Social Studies, History, Geography and World Cultures
This is a free membership for teachers of social studies. Members can store video clips, lesson plans, handouts and any other supplementary materials in their own library on the site.
Virtual Field Trips from Arizona State University
offers many interactive virtual field trips of actual expeditions of scientists doing research. Some are built with adaptive feedback and adaptive pathways. (Look for the designated icons). This adaptivity allows for nonlinear experiences with varying pathways, as well as individual feedback, that is tailored to the users input and responses.
The mission of the Newseum, located in Washington, D.C., is to increase public understanding of the importance of a free press and the First Amendment.
Considered one of the most interactive museums in the world, the Newseum has seven levels with 15 galleries and 15 theaters. Exhibits include the 9/11 Gallery Sponsored by Comcast, which displays the broadcast antennae from the top of the World Trade Center; the Berlin Wall Gallery, whose eight concrete sections are one of the largest displays of the original wall outside Germany; and the Pulitzer Prize Photographs Gallery, which features photographs from every Pulitzer Prize–winning entry dating back to 1942.
Register for FREE and discover how NewseumED makes history, civics and media literacy relevant to students’ lives.
• 230+ lesson plans and activities
• Curated, standards-aligned content
• Interactive timelines and maps
Teachinghistory.org is designed to help K–12 history teachers access resources and materials to improve U.S. history education in the classroom.
Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and News Media
This organization creates websites and open-source digital tools to preserve and present the past, transform scholarship across the humanities, advance history education and historical understanding, and encourage popular participation in the practice of history
Teaching Tolerance - Educating for a Diverse Democracy
Teaching Tolerance is dedicated to reducing prejudice, improving intergroup relations and supporting equitable school experiences for our nation’s children. Free educational materials to teachers and other school practitioners are offered.
iCivics teaches students how government works by having students experience it directly. Through games, the player steps into any role – a judge, a member of Congress, a community activist fighting for local change, even the President of the United States – and does the job they do. Educational video games allow for concepts to happen to us. They convey information while teaching skills for effective civic engagement. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor founded iCivics in 2009 to reimagine civic education.
Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (sedac)
This site provides maps that support the integration of socioeconomic and earth science data and to serve as an "Information Gateway" between earth sciences and social sciences.
Teacher resources and professional development across the curriculum
NATO on the Map is an interactive map of information about about NATO. The map, viewable in 2D and 3D, displays information about NATO member countries, partner countries, NATO actions, and NATO security challenges and responses. When you visit NATO on the Map you can choose to display information from five categories. Selecting a category will highlight countries on the map and or display interactive map markers. Clicking on a highlighted country or a map marker will reveal a short, related passage of text. Many of those passages include links to additional sources of information. You can use this interactive map to learn more about NATO members, how the Alliance works and cooperates with partners, see where it is active on the globe and how it responds to today’s security challenges.
By sharing the big picture and challenging middle and high school students to look at the world from many different perspectives, we hope to inspire a greater love of learning and help them better understand how we got here, where we’re going, and how they fit in.
BHP is like nothing else. But if you had to categorize it, you could say it’s a social studies course that runs on jet fuel. Co-created by teachers, students, curriculum experts, and a dedicated team of tech developers, BHP was inspired by the work of David Christian and is supported by Bill Gates. The fundamental goal is to provide a world class, ready-for-the-classroom resource available to everyone, everywhere. For free.
Pictures, slideshows, video, audio clips, documents and other primary sources. Awesome Stories hosts a collection of nonfiction "stories" with accompanying resources that cover a wide range of topics ranging from history and literature to science and art. Each "story" includes a narrative, primary sources, and links to videos, images, standards alignments, and learning tasks. Billed as a Common Core tool, it allows teachers to search by standard or find suggestions for assignments that are aligned to specific standards. Users can also easily search stories by collection, story origin, and media type. A free account gives users limited access to search stories and access teaching tools, while the paid Silver, Gold, and Platinum accounts include more valuable features such as visual vocabulary builders, audio narration, standards-based learning tasks, and tracking and grading tools.
Welcome to the Digital History Reader, an online learning experience designed to enable students to develop the analytical skills employed by historians. The Reader presents key events in U.S. and European history in the format of self-contained modules. Students learn by exploring the data presented, evaluating conflicting accounts or interpretations, and developing their own conclusions based on the evidence provided.
Animated Atlas portrays large chapters of American history quickly by animating maps and geographic features. For school, home and genealogy use.
American Memory - Library of Congress
News, events, new content & more from the National Library of Congress & specific subject areas — from legislature to poetry, from music to science, from cataloging to copyright.
This website contains the on-line versions of books previously published in hard copy by the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress as part of the Country Studies/Area Handbook Series sponsored by the U.S. Department of the Army between 1986 and 1998. Each study offers a comprehensive description and analysis of the country or region's historical setting, geography, society, economy, political system, and foreign policy.
Spacehopper is a game based on Google Maps Street View imagery. Spacehopper shows you a Street View image and you have to guess where in the world the image was captured. You can click the clue button to have the country identified before making a guess. After three incorrect guesses the correct answer will be revealed to you. You can play Spacehopper on a global level or you can specify that you only want to see images from a particular continent.
A Google Maps game develop by Google. Smarty Pins presents players with a trivia question that they have to answer by placing a pin on a map.
The name of a city is presented to the players and they have to click the map to guess where the city is located
The Expansion of the United States, 1846-48
PBS - New perspectives on the West.
The Veterans History Project of the American Folklife Center collects, preserves, and makes accessible the personal accounts of American war veterans so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand the realities of war.
National Geographic Kids - Elementary Level
This site has a wide variety of games, puzzles, and activities for students of elementary school age. National Geographic Kids has nine games specifically for developing geography skills.
Interactive maps - basic world geography as well as specific geography questions for various regions and countries around the world
Engage students in Grades 6-10 with The Underground Railroad: Journey to Freedom interactive in a variety of settings, both in and out of the classroom - with teacher's guide.
Interactive site on 13 colonies
An Introduction to Memorial Hall Museum's American Centuries: Views from New England
The 13 Colonies
Interactive Maps of the Colonies
Click on a colony to learn more about it
American Revolution Fact Monster
Liberty - The American Revolution A PBS site - loaded with info and the "Road to Revolution" game
The History Place- Conflict and Revolution
US Bureau of Labor Statistics for K - 12
This website will bring you many entertaining and stimulating map games to improve your geographical knowledge. The quizzes include questions about countries,,capitals, flags, regions, bodies of water, mountains, deserts ,metropolitan areas and other topics, that will test and challenge your brain.
Mr. Pegman lives in Google Maps (https://www.google.com/maps) and Google Earth (https://www.google.com/earth/) . He is located in the bottom right hand corner of both applications after you have selected a location. He is yellow in Google Maps and white in Google Earth. When you pick him up and drag him to the map, you will notice areas that light up with either blue lines, blue dots, and possibly pale orange dots. The blue lines indicate areas that have been captured by the Google Street View car. (https://goo.gl/fM2x0D) If an area has been captured more than once, a clock icon will appear and you will be able to open it to see how the location has changed over time. The blue dots indicate photosphere images that have been uploaded by people like us using our phones or special cameras to take 360 degree pictures. The orange dots indicate images that are taken on the inside of structures. All of these types of imagery allow you to explore places around the world at ground level, which is pretty amazing.
Comments or Questions? Email me at sbudreau@longmeadow.k12.ma.us