A science topic that is bound to grab and hold onto everyone's attention is outer space. NASA offers four versions of their student site: K-4, 5-8, 9-12, and higher education. Each version offers some basic "must-haves" for primary sources such as photo libraries, videos, and a link to NASA-TV. In addition, there are games to motivate students, career profiles (to help students see what steps are necessary if they want to become an astronaut), and "Homework Topics" to help students extend their learning. There is also a great NASA Kids Club that is available!

This site is INCREDIBLE! The format is student-friendly and easy to navigate. There are numerous 1st-hand accounts of memorable moments in history, from a transcript of a dinner with Attila the Hun, to video of the Hindenburg explosion. Students can search through events from many countries, centuries, and eras, including the Civil War era and the Old West. Photos and radio broadcasts are also available. I especially enjoy the format of the homepage, which includes interesting tabs such as "Spotlight On" (i.e., Spotlight on History's Bad Guys) and "Notable Quotes."

This site teaches far more than history to our students. The photos, documents, and first-hand accounts of the Holocaust and World War II are presented in a way that encourages students to see others as people; not by color, nationality, ability, etc. This is an ideal way to give students primary material to improve their social/cultural literacy as well as emotional literacy. It is powerful and poignant, a site that could benefit any student, intermediate age and higher.

American Rhetoric allows students to take a step into the past and feel as though they are living in a particular time period. I can imagine a class closing their eyes and listening to the powerful words of JFK in his "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech, or the determination in Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. Transcripts of each speech are also available on the site, as well as photos that help the students visualize the speaker and the time period. Extremely motivating!

This site is organized in a student-friendly format. The text is large, descriptions are concise, and the toolbar on the left side of the page helps students navigate easily. I love the inclusion of "Freedom Documents" as well as "Rare Images." The "Join or Die" propaganda from the "Rare Images" tab is also featured in our social studies text (students can make a text-to-media connection). "Pages from the Past" gives students a glimpse into colonial-era printing and publication. What an authentic experience!

This is another terrific resource for social studies, in our presidents unit and our unit on the Revolutionary War. I like that you can complete a search for a particular word or phrase in a given document. I also love that students are able to search his books and architectural drawings as well, making Jefferson seem more like an actual man who had hobbies and talents.