Utilizing video and photos, elementary school students will synthesize some Dust Bowl experiences by creating a children's book in this multi-day activity.

Beginning in the 1930s, drought wracked Oklahoma, Arkansas, and other areas of the Great Plains. Farmers watched in despair as their crops died and their children grew hungry. The experiences of these farmers have been publicized in many ways, most notably in the stunning photography of Dorothea Lange. Lange began working for...

In this lesson, elementary school students will debate whether or not prominent athletes should promote political and social issues. The debate will be informed by the activism of Muhammad Ali, who resisted the drafted during the Vietnam War, and Tommie Smith and John Carlos, who protested American racism at the 1968 Olympics.

In 1967, Cassius Clay, who would later be known as Muhammad Ali, refused to be drafted into the military to fight in the Vietnam War. He claimed that he...

Your classroom will never be the same. 

Digital storytelling offers a revolutionary new way to engage students in the study of history.  Using free, easy-to-use software, you and your students can create professional-looking historical documentaries that can be shown and shared on computer or television screens.  These stories weave together images, text, narration, charts and graphs, and a musical soundtrack, just like the documentaries found on PBS or the History Channel. 

Digital storytelling is active,...

Ask anyone what the greatest disaster in Chicago was and probably no one will say, “The Great Iroquois Theatre Fire of December 30, 1903.” Six hundred three souls perished in that fire. They probably won’t say, “The sinking of the Eastland excursion boat in the Chicago river in 1915.” Eight hundred thirty-five died in that tragedy. The answer will most likely be, “The Great Chicago Fire.” The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 left approximately three and one-third square miles of the city in ruin, created $192,000,000 in...