Practicing Elaboration in a Problem/Solution Essay
One theory suggests that students tend to list in an essay because they lack the tools to elaborate. Because they do not have the strategies, they attempt to fill up the empty space by introducing new primary ideas instead of fleshing out the ideas they have already presented. This activity attempts to make students aware of the need to elaborate and to provide students with some workable strategies for elaborating. Using a PowerPoint presentation, the teacher demonstrates the necessity for elab
Cause and effect
Students will identify and interpret cause and effect as expressed in poetry.
Rate Tornado Damage
In this interactive activity from NOVA Online, use the Fujita tornado intensity scale to assess the level of destruction left in the wake of actual tornadoes.
The Grand Canyon: How It Formed
This video segment adapted from NOVA uses animation to present the theory of how the Grand Canyon was formed and features rare footage of a phenomenon known as debris flow.
Spin a Spiral Galaxy
This interactive activity from NOVA Online lets you spin a spiral galaxy, including our own Milky Way. It demonstrates that what you can learn from visible light observations of a galaxy is largely determined by the angle from which you are observing it.
Ku Klux Klan Flyers
This flyer advertises a 1963 white supremacist Ku Klux Klan meeting; from the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.
Bandits or Patriots?: Documents from Charlemagne Pralte
In 1910, an international consortium of banks refinanced Haiti's international debt and took control of the country's treasury. In 1914, the bank refused to issue gold payments to the Haitian government and asked the U.S. military to protect the gold reserves. On December 17, 1914, U.S. marines landed in Haiti and moved the gold to the bank's New York vaults. Eight months later, the marines again landed in Port au Prince, Haiti's capital, this time claiming the need to protect foreign lives and
Kate Richards O'Hare's Life as a Socialist Party Organizer
In her autobiographical essay, "How I Became a Socialist Agitator," which was first published in Socialist Woman in October 1908, Socialist Party organizer Kate Richards O'Hare credited her career as a "Socialist agitator" to her youthful exposure to poverty and "sordid suffering." As she explained in this essay, her disillusionment with the church and a talk by labor organizer "Mother"Jones further pushed her toward socialism.
Frustration versus Fantasy: How the Movies Made Some People Restless
Fears about the impact of movies on youth led to the Payne Fund research project, which brought together nineteen social scientists and resulted in eleven published reports. One of the most fascinating of the studies was carried out by Herbert Blumer, a young sociologist who would later go on to a distinguished career in the field. For a volume that he called Movies and Conduct (1933), Blumer asked more than fifteen hundred college and high school students to write "autobiographies"of their expe
"Cast Down Your Bucket Where You Are": Booker T. Washington's Atlanta Compromise Speech
In 1895, Booker T. Washington gave what later came to be known as the Atlanta Compromise speech before the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta. His address was one of the most important and influential speeches in American history, guiding African-American resistance to white discrimination and establishing Washington as one of the leading black spokesmen in America. Washington's speech stressed accommodation rather than resistance to the racist order under which Southern Afric
The Color of Soil
This USDA soil-conservation education site has a variety of educational resources related to soil science. Users can follow links to soil facts, resources, organizations and professional development. Information on this site can be adapted for use in college geoscience classes, particularly the wide variety of photos and the GLOBE soil analysis protocols.
Groundwater Pump Test
In this lab, students conduct a groundwater pump test and interpret aquifer properties. Creating a use context for this lab, this website describes the learning goals, provides teaching notes, materials and assessment recommendations, and links the user to additional resources and references. This laboratory activity is part of the Starting Point Collection.
Jay's Caboose and Museum, Greensboro, Alabama
This image is a black and white photograph of Jay's Caboose and Museum in Greensboro, Ala. Typewritten message (on back): "April 28, 1957. Dear Doctor: It was good to see you yesterday, and to talk to you. It was a grand meeting, and I particularly enjoyed it, because I ran into friends I had not seen in thirty years. I surely will appreciate a copy from the paper that you mentioned, which was written by Mrs. Moore, who was formerly from Marion. Any items of this nature that you might send to me
The Berlin Blockade
Clark Clifford was special counsel to President Harry S. Truman from 1946 to 1950. In this video segment, he recounts the 1948 Berlin blockade-the first major East-West confrontation in which Western policymakers were required to grapple with choices that risked war with the Soviet Union, a power seen as capable of overrunning Western Europe. Clifford recalls assessing the risk of an unexpected escalation of tension if moves made by the West were perceived as provocations. He heralds the decisio
J. S. Bach
'Video artist Downey uses dramatic special effects to examine the life and works of composer Johann Sebastian Bach. Shot mostly in the wintery East German towns where Bach lived and worked, this layered, impressionistic video portrait of the composer reconstructs a path through Bach's eighteenth-century life and the source of his musical inspiration.' The piece is divided into three sections -Death, Flashback, and Counterpoint. Text by Nobel Peace Prize winner and Bach biographer Albert Schweitz
Darkness of My Language
"A video poem on colonialism, 'Darkness of My Language' reveals how this system defines personal identities and perpetuates cultural ignorance. Produced in Canada by Brazilian Silvana Afram, the program is both documentary in nature as well as subjective in tone. While the soundtrack is composed of tourists' exasperating questions, the images evoke the artist" distance from home." In black and white, closeups of faces are accompanied by voiceover attempts to respond to questions about Brazilian
Trisha and Carmen
Burt Barr looks at the performance of 'Carmen' by Trisha Brown at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, Italy Scenes include details of the ornate theater, both empty and with the audience stirring in their seats before the performance. Backstage, Trisha Brown speaks directly to the camera and prepares for the show with a makeup artist. In rehearsal clothes, a duet is shown over and over again. A woman treads her way across the space to her male partner, who slowly lowers her to the ground. This sa
Son of Sam and Delilah
'Son of Sam and Delilah,' 1991, featuring two drag queens named Hapi and Sunny, was created by video artist Charles Atlas as a response to both sorrow over AIDS-related deaths and increasing urban violence.
Sabda
"Sabda" is a eulogy to the North Indian poet Kabir and other Indian mystics. The title refers to 'the word,' the original sound of existence. Excerpts from poems are interwoven with a continuous flow of images and sounds of daily life situations in India.
The Indian landscape is revealed through pictures of workers harvesting wheat, a full moon visible between two trees, and wildlife in their natural habitats. Scenes showing street life and details of temples and spiritual icons depict elements
Freefall
At the opening of 'Freefall,' Gaby Agis is seen getting dressed in Western-influenced clothing. She runs through alleyways and streets. Meanwhile, on neighboring rooftops, women are dancing together across vast spaces. Agis eventually makes her way to one of these rooftops. In the second section, Agis and another woman are partnering together against a wall of aluminum siding. They bounce off one another and the wall. Following this, Agis makes her way into an area filled with lush vegetation. H
