students explain that while cities have unattractive features, the density of human life enables energy efficiency, mass transit, recycling, and other benefits which are difficult or impossible in rural areas. This is the fifth in an...

Enable students to use the blues to explore urbanization, technology, and their effects on everyday life in the 20th century. Musicians were among the large number of people who, between 1914 and 1945, participated in the Great Migration...

Students explore attributes of the community in which they live. They compare rural, urban and suburban communities and attempt to classify their own community. Each group illustrates their assigned area by drawing buildings, trees,...

Students explore African American migration. In this black culture and history lesson, students use a map to identify northern and southern states in which African Americans lived in the 1900s. Students observe and describe objects and...

Students analyze the movement of the blues from rural Mississippi to urban Chicago and how place and the environment affected the development of the blues. They define the blues, where it originated and how and why it moved to Chicago....

Students plan a visit to Musse d'Orsay to examine Paris in the 19th century.  In this visual arts lesson, students explore the Haussmanian period and urban life in the 19th century.  Students discuss the relationship between...

Students discuss elements of fairy tales, examine selected piece of Robert Harris' art, and compose fairy tales based on what they see and imagine. Students then view homes in Harris' artwork collection, create home in which they would...

Students examine the time period of the Harlem Renaissance. As a class, they are introduced to five artists and discuss their art and techniques. Using the internet, they also research the philosophers of the time period and how...

Aaron Douglas, Meta Warrick Fuller, Palmer Hayden, William Johnson, and James Lesesne Wells, the painters and sculptors of the Harlem Renaissance, are featured in a unit study of artists of the Harlem Renaissance.

Students use photos, maps and reading materials to examine the history and role of Mount Auburn Cemetery. They analyze the landscape of the cemetery, consider how it affects visitor's emotions and feelings and then design an original...

Young scholars examine different types of landscapes through a geographer's eye. Using a city block or a suburb, they organize their thoughts and take notes to survey a site. They discuss what they have seen and write about how looking...

Students explore different kinds of communities as well as identifying and discussing the attributes of their own neighborhood. They make choices about what kinds of shapes best create the look of the type of community they wish to...

Second graders explore setting through improvisations.  In this theatre lesson, 2nd graders perform a variety of improvisations in different settings and chart how they established the setting in the different environments. 

Students investigate the idea of community by taking a field trip.  In this civics instructional activity, students participate in a supervised walk around their neighborhood while identifying characteristics and objects that make...