CYSD Social Studies

"Bring life and excitement to the classroom teaching with historical Virsonas. Let students learn and explore with many of the same interactive tools they use at home. Our Educational Solutions include: * Historical Characters * Fictional Characters * Public Figures * Pre-packaged Bundles * Custom Virsonas All Virsonas are designed and tested by a team of professionals and are suitable for use in a classroom environment. We provide sample classroom plans with ways to implement Virsonas into your lesson plans as well as first account experiences by fellow teachers."

Posters can be printed for the classroom.

FREE Poster

Great economics activity.

"Buzzwords are frequently used in news media. These are words that do not typically occur in everyday speech, but are common among newscasters, talking heads, and pundits on cable news."

International trade touches us all. We drink soda from cans made of aluminum mined in Australia, wear shoes made in Europe, eat fruit from South America, build machinery from steel milled in Asia, wear clothes made from African cotton, and live in homes built from North American wood. We take it for granted, yet before we can enjoy these products and materials, traders must negotiate prices and deliver the goods through a network of relationships that literally spans the globe. Play this game to experience the challenges and excitement of international trade. See if you can get the best price for the goods you sell and the biggest bargains for the goods you buy. Watch how the global economy is doing: the prices you'll be able to get and the deals you can make depend on how healthy the global economy is. Before you start, think about what you want to accomplish as a trader: * Do you want to build up as much wealth as you can by selling as much of your commodities as you can? * Do you want to buy the widest range of goods to satisfy diverse consumer tastes at home? * Or do you want to focus on buying the raw materials for a particular industry? The only limit is your imagination, your negotiating skills, and your bank account!

Game that simulates international trade. Great info on economics and advantages of trade agreements.

"Informing you about 3D models of Civil War related places, buildings, and structures that are featured in Google Earth or created with the Sketchup software."

Collection of Google Earth files to view recreated 3-D models of buildings from the American Civil War ( like Fort Sumter ).

"The historian - detective, judge or analyst? The clues that uncover past lives Making history talk through oral history" Just one of many history trails available through the BBC site.

"America, A Narrative History is a text published by WW Norton. As a free supplement to the book, Norton has published ten Google Earth tours. These tours include major themes and events in US History. The list includes the Revolutionary War, the path to the Civil War, WWII, the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, Lewis & Clark's expedition, the Indian Removal Act, Pre-Columbian North America, the national parks system, and the 20th Century power grid. All of the tours include multiple images and references. Some of the tours also have "tour questions" for students to answer."

"Welcome to TwHistory. We believe that history is filled with exciting stories. We also believe that these stories can be told through Twitter; through the people who lived and experienced them. We go through journals, diaries, letters, and other original sources to deliver the day-to-day lives of people who lived through some of histories most exciting times. We broadcast this information through Twitter, and feel this is a new and exciting approach to understanding history. Instead of reading about a month-long campaign in a few hours, you experience it over the course of a month in small 140 character 'Tweets'."

"Ever wish your Social Studies classroom could be more interactive? Good news! Thinkfinity offers some of the best interactive games and websites that are specifically designed for the Social Studies curriculum. The interactives are brought to you by some of the best names in education such as the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, National Endowment for the Humanities and Council for Economic Education."

Time Search is a good general resource for history teachers and students. Simply enter a year, press "go" and you're shown a list of significant events that happened in that year. Scroll up or down the list to see events that happened early or late in the year. Time Search lists events that happened worldwide. You can select historical themes to narrow your list of events. You can also narrow results by selecting a region of the world. Next to each item in your events list you will see icons indicating availability of related images, quick text references, and map references. Not all icons appear for all events

"US History Tours powered by Google Earth. This new format traces historical developments across time, touching down on locations vital to our nation's heritage and development. Points of interest in each tour launch primary and multimedia sources."

"Learn tips and tricks to explore the world, find interesting places and share content with others. Follow this hands-on learning game at your own pace until you complete each level and become a true explorer!"

"Two Hawaiian teachers have taken a new approach to teaching their students by reworking lyrics to popular songs by artists like Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez, Gwen Stefani and more into some seriously cool visual history lessons ever. Some favorites, inside."

Learn American History though 50 pop songs.