This resource was created by Whittney Carnahan, in collaboration with Dawn DeTurk, Hannah Blomstedt, and Julie Albrecht, as part of ESU2's Integrating the Arts project. This project is a four year initiative focused on integrating arts into the core curriculum through teacher education, practice, and coaching.

The history of earthquakes in the San Francisco Bay area is plotted on a digital map and analyzed in this video segment adapted from NOVA.

Social and Economic Justice: A Human Rights Perspective is intended to expand the conversation about human rights. It provides background information, ideas for taking action, and interactive activities to help people think about human rights in a broader, more inclusive manner. It strives to help us define issues like homelessness, poverty, hunger, and inadequate health care, not only as “social or economic problems,” but also as human rights challenges

Here you will find links to Economics resources for grades K-12, curated from Smithsonian Learning Lab, Council for Economic Education (CEE), Econ Lowdown, EconEdLink, Next Gen Personal Finance (NGPF).

In this video segment from Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, learn how Muslims in America celebrate Eid al-Fitr, the Ű_í_Ű__Ű_ŒŰ_ŒŒŰ‹_Feast of Breaking the Fast.Ű_í_Ű__Ű_ŒŰ_ŒŰ_í_Ű_Œ

This site looks at American political parties of the past, presidential inaugurations, images of presidents and first ladies, our first uniform election day, political cartoons by Herbert Block (Herblock) and Pat Oliphant, the 1877 electoral commission created by Congress to resolve the disputed presidential election of 1876, the 19th and 24th amendments (ending the poll tax and giving women the right to vote), and the Nixon-Kennedy debates.

It is important to educate future voters about the issues, processes, and impacts of voting in elections. These resources include links to lesson plans, videos, games, and printables to assist teachers K—12 to promote civic participation and voting.

IntroductionThis lesson seed includes lesson plans and resources to assist Social Studies teachers in elementary classrooms.  These is a section dedicated to grades 1-3 that focuses on map skills, modes of transportation, how goods are transported and how people change the earth.  There is also a section dedicated to grades 4-5 that focuses on the physical features and grography of Maryland and the United States. At the bottom of the resources is an academic vocabulary word list for key concepts to consider providing visual support to assist you in tailoring your lessons to ELL students within your classroom, along with link to WIDA CAN DO Descriptors.Lesson Seeds:Lesson seeds are ideas for the standards that can be used to build a lesson. Lesson seeds are not meant to be all-inclusive, nor are they substitutes for instruction. This lesson seed provides a compelling question and a bank of sources to use to drive an inquiry based lesson or a potential Evidence Based Argument Set (EBAS). When developing lessons from these seeds, teachers must consider the needs of all learners. Once you have built your lesson from the lesson seed, teachers are encouraged to post the lesson that has emerged from this lesson seed and share with others. 

Linda Black Elk is passionate about plants. Linda Black Elk is an ethnobotanist and professor of ethnobotany and science education at Sitting Bull College in Fort Yates, North Dakota and recently she traveled to the Cansayapi Oyate (the Lower Sioux Indian Community) to share her knowledge of medicinal plants with students there.

Two lesson plans for grades 9-12 are included as gallery assets and in the Support Materials.

Primary sources provide firsthand evidence and perspectives of historical events by the person writing them.  Students will read various types of correspondence (letters, diaries, and postcards) and analyze their content.  Students will then take on the role of a citizen and write a letter as if they were part of a major event of the Civil War. 

A person’s starting line for success is due to a series of circumstances that are outside their control. This unit focuses on economic status as a factor of birth that can determine the opportunities that one can access. My students will unpack their economic identity to (1) examine how their economic status affects access to opportunities and (2) determine the choices they have control over that could increase future financial success. Through a careful examination of this facet of their identity, my goal is for students to identify the limitations that are correlated to their economic status and the choices that they can make to level the playing field between themselves and their wealthier counterparts.

In this video segment from Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, learn about Muslims in Lawrenceville, Georgia, their plans to build an Islamic cemetery and the stiff objections from their Christian neighbors.

In this unit, students will learn about multiple ecosystems and the human impact to these systems as they follow migratory fish through their life cycles. As students study migratory fish, they will learn about the ecosystems of the rivers, Long Island Sound estuary, and the Atlantic Ocean. In this way, students will develop an understanding of the complex interactions between these ecosystems as well as their interdependent relationships in our global water system enabling the survival of these world travelers. This engaging thematic curriculum unit is designed for students of 3rd through 6th grades to explore the more complex ecosystems of the Long Island Sound watershed. This unit builds upon a prior unit I wrote called, “Just Ask! Exploring Marine Life of Long Island Sound.” /curriculum/units/2013/4/13.04.02.x.html

Through this study, students will learn the fundamental principles and interactions between multiple ecosystems and the marine creatures that swim within them. As students develop an appreciation and deeper understanding of these marine creatures and each ecosystem, students will more fully understand the significance of the human impact of these systems and be inspired to invest in potential solutions. This problem based unit will build core knowledge of watershed science, our global water system, and the migratory fish that move through these marine environments as students ask questions, read, write and investigate these topics.

Explains the history of the neolithic era and the origins of the first agricultural revolution, and how that contributed to agriculture today.

Learning cardinal directions and locating physical features using relative location- Made easy for first graders.-- Created using PowToon -- Free sign up at http://www.powtoon.com/ . Make your own animated videos and animated presentations for free. PowToon is a free tool that allows you to develop cool animated clips and animated presentations for your website, office meeting, sales pitch, nonprofit fundraiser, product launch, video resume, or anything else you could use an animated explainer video. PowToon's animation templates help you create animated presentations and animated explainer videos from scratch. Anyone can produce awesome animations quickly with PowToon, without the cost or hassle other professional animation services require.

This lesson will include a study of several primary sources that detail the 1918 flu epidemic and how it affected a variety of people in Alabama (ELA2015(6)32). Students will work in small groups to study different primary sources and will complete graphic organizers specific to the type of primary source. Groups will then share their information with the class and discuss how the flu affected different populations of Alabama. The focus and outcomes of this lesson will meet the Social Studies standard (SS2010(6)) by allowing the students to describe civilian roles during WWI and recognizing the military bases in Alabama. This lesson was created in partnership with the Alabama Department of Archives and History.

This lesson explores the complexities of food waste and its connection to climate change.

Step 1 - Inquire: Students think about food waste and how it may be connected to climate.

Step 2 - Investigate: Students learn about different sources and areas of food waste, how food waste is rooted in inequity, and how food waste contributes to greenhouse gas emissions.

Step 3 - Inspire: Students discuss different solutions and actions being taken to address food waste and reflect on the actions they can take within their own community.

In their culminating capstone project, students reflect on their understanding of U.S. history to answer the question: What do we want to be true for the future of the United States? They consider the difficult and uplifting stories that make up the fabric of U.S. history as they consider a path forward toward a better tomorrow. Students explore multimedia projects created by different artists that effectively highlight moments in history while pushing audiences to consider how we might make collective change in the future. They select and research a topic and choose a medium that speaks to the message they are trying to create. Students work with their peers to make a plan to authentically share their final products with their class or broader community.   

tool: There is a Question Waiting There.This tool encourages students to read and process the information through analyzing what question the passage sections answer.This strategy engages students.

Artifact included

Are you looking for FREE, semester-long economics, government, american history, and personal finance courses? If so, visit www.certell.org to download. Certell is an educational non-profit who's mission is to support and develop educational resources and technology that lower the cost of education and help individuals lead flourishing lives. We want to help schools and teachers thrive! All content meets national standards and most meet AP standards (when applicable).