The Search for a Meaningful Dialectic

What motivated Europeans to explore the New World, and what effects did their exploration have on Native American populations? The second installment of a 16-part American Passages series prompts pupils to watch a video and read several...

Critical thinking allows individuals to dissect situations, reveal hidden concerns like bias and manipulation, and make the best decision. Share this video to improve critical thinking skills amongst your students.

Consider how America's founding fathers and their experiences contributed to the rights we all enjoy today. A collection of reading, writing, and collaborative exercises prompt high schoolers to think about the ways their current lives...

What makes a one hundred-dollar bill valuable? Here is an excellent, straight-forward animated video to help your learners grasp the concept of inflation and the purpose and policies of the Federal Reserve System.

How can social media help or hinder civil dialogue? How can information shared on social media be verified? As the investigation of media reports of the events surrounding the shooting of Michael Brown continues, class members read news...

Do citizens need protection from the federal government? Scholars investigate why the framers of the Constitution created the first 10 amendments and what these amendments mean to citizens of the United States more than 200 years later....

Where did the cherished ideals enshrined in the Bill of Rights originate? While history gives the Founding Fathers much of the credit, laws in colonial America influenced the Bill of Rights. An interactive web-based activity allows...

Kids age 13 and older are asked to read the provided Times article and background information in order to construct a thoughtful blog response to Obama's first Oval Office speech. They work to address each of the related critical...

Just how alike are some historical documents? Discover the similarities between the Magna Carta and the United States Bill of Rights in a fast-paced activity. Historians learn the importance of both documents and the lasting impact they...

What does social security reveal about the political and social culture of the 1930s? After beginning with a brief introductory video on the impact of the Great Depression and how various Americans, such as Huey Long and Francis...