Educational information, activities and resources for educators, families, and students. Educational materials emphasize inquiry based learning with primary sources and museum collections. Smithsonian visit planning for educators, students and families.
This site is an incredible resource for a teacher involved in any discipline.
In this age of increasing cutbacks in school funding, it is rare for students to be able to take field trips to museums. Thus, it is more important than ever to take advantage of virtual field trips where students can be exposed to primary sources and museum collections without leaving the classroom.
PBS Teachers provides PreK-12 educational resources and activities for educators tied to PBS programming and correlated to local and national standards and professional development opportunities delivered online.
As stated in the lesson plan overview:
"Through the activities presented in this lesson, students will become familiar with the tenets of the Homestead Act, the shifting borders of the American frontier, and the life faced by homesteaders. After a class discussion and examination of a variety of Web sites, students will complete an written assessment in which they will determine whether or not the land available through the Homestead Act was, in fact, "free." This lesson can be used as an introduction to a unit on American settlement in the latter half of the nineteenth century, or as a pre-viewing activity to the PBS series FRONTIER HOUSE. A basic knowledge of 19th-century United States history is required."
This is a great resource to check out concerning how digital native students learn and some awesome ideas and examples of what is being done to incorporate technology in the classroom but also teach 'critical' thinking and 'life skills'
Noted as the most violent in the history of the state. Important for state history, the organization of unions. Possible classroom investigation... how this impacted the local economy as this happened during the depression years.