Activities for Social Studies

Columbia Education Center: These websites of the Columbia Education Center have links to lesson plans in all subjects including social studies: http://www.col-ed.org/cur/ and http://youth.net/cec/cec.html

Interact (Simulation Activities): This website from Interact lists simulations the Interact company sells. I have listed the website here because the website also includes 138 free activities of interest to social studies teachers from elementary through high school: http://www.teachinteract.com

McREL's Website: This website from the McREL Regional Education Laboratory has very useful links to the behavioral social sciences, civics, economics, geography, history, and technology: http://www.mcrel.org/resources/links/hotlinks.asp?option=404

“Social Studies on the Web”: This website, entitled “Social Studies on the Web,” developed by Ellis Batson when working on his masters degree, has links to the various social studies disciplines and current events and to lesson plans for social studies: http://members.aye.net/~ellisb/socialstudies/index.html .

WebQuests: A set of WebQuest activities on a variety of topics: http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/workshop98/sessions/webquest/list.html

Resources for Social Studies, Including Websites with Lots of Links

ERIC: A website from ERIC on the topic of social studies and the Internet: http://www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed435582.html

“Ask ERIC”: A website from ERIC, called “Ask ERIC,” with all sorts of lessons and references to Internet sites pertaining to the various disciplines (anthropology, civics, economics, history, etc.) and other topics (multicultural education, women's studies, country studies, folklore, holidays, etc.) that contribute to social studies: http://ericir.syr.edu/cgi-bin/res.cgi/Subjects/Social_Studies

“The Awesome Library website: A website with all sorts of information related to social studies and other subjects: http://www.awesomelibrary.org/

“Blue Highway website”: This “Blue Highway” website, developed by Ray Schroeder of the University of Illinois at Springfield, consists of a “Teacher's Page” with useful links for social studies and for other references and resources: http://www.uis.edu/%7Eschroede/school/

“Blue Web'n” from Pacific Bell: This website from Pacific Bell, called “Blue Web'n,” is a library of links to “Blue Ribbon websites” in all subjects, including social studies and history and for all grades. Because the listing is annotated, one can save a lot of time in finding good websites by using this one. http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/bluewebn/#table

Federal Government Website for Teachers: Federal government website for teachers: http://www.ed.gov/free/index.html . (This site includes information on the various disciplines that comprise social studies as well. The specific website for social studies is http://wdcrobcolp01.ed.gov/cfapps/free/displaysubject.cfm?sid=9 )

GeoHistory, Inc.: GeoHistory, Inc., is a software company that offers maps and inquiry lessons on world history. It also has links to many other topics: http://www.geohistory.com .

“Great American Website”: “The Great American Website” with all sorts of information and links related to America: http://www.uncle-sam.com/

Marco Polo Website (An outstanding website) : The Marco Polo website is an excellent website that provides access to outstanding websites in the areas of history and humanities, geography, economics, mathematics, the arts, and sciences. http://www.wcom.com/marcopolo

New York Times Website for Teachers: This website has activities for social studies teachers related to the news and historical news items: http://www.nytimes.com/learning/index.html

“Scholar's Guide to the WWW,” developed by emeritus professor of history Richard Jensen of the University of Chicago focuses on the humanities and social sciences with lots of links: http://tigger.uic.edu/~rjensen/ .

Social Studies Teacher Dennis Boals: Social Studies teacher, Dennis Boals, has done an excellent job collecting K-12 Social Studies and History resources for teachers. The author encourages the use of the World Wide Web as a tool for learning and teaching and aims to provide some help for K-12 classroom teachers in locating and using the resources of the Internet in the classroom. This site is extensive, well organized and easy to navigate. Check it out at www.execpc.com/~dboals/boals.html

Social Studies Teachers Lin and Don Donn: This Web site developed by two certificated social studies teachers, Lin and Don Donn, offers a wealth of information for social studies teachers. http://members.aol.com/donnandlee/SiteIndex.html#History
Social Studies Faculty from Kelleen High School, Killeen, Texas: This website, provided for students and faculty of Killeen High School, Killeen, Texas, provides hundreds of links on many social studies topics. This is a great starting point for students needing help with research projects and teachers looking for specific resources links. http://killeenroos.com/links.htm

“Teachers Helping Teachers” website of Scott Mandel: This website developed by Dr. Scott Mandel that is entitled “Teachers Helping Teachers,” has lessons plans teachers have developed for all subjects including social studies: http://www.pacificnet.net/~mandel/index.html

Website with Resources and Activities to teach California Social Studies Standards: This site, out of California, offers a large variety of social studies units, which are separated by grade. Many of the units also offer a listing of additional resources and activities. http://score.rims.k12.ca.us/gradelevel.html

Website of Tony Ambrose, University of Missouri-St. Louis: The website with links developed by Anthony Ambrose, Teacher, Curriculum Director, Ed. Tech Consultant at the University of Missouri-St. Louis: http://www.umsl.edu/~sahambr

Activities from Public Television & Cable Television Stations

St. Louis County Cable Television Public Education Commission website: A website with links to many cable television stations, including PBS, the History Channel, and Discovery from the St. Louis County Cable Television Public Educational Commission: http://www.showmecable.org/channels.htm

C-SPAN: The website of C-SPAN developed with the teacher in mind: http://www.c-span.org/classroom/

Kathy Schrock's Website from the Discovery Channel: Social studies activities from Discovery Channel: http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/

PBS Website: PBS website for teachers: http://www.pbs.org/teachersource

“The Teacher's Source” from PBS: A special website from PBS called “The Teacher's Source,” where on this specific web page one may link to lesson plans pertaining to different facets of history, government and other aspects of social studies: http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/soc_stud.htm

Current Event and News Websites

Newseum: This is the interactive website of the Newseum, the nation's news museum found in Rosslyn, VA, which explores news issues of past and present and explores the role of the press in American life. Unfortunately, some of the pictures on the website took a long time to download on my computer. http://www.newseum.org

New York Times Website for Teachers: This website has activities for social studies teachers related to the news and historical news items: http://www.nytimes.com/learning/index.html

Time Magazine: Time Magazine offers an on-line version of "News for Kids". You'll find grade-level appropriate stories, games and other activities. http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/
USA Today: USA TODAY created this website for educators. Each day, teachers receive the latest news from USA TODAY and can find lesson plans to assist teaching current events. http://www.usatoday.com/educate/home.htm

Washington Post Website for Kids of Elementary and Middle School Levels: This news site offers a look at what's going on in the world. Articles are appropriate for upper elementary and middle school students. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/education/kidspost/

Special Topics

Art & Social Studies: Following are websites pertaining to works of art and how they may be interpreted. Analysis of works of art may be useful when teaching history, geography, and cultural studies:

•  How to Read a Painting ( http://www.kcsd.k12.pa.us/~projects/critic/index.html ) and

•  Our Place in the World ( http://www.artsednet.getty.edu/ArtsEdNet/Resources/Place/index.html ).

•  The website of the St. Louis Art museum: http://www.slam.org/

•  The Getty Arts Education website: http://www.getty.edu/artsednet/

•  This Smithsonian website, entitled “Landscape Paintings: Artists Who Loved the Land, includes reproductions of landscape paintings and lesson plans: http://educate.si.edu/resources/lessons/art-to-zoo/landscape/cover.html .

•  The Metropolitan Museum of the Arts: http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/index.asp and http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/ .

•  The Kennedy Center has a website called “Arts Edge,” which includes lessons and activities for social studies: http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/teaching_materials/curricula/curricula.cfm?subject_id=SOC .

•  “Artlex,” a dictionary of arts terminology: http://www.artlex.com/ .

•  Art and Roman Artists website: http://www.museumstuff.com/topics2/art-and-roman-artists.html

•  Museum stuff: http://www.museumstuff.com/

Assessment: A website from Illinois State University Curriculum and Instruction Department pertaining to assessment in social studies and geography, with lots of ideas for alternative assessments and rubrics: http://coe.ilstu.edu/jabraun/braun/professional/rubric.html

Document Analysis: This website from the National Archives provides suggestions for teachers for how to help their students analyze documents: http://www.nara.gov/education/teaching/analysis/analysis.html

Ethical Dilemmas: A website of the Institute of Global Issues focused on right-versus-right issues or ethical dilemmas: http://www.globalethics.org/dilemmas/default.tmpl

Exploring the World: This website, called “Exploris,” is the world's first Global Experience Center and interactive museum about the world: http://www.exploris.org/home.jtmpl

Holocaust: Following is the website from the Facing History and Ourselves Program. This program, which deals with the Holocaust, by dealing with an historical topic, could be categorized as a history website. At the same time, the program deals with civic responsibility and group membership, which makes it appropriate to the study of civics/government and sociology. Here is the site's address: http://www.facing.org/facing/fhao2.nsf .

Holocaust Plus: Gerda Weitzman was a survivor of the Holocaust who married Kurt Klein, a U.S. GI, who had earlier been sent from his homeland of Germany by his parents to escape anti-Semitic persecution. The Kleins, who now live in the United States, setup a foundation called the Gerda and Kurt Klein Foundation, which is committed to helping people learn lessons from the Holocaust and also to commit themselves to making the world a better place, especially by fighting hunger. The website is interdisciplinary with its embrace of history, geography, and civic action (to fight hunger and prejudice). The site may be found at http://www.kleinfoundation.org/main.html .

International Collaborative Social Studies Projects: A website of the U.S. Department of Education, which deals with international collaborative social studies projects: http://www.ed.gov/Technology/guide/international/socialstudies.html

Issues (Choices for the 21 st Century Project): This is the website of the Choices of the 21 st Century Project, which has produced inexpensive units pertaining to current issues and U.S. and world history: http://www.choices.edu and http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Watson_Institute/Choices/index.html

Literature within Social Studies: NCSS and the American Library Association each year come up with a list of Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People at this website: http://www.socialstudies.org/resources/notable/home.html ,

Political Cartoons: A website for political cartoons with lesson plans and suggestions on how to use political cartoons: http://cagle.slate.msn.com/teacher/

Prejudice: The Anti-Defamation League has a website dealing with resources for teaching about prejudice: http://www.adl.org/main_education.asp

Prejudice and Hate: Helping students learn about bias and hate, their consequences and how to deal with these problems: http://www.partnersagainsthate.org/publications/guide_summary.html .

Refugee Issues: This website from the UN Refugee Agency provides online lesson plans pertaining to refugee issues that tie into civic, geography, and history education: http://www.unhcr.ch/teach/teach.htm