Making Meaning from the Past

How much does the environment affect how and what man creates? Children explore the effect of the environment on primitive man as they research raw materials from a specific location. They use their findings to write a short essay about...

What would future archeologists learn from your scholars' personal belongings? Have them bring in a box of "primary sources" from their home. Discuss the difference between observations and inference, using some of your own items to...

Close your colonial America unit with a performance-based assessment. Class members will show their proficiency in several skills including using details to back up inferences, determining the meaning of words in context,...

How can digital technology of today link us to the events of the past? Scholars use technology to uncover the vast number of historical resources available in lesson 12 of a 22-part America's History in the Making series. Using databases...

From Clara Barton and Harriet Beecher Stowe to Ulysses S. Grant and George Washington Carver, this research project will allow learners to gain an in-depth and comprehensive understanding of everyday heroes of the nineteenth century in...

Learners identify the four basic natural resources. They distinguish bettween renewable and non-renewable resources. Pupils recognize that all natural resources are needed by living plants and animals. Students list consequences for...

A reading of a New York Times review of the movie Beloved launches research into how the Civil War affected the lives of people living during this period. Creative thinkers select a person from an included list of historical figures and...

Need an online resource to supplement the paper textbook in your classroom? An all-encompassing website covers historical events throughout the last half of the second millenium, leading right up to the third. From the pre-Columbian...

Budding historians research the trip immigrants to the United States take and the reasons behind their willingness to start over in a new place. Groups create their own video lessons outlining the story of human migration from departure...

Skeletons may not be able to speak, but they can still tell us a lot. High schoolers watch a short video about the ways biological anthropologists can use a skeleton's bone structure to determine age, gender, place of birth, and social...