Smithsonian: Art and Design
This site features modern portrait drawings, historical portraits of famous Americans, African and Asian art, modern Japanese prints, works of Latino artists, illustrated manuscripts of Persian lyrical poetry, paintings by James Whistler and Gerhard Richter, lighthouse postcards, lunch containers, Tibetan healing mandalas, photos of famous 20th-century American women, and the Smithsonian's blog, Eye Level, which looks at how art reflects our history and culture.
Mali Empire and Djenne Figures
Archeology offers the most tangible evidence of earlier civilizations. Although archeology has already provided invaluable information pertaining to the life styles and skills of the peoples from this region of West Africa, the archaeological record is still incomplete. The figurative sculptures featured in this resource furnish one part of the historical puzzle of this region. These handsome terracotta sculptures are from the Inland Niger Delta region near Djenne (pronounced JEH-nay; also spell
Establishing Borders: The Expansion of the United States, 1846-48
This site offers geography and history activities showing how two years in history had an indelible impact on American politics and culture. Students interpret historical maps, identify territories acquired by the U.S., identify states later formed from these territories, examine the territorial status of Texas, and identify political, social, and economic issues related to the expansion of the U.S. in the 1840s.
Decoding the Past: The Work of Archaeologists
This site introduces students to archeology -- the study of material remains to learn about past human experiences. This lesson (Grades 3-8) discusses various challenges of an archaeologist: locating a site that will yield clues about the people who once lived there, conducting excavations, and more. Students identify artifacts from a contemporary setting, describe the function of each artifact, identify methods for dating soil layers, and interpret soil profiles.
Ben's Guide to the U.S. Social Sciences for Kids
Helps K-12 students learn how our government works. Students can learn about the branches of government, the election process, and how laws are made. This includes debate topics, word puzzles, historical documents, and resources for parents and teachers.
U.S. Constitution Workshop
This is a self-service online workshop for teachers that uses 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.
ARC Guide for Educators and Students
This is a searchable database of the cornerstone documents of our government. It has more than 100,000 digitized copies of the National Archives most popular and significant manuscripts, photographs, maps, drawings and other documents.
The guide introduces educators and students to the National Archives' ARC. Searching in ARC to learn more about National Archives' historical documents could enrich a classroom activity, a homework assignment, or a research project.
Social Entrepreneurship
This course is about using entrepreneurial skills to craft innovative responses to social problems. Entrepreneurs are particularly good at recognizing opportunities, exploring innovative approaches, mobilizing resources, managing risks, and building viable enterprises. These skills are just as valuable in the social sector as they are in business. Social entrepreneurship applies to both profit and non-profit firms who have programs designed to create social value.
Small Business and Entrepreneurship
The objective of this course is to teach you to apply the skills you have learned in the functional areas toward the goal of starting a business, i.e., becoming an entrepreneur. Working in teams, you will learn to identify, conceptualize, plan, finance, launch, manage and harvest new ventures. Finally, intrapreneurship, the application of entrepreneurial methods of management to established organizations, will also be discussed. Class discussion, readings, case studies, guest speakers, interview
New Venture Creation
Creating a new venture is a challenging task, one that requires specific domain knowledge as well as general business and entrepreneurial skills. This course utilizes the knowledge and skills gained from both the core MBA and entrepreneurship courses; it provides hands-on experience in the creation and development of a growth-oriented new venture. Students in teams take a multi-disciplinary approach to the preparation and presentation of a professional business plan. In the process, the course f
Imagination, Creativity And Entrepreneurship
This is a course about the courage to create, and to risk making mistakes in the quest for ideas that lead to a true innovation of a product, service or process. Creativity is the central focus, which might be defined as "the application of a person's mental ability and curiosity to discover something new. The act of relating previously unrelated things." More specifically, we are concerned with capitalist creativity, which means that solutions must be generated that are profitable and reflect b
Historical skills : weights and measurements
Aims to identify and explain some common difficulties in deciphering units of weights, measurements, and money in historical documents. Explores English and Welsh measuring systems, predominantly those used from the late sixteenth and early 17th centuries onwards, and those in force after the Weights and Measures Act of 1824.
The resource includes a glossary and bibliography. Illustrative images of items from our collections appear throughout.
Developing Apiculture (Beekeeping) Skills: Hive Management
This resource examines hive management for the honey bee. It forms part 3 of supporting resources for the 'Developing Apiculture (Beekeeping) Skills' short course. The resources can be used individually or as a whole with the correct resource.
Ralph Bunche: An American Odyssey
Social studies teachers will find that the film presents an informative, complex and issue-oriented story that raises controversial questions and provides an exciting way to introduce a number of important concepts in 20th century United States and world history. It offers an opportunity to explore the historical background of current events and issues in the news today; the Middle East crisis, the struggle of developing nations to create stable economies and democratic governments, the legacy o
Heritage: Civilization and the Jews
This lesson plan deals with the Ancient Near East, early civilization, and early Israelite history. Use maps to explore principal geographic features of the region and to trace migration, and compare the biblical story of the flood with a similar account in the Epic of Gilgamesh. All activities focus on key concepts explored in Heritage. Lesson plans have been designed to allow teachers to select activities appropriate to the grade levels of their classes. Each plan includes teacher's resource p
Just a "Fellow Traveler" in the Human Experience - Exploring How the Launch of Sputnik Changed the W
In this lesson, students go on a gallery walk about space exploration and then participate in a fishbowl discussion to make connections between this historical event and their lives today.
HIV and AIDS Prevention Education
This is a collection of resource packages suggesting how education systems can change their analysis and conduct in relation to HIV and AIDS. The site also contains manuals and booklets offering basic facts and information needed for the acquisition of knowledge and development of attitudes, values, skills and practices (KAVSP) related to the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS.
Space Trader and Economics
Students will use the Space Trader software to reinforce economic skills. They must buy and sell different objects, travel to various planets and make enough money to buy a moon of their own.
Visual Datasets
The Visual Datasets text module discusses the concept of visual learning and presents some suggestions for ways to design learning environments that support students in developing visual literacy skills. Three visual datasets that can be used for problem solving activities in evolution, classification, development, and botany are included:
Caminacules: A dataset of imaginary animals that can be used as the basis for a variety of problem-posing and problem-solving activities in evolution, classi
Hysteria Over Pfiesteria
Students will be guided through an investigation of the Pfiesteria outbreaks through a variety of approaches employing writing, math, drawing, summarizing and deductive skills. As students assimilate details of the Pfiesteria problem, they will begin to develop a multifaceted understanding of the issue and its potential links to nonpoint source pollution. In Exercise II, they study the spatial and temporal distribution of Pfiesteria outbreaks in an effort to explore reasons for the connection be
