Students examine the African American experience after they received their freedom after the Civil War. They complete a Mind Map, read and analyze a poem, and write a paragraph using key vocabulary words. They analyze the impact of the...

To continue their study of the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the beginning of the civil rights movement, class members watch the YouTube video of Billie Holiday singing "Strange Fruit" as an introduction to an examination of...

Seventh graders become museum conservators and undertake the hypothetical restoration of an ancient American work of art. Groups design a plan for reconstructing the work of art, outlining the steps they need to take and the materials...

Students receive bloodstain pattern evidence from a crime scene. They answer a series of questions through inquiry, observation, measurement, and analysis. Pupils complete this challenge, by reconstructing the evidence through four...

Students explore the history of Civil Rights and how the struggle for Civil Rights and the Second Reconstruction, transformed society and politics in the United States in the 1950s. Then they identify why American Schools are integrated...

What can young scientists discover from dissecting an owl pellet? Explore the owl food chain, beginning with an introduction to these predatory birds. Suggested strategies here include creating a podcast and purchasing a poster, however...

Construct a three-dimensional optical illusion when your class is exploring vision and how the eye and brain work together. Three concave corners are mounted inside of a black box, but as a light is shined upon them, they appear to be...

Why didn't the Emancipation Proclamation free all slaves? Young historians study primary source documents including Lincoln's proclamation and the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution. Groups also investigate the three...

After a study of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the impact his death had on the country and on Reconstruction policy, class groups analyze primary sources that recount the writer’s response to Lincoln’s death. As guided...

Students consider the impact of the American Civil War on Georgia. In this Georgia history lesson, students discover Roswell's contributions to the Confederate effort and then create children's books that illustrate the destruction of...

Students visit an outdoors area and mark out a square on the ground that they examine, looking for living and non-living things. They make a model or drawing of the findings from the actual square.

Students examine documents to reconstruct the past, employ processes of critical historical inquiry to reconstruct the past, analyze aspects of the Northern Iereland conflict through perspectives of documents, and write a short position...

Students see how to use primary and secondary sources to investigate history. Whether it is a photograph, book, map, letter, postcard, newspaper, or official document, students can use sources to reconstruct and relive history.

Pupils explore data collection in this lesson. They investigate distance vs. time and velocity vs. time graphs using information collected with a CBR 2 to simulate the reconstruction of an accident.

Students complete a diagram of the Montgomery bus that carried Rosa Parks into the history books. They read about Rosa Park's contributions to the Civil Rights movement. They role play Rosa Park's refusal to move to the back of the bus.

Here is a complex lesson plan that interweaves the history of the Jim Crow South and the Great Migration with the study of poetry, art, and blues music from the Harlem Renaissance. The plan helps young historians develop a deep...

Use the historical account of Claudette Colvin to study civil rights and connect past injustices to modern issues. As learners read, they examine chapter titles, record quotes, and participate in discussion. Next, they research...

The tenant farming and sharecropping systems that developed in the South after the Civil War, the reasons for their development, and the eventual decline of these systems are the focus of this two-day plan.

Your young historians will read excerpts from three parts of the United States Constitution—Article One, the Thirteenth Amendment, and the Fourteenth Amendment—and discuss how they each address the issue of slavery. 

Why did African American voters switch from the Republican Party to the Democratic party during the Depression Era? That is the question young historians attempt to answer as they study primary source documents from the period. The focus...

Middle schoolers examine the phases of westward migration in the United States during the 19th century focusing on the incentives that led many African Americans to make the move.

Learners explore the challenges involved in carrying out a program to care for the needs of Civil War veterans an to mark their graves after their deaths. The biography of a veteran from the community is researched and written in this...

Sixth graders explore, analyze and study how one's personal experiences impact one's perspective and actions. They interpret ideas and events of slavery from the different perspectives of an abolitionist, slave owner, United States...

Students utilize their cooperative skills to reconstruct the Borobudur rescue effort. They consider the importance of this site for a variety of reasons - cultural, environmental, political, and religious. Students work together in...