Author: Daniel Shogan, Danville Museum of Fine Arts and History Students will learn about the 1883 Massacre in Danville, Virginia as an example of violence against African Americans. Within the context of the massacre, they will be shown primary documents from the event. These documents will provide the students with not only a lens into the Danville of the nineteenth century, but also provide them with an opportunity to think critically about the documents. After careful discussion of the events and outcomes of the massacre, the students will be given vocabulary worksheets that help to define and underline the most important elements of the narrative.

See computer science integration opportunities in middle school history in this crosswalk of the two disciplines.

Challenges students to think outside of the box to find examples of government around their school campus. All areas of the curriculum are covered and students have to defend their answer.

This performance task is designed for third grade and up to teach the importance of using strong passwords.  This would be helpful to use at the beginning of the year to review password safety with upper elementary school students to refresh their memory.  This includes an instructional slide show and a student handout.

"Democracy in America" by Alexis de Tocqueville is one of the most influential books ever written about America. While historians have viewed "Democracy" as a rich source about the age of Andrew Jackson, Tocqueville was more of a political thinker than a historian. His "new political science" offers insights into the problematic issues faced by democratic society.

This assessment fulfills the requirements of a local alternative assessment for civics for the ASOL HS-C 2a. 

Created through a partnership between the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress, Chronicling America offers visitors the ability to search and view newspaper pages from 1690-1963 and to find information about American newspapers published between 1690"“present using the National Digital Newspaper Program.

Connect particular phrases and ideas set down in the Constitution with texts that preceded it.

Designed for two 90-minute class periods. First students will imagine they are stranded on an island with no way to escape. It has all necessary resources to survive, and they have been tasked with creating their own system of government. Students will work in groups to create a government system, using slides or a poster to display their work.In the next class period, groups will take turns presentig their form of government to the class, and peers will ask them questions about their form of government and discuss if it would last several geerations. Includes Lesson Plan as well as Google Doc/PDF of student handouts and teacher/peer rubrics

This lesson focuses on the American Revolution, which encouraged the founding fathers' desire to create a government that would, as stated in the Preamble, insure domestic tranquility and provide for the common defense. This lesson correlates to the National History Standards and the National Standards for Civics and Social Sciences.

provides information about the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, Ford's Theatre, the Franklin Roosevelt Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and more.

Explore the world of cybersecurity and personal responsibility with this hands on lock and key adventure!

Students will learn how the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution was shaped by historical events and how it reflected the fundamental values and principles of a newly independent nation.

This lesson plan includes documents and images for learning about the American Revolution, the Constitution, the creation of the U.S. Navy, Eli Whitney's patent for the cotton gin, Thomas Cooper's violation of the Sedition Act, and the Electoral College.

While the French had kept their end of the bargain by completing the statue itself, the Americans had still not fulfilled their commitment to erect a pedestal. In this lesson, students learn about the effort to convince a skeptical American public to contribute to the effort to erect a pedestal and to bring the Statue of Liberty to New York.

This section contains reproducible copies of primary documents from the holdings of the National Archives of the United States, teaching activities correlated to the National History Standards and National Standards for Civics and Government and cross-curricular connections.

This section contains reproducible copies of primary documents from the holdings of the National Archives of the United States, teaching activities correlated to the National History Standards and National Standards for Civics and Government and cross-curricular connections.

The classic American drama Twelve Angry Men can be used to frame discussion of the constitutional right and civic function of the trial by jury. The lesson explores the specific provisions associated with this right as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the system.

This is a self-service online workshop for teachers who use primary documents to help students see the impact and ongoing relevance of the Constitution. It requires little advance preparation and provides everything needed, including a vocabulary list, document analysis worksheets, and historical documents -- John Marshall's Supreme Court nomination (1801), proclamation to New Orleans (1803), Lincoln's telegram to Grant (1864), Johnson oath photo (1963), and more.

Lesson Length: 1-2 hoursGrade Level: 6-8Students will explore population interaction and impacts on an ecosystem through a breakout box activity grounded in engineering design thinking. Students will learn about how bees are interrelated within an ecosystem by solving clues to save a hive from a breakout box and they will engineer a plan to incorporate bees into a community that addresses concerns, benefits and trade offs for the bees and the humans.This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1657263. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.