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This activity is recommended for first grade and allows students the opportunity to identify with local leaders in their community and state and discover their roles in their community. Students can begin to understand how problems are solved within their own community and who is responsible for solving them.

This is a video from Khan Academy that gives an overview of the Vietnam War. This video can be played to introduce the Vietnam War. The video is 17 minutes and 40 seconds in length.

In this video from PBSLearningMedia, students learn exploring our world is fun. Abby Brown loves to help kids have fun while learning. In this segment, Abby teaches kids about many types of transportation and how people and things get from one place to another. Sometimes, transportation is just for fun.

Now that we’ve talked a little bit about how sociology works, it’s time to start exploring some of the ideas of the discipline’s founders. First up: Émile Durkheim. We’ll explain the concept of social facts and how Durkheim framed sociology as a science. We’ll introduce the idea of common consciousness and how Durkheim believed it binds society together. We’ll also talk about Durkheim’s studies on suicide and how he applied his concepts to a specific social problem.

In this activity, students investigate social, economic, and geographic influences that led to westward expansion in the United States prior to the Civil War. Students will also identify technologies and conflicts that occurred from expansion and analyze whether manifest destiny was truly achieved. Click on the download PDF or DOC button for additional resources such as song lyrics, maps, photographs, and newspaper articles.

This article from Khan Academy provides an overview of the nullification crisis. In response to the Tariff of 1828, vice president John C. Calhoun asserted that states had the right to nullify federal laws. Students can read this article and answer the questions at the end as an assessment. The article can be read in a whole group setting or individually. It can be assigned through Google Classroom.

This clip re-enacts the attacks of September 11, 2001. One of the flights vanishes off the radar, and air traffic control tries to communicate with it. As news starts pouring in of an attack on the World Trade Center, concerned air traffic controllers note that the flight is heading towards Washington D.C. and begin to suspect the worst.

The coach of a football team redefines the meaning of determination and motivation when he has two of his players complete an arduous task. This video can be used when teaching about the role of motivation and emotion in human behavior.

This video from the Daily Dose provides a 3-minute micro-learning film on Caligula, a Roman emperor who was the victim of an unknown illness resulting in erratic, impulsive, and sadistic behavior. Caligula's excesses and draining of the treasury would result in a conspiracy among senators to assassinate the mentally ill emperor.

In this learning activity, students will hear the story of John Bull, one of the first locomotives in the United States and compare transportation from the past to today's transportation. A video of John Bull is included along with web links to other activities.

This classroom resource from Epic! is an interactive book that explains how Earth is covered by landforms and bodies of water, all of which change shape over time. A glossary and additional suggested websites and books are included. The age range is 5-8 years old. The AR level is 3.4. This book also includes directions for making a model of a landform.

This video is a short biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald, an influential 20th-century author best known for works such as The Great Gatsby and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. He is one of the most famous writers of the "Lost Generation," people who came of age during or shortly after the first World War and became disillusioned by the senseless death and destruction.

In this learning activity, students will pretend they have been chosen to induct Frederick Douglass and Harriet Beecher Stowe into the fictional abolitionist hall-of-fame. Their first job, however, is to design a “flyer” that advertises the inductees and the reasons for their inductions. In the spaces provided on the flyer, they will continue the narratives that highlight each inductee’s accomplishments. Secondly, they will design an abolitionist hall-of-fame medal each would receive upon their entry. Medals can include icons, symbols, color, and their names.

In this lesson, students will gather information about the Greensboro Woolworth's Lunch Counter sit-in and how it helped change the Civil Rights Movement. Students create a virtual museum exhibit using the information they gathered. Additional links to resources are included.

In this video from PBSLearningMedia, John Green teaches students about some of the colonies that were not in Virginia or Massachusetts. Old New York was once New Amsterdam. Before the English got there though, the colony was full of Dutch people who treated women pretty fairly and allowed free black people to hold jobs. John also discusses Penn's Woods, also known as Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania was (briefly) a haven of religious freedom, and William Penn dealt relatively fairly with the natives his colony displaced. We venture as far south as the Carolina colonies, where the slave labor economy was taking shape. John also takes on the idea of the classless society in America, and the beginning of the idea of the American dream.

Xavier, Yadina, and Brad are surprised to see that the big new exhibit at the museum features an old bus. They’re unsure what’s so special about it but excited to climb aboard anyway. As our trio squabble over who will get to be the driver and honk the horn, they suddenly find themselves in the Secret Museum! Our heroes are sent back in time to meet the important person who once rode that bus: Rosa Parks. Witnessing how Rosa reacts to being treated unfairly, both as a young girl and as an adult when asked to give up her seat on that bus in 1955, opens our trio’s eyes to her very important message: everyone should be treated equally.

Xavier is at a loss for what to do: there are three pieces of pie left and one is way bigger than the other two. Who gets the big piece? This is a tough problem with only one solution…to the Secret Museum! Our heroes are sent back in time to meet someone who knew how to work out tough problems: Thurgood Marshall. Thurgood invites our trio back to his house, where he is about to feed his pets some carrot treats. But, uh oh, one carrot is way bigger than the others. Xavier, Yadina, and Brad have their own ideas for who should get the big carrot, but Thurgood decides to break apart the big carrot to ensure everyone gets an equal amount because he knows the most important thing is to be fair to everyone.

This interactive game from WNET Thirteen, “Prisoner in My Homeland,” puts players in the shoes of 16-year-old Henry Tanaka, in 1941, whose family is forced to leave their home on Bainbridge Island, WA, for a prison camp in Manzanar, CA. Players grapple with the choices and challenges faced by more than 120,000 Japanese Americans as they coped with their unjust incarceration during World War II. Teachers will need to register to play this game.  The game can be played in a whole group setting or individually.  Teachers can also download a teacher's guide.

In this lesson, students identify and discuss the condition and aspirations of free African Americans in the years following the Civil War. Students identify the social factors that led to the rise of Jim Crow segregation and evaluate the effects of segregation.  

In this video from PBSLearningMedia, John Green teaches students about Reconstruction. After the divisive, destructive Civil War, Abraham Lincoln had a plan to reconcile the country and make it whole again. Then he got shot; Andrew Johnson took over, and the disagreements between Johnson and Congress ensured that Reconstruction would fail. The election of 1876 made the whole thing even more of a mess, and the country called it off, leaving the nation still very divided. John will talk about the gains made by African-Americans in the years after the Civil War and how they lost those gains almost immediately when Reconstruction stopped. You'll learn about the Freedman's Bureau, the 14th and 15th Amendments, and the disastrous election of 1876.

**Sensitive: This resource contains material that may be sensitive for some students. Teachers should exercise discretion in evaluating whether this resource is suitable for their class

Join host John Green to learn about Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation. Prior to this event, almost everyone in Europe was part of the Roman Catholic Church. However, during Martin Luther's lifetime, the Church was in desperate need of spiritual and moral reform. Combined with the new ideas in the political and social scenes in Europe, this led Luther to leave the Church and start his own, which spread rapidly. Then, what started out as a doctrinal dispute turned into an all-out social revolt: peasants against landlords, and kings against the Catholic Church. Both politically- and faith-charged, this period had lasting repercussions on Christianity, politics, and social order.

**Sensitive: This resource contains material that may be sensitive for some students. Teachers should exercise discretion in evaluating whether this resource is suitable for their class.

In this passage, students will learn about the history of Rome. A historian named Livy wrote 142 books about the history of Rome. He believed the city did not develop by chance but by fate. This passage is his account of how Rome was founded. You may believe it or not, as you like. What you should do is think about it and learn from it. Oh, and one more thing: enjoy it.

This collection includes videos, photographs, and articles about the Holocaust. Students can use this collection to explore what life might have been like during the Holocaust.

In this video from PBSLearningMedia, John Green teaches students about the tumultuous 2000s in the United States of America, mainly the 2000s that coincide with the presidency of George W Bush. From the controversial election in 2000 to the events of 9/11 and Bush's prosecution of the War on Terror, the George W. Bush presidency was an eventful one. John will teach you about Bush's domestic policies like tax-cutting, education reform, and he'll get into the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

**Sensitive: This resource contains material that may be sensitive for some students. Teachers should exercise discretion in evaluating whether this resource is suitable for their class.

In this video from PBSLearningMedia, John Green teaches students about the economic malaise that beset the United States in the 1970s. A sort of perfect storm of events, it combined the continuing decline of America's manufacturing base and the oil shocks of 1973 and 1979 and brought about a stagnant economy, paired with high inflation. Two presidential administrations were scuttled at least in part by these economic woes; both Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter are considered failed presidents for many reasons, but largely because of an inability to improve the economy.

For over 20 years, a summer program for gifted adolescents at Western Kentucky University has offered an arts-integrated history course on Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. The course concludes with students working as a group to create a large mural on the Holocaust. In this way, students use the power of art to deal with their own emotions as well as to educate others.

In Fall 2017, murals from the past 20 years went on a traveling display in Kentucky to engage a broader audience in thought-provoking conversation on the topic. This image collection shows the completed murals created over the 20-year span of the program. 

**Sensitive: This resource contains material that may be sensitive for some students. Teachers should exercise discretion in evaluating whether this resource is suitable for their class.

In this lesson, students deliberate the origins of the Chicago race riots by exploring five documents that reflect different social, cultural, and economic causes. Students will look at two separate history book accounts of the event and learn to identify bias in sources. Students will then analyze three documents from the time period to determine other factors that may have contributed to the riots. 

The website includes lesson plans, PowerPoint presentations, primary source documents, and student graphic organizers. Teachers will need to create a free account to access the materials. 

This interactive game from iCivics will allow students to become experts in U.S. citizenship. Students will recognize and recall rights and responsibilities of U.S. citizens, identify active ways in which citizens can participate in government and contribute to the common good, and relate like terms and concepts by deducing shared relationships. This game can be played during a lesson on citizenship for reinforcement or after a lesson as an assessment. It can be played in a whole group or individually. 

You will need to create a free account in order to access some of the content on this site.

In this video from PBSLearningMedia, students learn how a bill becomes a law. It’s tough! First, there is an idea. Someone in Congress writes it up as a bill and introduces it. But, most bills don't stop right there. A Bill becomes a law if the bill has passed in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate and has then approved by the President, or if a presidential veto has been overridden, the bill becomes a law and is enforced by the government.