Social Studies Technology Support
S.S. Common Core Resources for Units and Lessons:
Click here to visit the Social Studies Coalition of delaware
Explore the world’s newspapers with your students at newspapermap.com.
Locate Free History Lesson Plans and Interactive Media Through Smithsonian’s History Explorer
The Smithsonian’s History Explorer is packed with lesson plans, interactive media, and reference pages for teachers and students. Using the search tools teachers can find lesson plans for every K-12 grade aligned to national standards for U.S. History. Teachers can search for lesson plans and other materials by grade level, resource type, historical era, and cross-curricular connections.
Applications for Education
I’ve used the Smithsonian’s History Explorer on a number of occasions over the years. America on the Move is one of the features that I found through the History Explorer and used a few years ago in a ninth grade class.
America on the Move showcases the evolution of transportation in the United States. America on the Move is divided into three main sections; Exhibition, Collection, and Themes. America on the Move offers three well-designed educational games for students. Each of the games is requires students to analyze and process information about the history of transportation. In the first game, Where’s Everyone Going? students match vehicles to their proper era to learn about transportation in that era. In the second game, Drive Through Time, students spin a clock to select a year. Then they select a scenario and mode of transportation appropriate for that scenario’s era. In the third game, Be a Movie Director, students select a storyline and the modes of transportation necessary for the storyline. At the end the students will see the movie they created.
Top 20 Websites for Social Studies Teachers
1. iCivics icivics.org
2. Teaching Tolerance tolerance.org
3. Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov
4. National Archives archives.gov/education/
5. Stanford’s Reading Like a Historian sheg.stanford.edu/rlh
6. Historical Thinking Matters historicalthinkingmatters.org
7. Classroom Law Project classroomlaw.org
8. Center for History and New Media
9. Teaching History teachinghistory.org
10. World History Matters worldhistorymatters.org
11. Teaching American History teachingamericanhistory.org/lesson-plans/neh
12. California History-Social Studies Project chssp.ucdavis.edu
13. Smithsonian Education smithsonianeducation.org
14. National Constitution Center constitutioncenter.org
15. Mr. Donn’s Social Studies Site http://www.mrdonn.org
16. Hippocampus http://www.hippocampus.org
17. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History http://www.gilderlehrman.org
18. Social Studies Chat sschat.ning.com
19. Crash Course World History
20. Discovery Education Social Studies discoveryeducation.com