THE LIVING ROOM CANDIDATE
An archive of presidential campaign commercials from 1952 to the present, organized by year, type, and issue, with teacher resources and playlists created by experts.
DOWNLOAD LINK ( scroll to the bottom to Magazine Maker II)
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHICS MAGAZINE MAKER
Create your own Nat geo magazine. Downloadable software application that allows students to place their written articles and photos in a National Geographics magazine format.
WORLD WONDERS PROJECT
Created by Google, this valuable resource lets students virtually discover some of the most famous sites on earth — for example, the ruins of Pompeii, Stonehenge, Versailles and more. It also lets you visit the Great Barrier Reef and Shackleton’s Expedition in Antarctica. The project offers an innovative way to teach history and geography to students of primary and secondary schools. Teachers can download related guides for using these resources.
ICIVICS
Interactive game that lets students be the jury in a "real" court case
JOURNEY TO FREEDOM
Scholastic Underground railrroad
Google Cultural Institute
Absolutely awesome timeline of historic events su
HISTORY INTERACTIVE POSTERS
ANIMAPS
Create innovative, animated maps of anything! Travel maps, cruise maps, animal maps etc.
HISTORY ENGINE
History Engine is an educational project developed by The University of Richmond for the purpose of giving students a place to explore stories of American life and publish their own stories based on their research. A map on the History Engine website allows students to search for stories by selecting a decade on the timeline and then clicking a location on the map. Students will find stories about ordinary citizens making minor news in their communities as well as stories about famous Americans, such as George Washington.
Plus: The History Engine website provides a guide for teachers who want to have their students conduct research and then write and publish their stories. There’s also an easy-to-follow style guide for students to use in formatting their writings.
Click Here to Access Free Teacher’s Guide
Plus: The History Engine website provides a guide for teachers who want to have their students conduct research and then write and publish their stories. There’s also an easy-to-follow style guide for students to use in formatting their writings.
Click Here to Access Free Teacher’s Guide
NEWSPAPER JOURNEY WEST
One of the features of Stanford University’s Rural West Initiative is an interactive map of the growth and decline of newspapers in the United States. You can use the timeline at the top of the map to see how many newspapers were in an area at a given time, from 1690 to 2011. Click one of the placemarks on the map to find links to more information about each newspaper. The newspapers mentioned in the map are linked to the Library of Congress website where you can find out which libraries in the United States have copies of those newspapers.
SCIENCE AND TECH OF WWII
Throughout history, warfare has spurred scientific and technologic innovations. Conversely, science and technology have always made substantial impacts on the field of war. World War II is no exception. The National WWII Museum’s Science and Technology of World War II web page presents information, lessons and activities about the science and technology of that time to give teachers and students an opportunity to broaden their understanding of WWII history.
GROWTH OF THE NATION
This “moving” map shows our nation from the beginning of the 13 states through the present. It includes the acquisitions from England and Spain, the slave states, the free states, a segment on the Civil War and some mentions of Central and South America. It also shows the Indian Nations as they were during the Indian Wars: Modac, Miwok, Mujave, Nez Perce, Flat Head, Crow, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Navajo, Apache, Dakota, Sioux, Kiowa, Wichita and Comanche. Be sure to turn on the sound, as the narration is a significant portion of the presentation.
TEACHERS GUIDE TO HOLOCAUST
An overview of the people and events of the Holocaust
through photographs, documents, art, music, movies, and literature
GOOGLE MAPS PHOTOTOURS
3-D Photo Tours in Google Maps is a collection of public Panoramio and Picasa images of famous landmarks arranged into 3-D panoramic tours. You can take a tour of places such as the Grand Canyon, Buckingham Palace and Fenway Park. To access these new views, you need to be using a modern browser that supports WebGL technology.
BUDGET HERO - CONTROL TAX DOLLARS
A free, challenging online game makes civics and economics accessible and fun for students. Budget Hero lets students try to balance the federal budget. First students choose one to three “badges” that reflect their political values. Then they try to earn these badges by choosing from more than 70 policy options. The game is built on the Congressional Budget Office model, which incorporates pro and con arguments for each policy, drawn from dozens of sources and vetted to ensure the game is nonpartisan. Players make their own decisions about health care, military spending or environmental protection. In the end, students can see how long it takes before their budget goes bust and share their results with friends via Facebook or Twitter. To date, the game has been played more than one million times. Budget Hero was created by the Woodrow Wilson Center and American Public Media.
HISTORY OUT LOUD
History and Politics Out Loud is a collection of audio materials, capturing significant political and historical events and personalities of the twentieth century. The materials range from formal addresses delivered in public settings to private telephone conversations conducted from the innermost recesses of the White House. Students can hear key speeches by Martin Luther King Jr., Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and others. They can listen to King’s “I have a dream” speech,” President Roosevelt’s speech to Congress declaring war on Japan, Churchill’s “iron curtain” speech and more.
OWNEY - THE GLOBETROTTING DOG
Owney is joining the ranks of the beloved characters now telling their story via ebook. Written by the director of the education department at the Smithsonian’s National Postage Museum, the free Tales from the Rails animated ebook invites readers to discover more about this globetrotting dog, who crisscrossed the country in the 1890s, riding on mail train cars and collecting tokens for his harness along the way. His story inspired the release of an Owney postage stamp last summer. The ebook continues the series of materials featuring Owney made available in 2011, including an exhibit, free curriculum guide and free augmented reality iPad app.
OWNEY EBOOK
FREE IPAD APP
OWNEY EBOOK
FREE IPAD APP
REAL TIME HISTORY WITH TWITTER
History is filled with exciting stories that can be told by creating virtual reenactments using Twitter. The process is simple using TwHistory: First students choose a well-documented historical event. Then they choose real historical figures who were at that event and create tweets based on original source documentation. These tweets are then scheduled to be broadcast on the TwHistory site in real time. The virtual reenactments allow a new way to experience history. Instead of reading about a month-long campaign in just a few hours, followers experience the campaign over the course of a month, all in real time. Together, the separate tweets combine to paint a complete and unique picture of a small segment of history.
ICivics
Interactive civics games.
COLONIAL LIFE
Betwixt Folly and Fate is an immersive 3-D role-playing game that places players in 1774 Williamsburg as one of four characters: Chloe, an enslaved house servant; Henry, a free black carpenter; Mary, a midwife’s assistant; and George, a young gentleman. In each role, players face the challenges of daily life in early America while learning about the social classes and customs of the time. As players pursue their characters’ goals, they explore a large portion of eighteenth-century Williamsburg, Virginia, roaming the streets and meeting people in shops, taverns, the courthouse and private homes. The town is populated with dozens of characters, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry. Players may also bargain for goods with shopkeepers and try their skill at several colonial games.
PICTURING THE 1930s
The Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Picturing the 1930s website enhances students’ visual literacy skills and allows them to assimilate and present content in the documentary movie style. Students learn about the 1930s through eight exhibitions: The Depression, The New Deal, The Country, Industry, Labor, The City, Leisure, and American People. Artworks from the Smithsonian American Art Museum collection are supplemented with other primary source materials, such as photographs, newsreels and artists’ memorabilia. Students can explore this virtual space and find information by clicking on people and objects. They can gather artworks and place them in their bin for later documentary production. The feature presentation in the “movie palace” is a series of interviews, entitled Abstract Artists Describe the 1930s, produced by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Additionally, user-created documentaries can be viewed from the movie palace’s balcony. In the projection booth, you’ll find PrimaryAccess, designed specifically for history teaching, and a movie-making tutorial. In creating digital documentaries, students embed facts and events in a narrative context that can enhance retention and understanding.
Plus: America in the 1930s, from American Studies at the University of Virginia, includes timelines, images, radio programs and links to sites documenting the Great Depression around the country.
HERE IT IS
Plus: America in the 1930s, from American Studies at the University of Virginia, includes timelines, images, radio programs and links to sites documenting the Great Depression around the country.
HERE IT IS
ROLE PLAYING GAME - BLACK HISTORY MONTH
THIRTEEN’s Mission US: Flight to Freedom is the second in a series of innovative role-playing games developed to transform the way middle school students learn United States history. Launched on January 24 in time to support and extend curriculum activities connected to Black History Month, Flight to Freedom immerses learners in the experiences of a runaway slave in the years before the Civil War. In the game-based interactive, players take on the role of Lucy King, a fictional 14-year-old enslaved in Kentucky in 1848. As they navigate her escape and journey to Ohio via the Underground Railroad, they discover that life in the “free” North is dangerous and difficult. Players encounter a diverse group of people—from abolitionists to slave owners—and make decisions that affect the game’s outcome. “Flight to Freedom” helps students learn how enslaved people’s choices—from small, everyday acts of resistance to action that sought an end to slavery—affected the lives of individuals and ultimately the nation. Educators and students can access the game via streaming or download it, free of charge, through any Internet-connected computer.
THE KING CENTER
Take a virtual tour of the MLking center. Tons of primary resources.
7 BILLION
Explore impact of world's exploding population growth
EASE HISTORY
EASE History is a rich online environment that supports the learning and teaching of United States history. Hundreds of historical videos and photographs are currently available. Students can learn about United States history through the prism of presidential campaign ads, better understand the complexities of campaign issues and their historical context by looking at historical events and explore the meanings of core values by examining how these values have been applied in both historical events and campaign ads.
Plus: A comprehension online Learning Guide includes free lesson plans and downloadable worksheets for teaching about historical events, campaign ads and core values.
Click Here to Access Free Learning Guide
Plus: A comprehension online Learning Guide includes free lesson plans and downloadable worksheets for teaching about historical events, campaign ads and core values.
Click Here to Access Free Learning Guide
FINANCE IN THE CLASSROOM
Lesson plans, interactivities and cool resources for economics in K-12 classes.