The annual Elie Wiesel Writing and Visuals Arts Competition is open to students in grades 6 through 12 and serves to inspire middle and high school students and teachers to learn more about the Holocaust, racism, bigotry, and the dangers of prejudice. The questions posed each year guide students to explore the lessons of the Holocaust while examining contemporary issues such as bullying, peer pressure, unthinking obedience to authority, and indifference.

In this lesson, students engage in a historical jigsaw activity focused on westward expansion. The lesson ends with a coding project where students create “postcards” by coding with Twine, expressing the perspectives of different groups experiencing the effects of westward expansion.

This activity explores the push and pull of moving from Richmond, Virginia to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for 4 siblings during the 1920s by examining primary and secondary sources and using a decision-making model. This activity includes topics such as the impact of segregation and discrimination against African Americans, and the impact of Black migration from the south to the north.

This resource presents a variety of digital resources hosted by Virginia Museum of Fine Arts that students can use to explore the life and work of renowned African-American photographer Louis Draper.  

In this lesson, students engage in a historical jigsaw activity focused on westward expansion. The lesson ends with a coding project where students create “postcards” by coding with Twine, expressing the perspectives of different groups experiencing the effects of westward expansion.--

American performer Josephine Baker used her star-status access to spy for the Allies in WWII and convey information to the Allies by using invisible ink on her sheet music. We’ll look at a few methods that can be used to hide messages “in plain sight”?

During WWII the Marines enlisted Navajo code talkers to send messages. The Navajo language is not written down and is very difficult for non-native speakers to speak and understand. The Marines started with 29 Navajo men for this project. Their code became unbreakable and fast. They could decode 3 lines of English in 20 seconds versus the normal 30 minutes.In this lesson students will hear audio of spoken Navajo language. They will make predictions on what language they think is being spoken. After learning the language they will research the Navajo code breakers. Students will then use the Navajo dictionary to practice creating and deciphering messages. Students will then be able to make connections to cybersecurity. 

This program examines the contributions of American servicewomen to the Space Race. From the late 1950s through the 1960s, the United States engaged in the Space Race against the Soviet Union, each trying to become the first country to put a man on the moon. Early American astronauts were all men with a military background. NASA decided not to allow women to become astronauts during this period. Although they were excluded from space flight, women contributed to the Space Race in supporting roles, including Aerospace Nursing.

This lesson examines what people are doing to protect Earth’s clean water supply through the text Young Water Protectors, a story about the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and their efforts to prevent the Dakota Access Pipeline. Students will examine the Standing Rock perspective, and consider what needs to be done to protect our water sources. Students will respond to this activity through writing prompts and represent one of those prompts through programming in Twine.This lesson was created through a partnership between CodeVA and the Virginia Tribal Education Consortium (VTEC).