Social Studies Links for Educators

Activities in the Classroom:  Teachable Moment Daily Activities - offers activities on current domestic and international events, conflict resolution and intercultural understanding. (K-12)

Technology in the Classroom: Center for teaching history with technology  - created for teachers looking to incorporate technology into their classrooms! It aims to help K-12 history and social studies teachers incorporate technology effectively into their courses.

Lesson Plans and Links for the Classroom:

*** history teacher.net   : Very Highly Recommended!

• american history and government     
• european Civilization                                                              
• global studies

More links for Lesson Plans:

• Awesome Library  Lesson Plans
• Best of History Websites  Lesson Plans pages
• Brown vs. Board of Educ - Teaching suggestions for the classroom
• choices; teaching with the news - developed by Choices Program at Brown Univ's Watson Institute for International Studies.  Background and lesson plans to teaching international issues.
• Colonial Williamsburg - 18 disciplinary lesson plans are given. Excellent resource. 
• cultural studies resources from Blackwell Publishing
• EconEdLink  lesson plans and ideas from MarcoPolo
• Edinformatics - Lesson plan search tool - good info for social studies through these links.
• EDSITEment lesson plans- MarcoPolo - culture site 
• Einet Galaxy Education Page - This is a search-engine with links to thousands of resources including periodicals, academic organizations, educational organizations, and other types of education-related resources. Search Government and Social Sciences, Religion and reference.
• FREE!!! Federal Government web site for teachers : Also includes information on the various disciplines that comprise social studies as well. Search all social studies - or narrow down by topic.
• HistoryLink 101 lesson plans link - Lots of resources for early time periods - Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and Mesopotamian.
• (**BLOCKED)   History/Social Studies Web Site for K-12 Teachers - 
• History - Social Science Resources - Choose History / Geography, then Lesson Plans.  Sponsored by the Los Angeles County Office of Education
• Holocaust - a Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust  An overview of the people and events of the Holocaust through photographs, documents, art, music, movies, and literature by the Florida Center for Instructional Technology.  :Make sure you visit the teacher and student resources.
• Joseph Braun, Teaching - Portfolio - Social Studies Links
• Kingwood College Library  Research Assignment Guides .  Wonderful cross-cultural links for research.
• Latin American Resources for culture and countries (LADB)
• Learning Page - This site is a valuable gateway to the vast resources of the Library of Congress American Memory Collection.  It gives you guidance in using the American Memory collection to teach history and culture.  Teachers will find tips for using the collections, activities for students, and lesson plans.  Very highly recommended!
• Lesson Plans and Resources for Social Studies Teachers - by Dr. Marty Levine. Nicely organized and annotated resources for K-12 students
• Library of Congress Learning Page - Excellent resources to help with cyber-learning activities.
• PBS web sites for teachers - featured lessons and activities; also teacher links for:  American Experience site from PBS  
• SCORE Social Studies Links - California SS teacher resources
• Smithsonian Institution's Teacher Resource Page - explore the fields of: Art & Design, History & Culture, Science & Technology, and Language Arts.
• Social Studies Activities from the Discovery Channel and Kathy Schrock.

Primary Sources - Links: 

• Using Primary Sources - ideas, explanations and lesson plan. 
• Using Primary Sources in the Classroom - American Memory Network, Library of Congress.
• How to use Primary Sources - from the New Jersey Historical Society.  Provides four sample lessons..
• Using Primary Source Documents in the Classroom - from the Ohio Historical Society.
• Our Documents - An ongoing project from the National Archives, this site identifies and displays digital reproductions of 100 milestone documents - public laws, Supreme Court decisions, speeches, treaties, designs, patents, photos, letters, constitutional amendments, communication transcripts, and more - that shaped U.S. policy from 1776 to 1965.  Downloadable teachers' sourcebook provides a wealth of teaching activities and suggested projects for developing student understanding of the historical significance of these primary source materials.

Field Trips, Simulations and WebQuests on the Web:

• Civil War simulations - The Crises at Fort Sumter;  Flight to Freedom from Bowdoin College - allows a student to take on a persona of someone involved in escaping from Southern slavery to freedom in Canada.
• Civil Rights Special Collection from Teacher's Domain Register - it is worth it!! - A free digital library of multimedia resources for classroom and independent study.  Contains video clips and news articles documenting the history behind the civil-rights movement.   Contains lesson plans correlated with national and state standards, as well as resource management tools to facilitate teachers' use of the library.
• Economics / Money - Make your Own Money Webquest
• Electronic Field Trips - E3 (Explore, Experience, Expand) Electronic Field Trips streams electronic video broadcasts from the nation's top museums and historical landmarks to students in their classrooms.  See the calendar for times.  Each trip is accompanied by related online curricula.  Register on-line. Sponsored by Best Buy Children's Foundation and Baylor University. 
• Eduweb - Embark on adventures in art, science and history. --an award-winning Web development firm that creates immersive, interactive, and in-depth adventures about art, science and history. Eduweb® specializes in educational games, simulations and learning modules. We bring broad experience in museum and K-12 education to the Web medium to produce exciting and innovative educational experiences.
• Revolutionary War simulation - The battle of the Battlefields.
• Presidential Campaign Commercials - "The Living Room Candidate" - An innovative new online exhibit from the American Museum of the Moving Image.  The exhibit displays more than 250 television commercials from every presidential campaign year since 1952.
• Presidents Field Trip is part of this new, FREE site - Virtual Field Trips - This Web page for K-12 educators contains a wide range of subjects: science, social studies, literature, and other educational areas.  The trips are arranged by grade levels.  This is a free resource for educators and is a great supplemental resource for all levels. 

Geography

• Cities of Today, Cities of Tomorrow  - "From a historical overview of urban development to specific studies of urban violence or homelessness, the 6 weekly units in this curriculum cover all major aspects of cities and their global and local importance. 
• historic maps in the classroom
• Xpeditions - MarcoPolo - is home to the U.S. National Geography Standards.

Government Resources

• congresslink to lesson plans
• Supreme Court - Oyez - provides vast amounts of information about the U.S. Supreme Court and its rulings, including a wide range of recent and historic transcripts.  Multimedia
• Taxes - Teaching About Taxes - IRS explains why we pay taxes.  Lesson plans are correlated to national and state educational standards.
• Youth Leadership Initiative - The Youth Leadership Initiative is a national citizenship education and engagement program designed to involve students in the American electoral and policymaking process  **Check the link telling about this Initiative - there are many teacher resources available.

Magazine on the Web:

• Library of Congress - Wise Guide - a monthly magazine-style publication that features short articles about a handful of historical events or people each month, complete with a brief history and links to primary-source materials and other background information from the Library's extensive online archives.  The titles in each section are provocative and are intended to spark interest..

Psychology / Sociology Resources on the Net:

• School Psychology Resources Online - This hotlist links to sites of interest to the school psychology community.
• Sociology Online - a personal site created by someone from Nottingham, England - the links are quite complete.

Social Studies Organizations

• center for civic education
• close-up foundation
• National Center for History in the Schools' - offering teaching units for social studies school teachers. (must be purchased)
• National Council for the Social Studies Web Site

Tutorials

anthropology tutorials from Palomar University

Database Quicklinks, Description and Information
 
pages maintained by barbara finlay Library Media Specialist