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Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of American History: Life in Ancient Greece : Coinage of Corinth

For Students 9th - 10th
Corinth was an important center for commerce in ancient Greece, and thus one of the first to produce coinage. This site discusses the symbolism on Corinth's coins, and presents almost two dozen examples from the Smithsonian collection.
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Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of American History: The Coins of the Demareteion Master

For Students 9th - 10th
The Demareteion Master is the name given to the artist who created the dies for the Demareteion coin and some others in ancient Greece. He is the first known master engraver to have lifted the numismatic art form to the level of...
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Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of American History: Coins of Byzantium: The Christian Empire

For Students 9th - 10th
This exhibit on Byzantine coins explores how the history of the Byzantine Empire is represented in its coins. There is an explanation of coin denominations, and a page listing all the rulers of the Byzantine Empire. Click on the name of...
Activity
Smithsonian Institution

Anacostia Community Museum: All the Stories Are True: African American Writers Speak

For Students 9th - 10th
An online companion site for an exhibit showing at the Anacostia Community Museum. Read biographical information on many African American writers while viewing video clips and photos.
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Smithsonian Institution

National Air and Space Museum: Star Wars: The Magic of Myth

For Students 9th - 10th
Online exhibition relates the original Star Wars film trilogy to the "hero's journey" presented in Joseph Campbell's "Hero With a Thousand Faces" and "The Power of Myth." Originally accompanied an exhibit at the Museum, but now stands...
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Smithsonian Institution

National Air and Space Museum: The Black Wings Story

For Students 9th - 10th
This online story tells of how African Americans overcame enormous obstacles to break into aviation. Besides tracing the story there are primary sources, classroom activities, and teaching resources are included.
Handout
Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of Natural History: The Origin of the Genus Homo

For Students 9th - 10th
The evolution of the Genus Homo is neatly laid out in a chronological fashion beginning with the key change that signaled the origin of Homo, through the evolutionary forms, finalizing with Homo sapiens.
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Smithsonian Institution

National Air and Space Museum: Wright Brothers: The Invention of the Aerial Age

For Students 9th - 10th
Beautiful, well-done site from the Smithsonian on the Wright Brothers: Who were they and what was the importance of the era they ushered in? Their roots are traced back to the Great Migration. Classroom activities and interactive...
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Smithsonian Institution

National Air and Space Museum: America by Air: Early Commercial Aviation

For Students 9th - 10th
Commercial airlines took flight soon after the Wright brothers' famous first flights. Read about how the U.S. government encouraged the development of air travel.
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Smithsonian Institution

National Air and Space Museum: America by Air: Airline Expansion and Innovation

For Students 9th - 10th
Air travel grew in the 1920s and 1930s despite the Great Depression. Read about the new commercial airlines of the time and what it was like to fly at the dawn of commercial passenger flight.
Interactive
Smithsonian Institution

National Air and Space Museum: Wright Brothers: Interactive Experiments

For Students 9th - 10th
Three interactives in an online exhibition about the Wright Brothers. The first is an engineering activity on the forces of flight, and is accompanied by a lesson plan for Grades 6-8. The second is a gallery of original artifacts related...
Lesson Plan
Smithsonian Institution

National Air and Space Museum: Wright Brothers: Embracing the Impossible [Pdf]

For Teachers 5th - 8th
In this lesson plan, students explore primary resources to see what people who lived in the early age of flight felt about this innovation. They then compare that response to that towards an invention of today.
Interactive
Smithsonian Institution

National Air and Space Museum: Wright Brothers: Engineering the Wright Way

For Students 5th - 8th
Great interactive provides students with an opportunity to use engineering skills to design and test airplane wings based on the methods of the Wright brothers. Step into the workshop and design a set of wings that will fly your glider...
Article
Smithsonian Institution

National Air and Space Museum: America by Air:the Jet Age, 1958 Today

For Students 9th - 10th
Learn about the changes that have occurred in commercial jet travel since 1958, when jet passenger service began in the United States.
Unit Plan
Smithsonian Institution

National Air and Space Museum: Wright Brothers: Who Were Wilbur and Orville?

For Students 9th - 10th
Classroom activities, interactive experiments, timelines, and other artifacts that celebrate the Wright brothers' first flight.
Website
Smithsonian Institution

National Portrait Gallery: Edith Wharton's: Portraits of People & Places

For Students 9th - 10th
This is the official site of the National Portrait Gallery's exhibit entitled "Edith Wharton's World: Portraits of People and Places." It contains some information about Wharton's life and career and reproductions of the paintings in the...
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Smithsonian Institution

National Portrait Gallery: Theodore Roosevelt: Icon of the American Century

For Students 9th - 10th
A thorough examination of the life of Theodore Roosevelt and the people and events that influenced him. You'll find photographs of Roosevelt, as well as photos, paintings, and biographies of some influential people in Roosevelt's life.
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Smithsonian Institution

National Portrait Gallery: Eye Contact: Modern American Portrait Drawings

For Students 9th - 10th
Portraits in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery can be seen and understood with excellent gallery notes that also survey the history of portraiture in American art leading up to the modern period.
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Smithsonian Institution

National Portrait Gallery: Philippe Halsman a Retrospective

For Students 9th - 10th
The National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution provides an online exhibit of portrait photographer Philippe Halsman who photographed famous people from Presidents to entertainers.
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Smithsonian Institution

National Portrait Gallery: Temple of Invention

For Students 9th - 10th
A wonderful click-through slideshow of one of America's most-graceful examples of Gothic Revival architecture. The U.S. Patent Office Building, which dates from 1836, is now home to the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National...
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Smithsonian Institution

National Portrait Gallery: One Life: Walt Whitman, a Kosmos

For Students 9th - 10th
This multimedia site offers readings of Whitman's poetry, an introduction, a gallery of images and works through the years of his career, and a reflection of Whitman's significance.
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Smithsonian Institution

National Portrait Gallery: One Life: The Mask of Lincoln

For Students 9th - 10th
At the Mask of Lincoln website find an impressive gallery of Lincoln portraits and portraits of Lincoln's contemporaries, all captioned with interesting historical sidebars. The famous cracked-plate portrait of Lincoln, taken shortly...
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Smithsonian Institution

National Portrait Gallery: The Presidency and the Cold War

For Students 9th - 10th
View videos, photograph, and renderings of American presidents and their foreign counterparts in this image-rich examination of the post-World War II environment and the cold war that followed it. Includes a review of key foreign-policy...
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Smithsonian Institution

National Portrait Gallery: The Presidency and the Cold War: Dwight D. Eisenhower

For Students 9th - 10th
This site from the National Portrait Gallery explores presidential actions during the Cold War. Click on Dwight D. Eisenhower to see how the Cold War was developing and being handled during his presidency. Find out about the Communist...