Social Studies (6-12)

Trace Space Back To You

December 5, 2012

NASA @ Home and City is a virtual tour of NASA-related science that is everywhere we look. Students visiting NASA @ Home and City can rotate buildings and take a look inside to discover everyday items, the development of which has been influenced by space exploration. Each item within a building has a narrated explanation of how that item was influenced by NASA technology. For example, students can take a look inside the bathroom of a house to learn how technology used at NASA has had an impact on the development of cosmetics and toothpaste. Click Here to Visit Website This information…

Capture a Modern Moment of History

December 5, 2012

The Historypin Android app reveals photos near your current location and allows you to view them layered over the modern scene in front of you. You can also explore collections of some of the best old photos from around the world, wherever you are. You can add your own piece of history and pin it to the map too by using your phone to digitize an old photo, capture a modern moment of historic importance or take a modern replica of a photo on the app. Historypin was created by the not-for-profit company We Are What We Do, in partnership with Google. The app…

Turn a Book into a Digital Classroom

December 5, 2012

Subtext is a free iPad app that allows classroom groups to exchange ideas in the pages of digital texts. When you and your students annotate a book or a document in Subtext, notes are linked to a specific passage, so there’s a built-in emphasis on the source text and close reading. In addition, Subtext allows you to layer all types of web content over texts—videos, photographs and links to articles, blog posts, maps and even locations on Google Street View. Immediate access to a variety of related information encourages students to compare and contrast different media and creates a more complete picture of a…

Reflect on Judgment and Responsibility

December 5, 2012

On November 20, 1945, 24 high-ranking Nazis went on trial for atrocities committed during World War II. TheNuremberg Trials, held from 1945 to 1949, were a galvanizing moment in history, international law and human rights. Nuremberg Remembered is a free 12-minute documentary about the Nuremberg Trials. It combines both archival footage and modern-day interviews with trial participants who served in a variety of roles, including members of the legal team for the prosecution and a journalist reporting on the events for the press. A set of three lessons, along with the documentary, introduces teachers and students to the essential questions of judgment and responsibility that were initially…

Help Students Become Better Searchers

December 5, 2012

Google has created a series of lessons to help teachers guide their students to use web searches meaningfully in their schoolwork and beyond. Google Search Education provides free Search Literacy Lesson Plans and “A Google a Day” Challenges. The search literacy lessons help teachers meet the new Common Core State Standards and are grouped based on level of search expertise: Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced. “A Google a Day” Challenges help students put their search skills to the test as they use technology to discover the world around them. The challenges are organized into the following categories: Culture, Geography, History, Science. Click Here to Access Free Search Resources…

Head to the Closet, Discover Interdependence

December 5, 2012

The Global Closet Calculator, from National Geographic Education, is a two-part interactive lesson on interdependence for elementary students. The first part of the lesson asks students to identify the origins of objects from their closets at home. Students enter the names of those items into the calculator to see a map of the origins of their closet items. Students can also see a map of the items entered by others using the Global Closet Calculator. The second part of the lesson asks students to make decisions about the manufacturing of MP3 players and jeans, including the sourcing of materials and labor practices. A short…

Inspire Student Civic Engagement

November 16, 2012

Created in 2009 by former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, iCivics recently partnered with EverFi on a new initiative, Commons – Digital Town Square, which is offered free to all K–12 schools. The focus of Commons – Digital Town Square is to provide schools with standards-based educational gaming, aligned to the Common Core State Standards, with social components. Students who play iCivics games move along at their own pace; adaptive-pathing techniques as well as evidence-based practices help guide each student differently as he or she learns. In addition to the adaptive feature, Commons – Digital Town Square has a variety of media, including simulations and animations…

Separate Thanksgiving Fact from Myth

November 16, 2012

At the Plimoth Plantation’s You Are the Historian website, students become history detectives as they investigate the first Thanksgiving. (Some historians think that “The First Thanksgiving” wasn’t really a thanksgiving. They call it “The 1621 Harvest Celebration” because it was more like a harvest festival.) On this website, students use clues to try to figure out what really happened at the 1621 harvest celebration. They are guided by Dancing Hawk, a Wampanoag whose ancestors were at the harvest celebration, and by Sarah, whose ancestor, Remember Allerton, was at the celebration too. If students don’t know the meaning of a word they encounter, they…

Create Meaningful Learning Experiences with Mobile Devices

November 16, 2012

Mobile Learning Reflections is a free ebook intended for anyone interested in using mobile devices as instructional tools. The 80-page ebook is full of detailed examples of leveraging mobile devices to create meaningful learning experiences for students. You can read the ebook online or download a free copy for yourself from this Issuu website. Click Here to Visit Website Click Here to Download Free Ebook

Piece Together the History of the Civil War

November 16, 2012

In 2011, TeachingHistory.org released an interactive poster and companion website about the United States Civil War. The 24″ x 36″ poster, entitled “How Do You Piece Together the History of the Civil War?”, features a collage of primary sources and related questions that get students thinking about how we know what we know about the past, especially in relation to our country’s most devastating conflict, the Civil War. The question, “How can geography impact a battle?” accompanies a map of Gettysburg, while a slave receipt prompts students to think about the laws, economics and people involved in the institution of…