Welcome to the Social Studies Content Resources

Program Staff

Promising Links and Web sites for Socials Studies

There are many excellent on-line resources and web sites for students and social studies teachers. The following are just a sampling of some that might prove particularly useful in the classroom. If you would like to suggest a site for inclusion, please contact WDE’s Social Studies Contact Specialist.

Disclaimer – the following are suggested sites that are only recommended by the WDE Social Studies Content specialist; they should not be interpreted in anyway as recommended or endorsed by the Wyoming Department of Education.

Other links can be found through the National Council for Social Studies (NCSS) at http://www.socailstudies.org and CSF, the Council for State Social Studies Specialists, which also offers recent surveys on social studies in the classroom and updates regarding social studies and NCLB: http://www.socialstudies.org/cs4.  

Federal Resources for Educational Excellence at http://www.ed.gov/free has many resources social studies and other categories. These are upgraded monthly and listed by topic and subject.

I. Civic Education

The Albert Shanker Institute offers Educating Democracy: State Standards to Ensure a Civic Core at: www.shankerinstotute.org/Downloads/gagnon/contents.html

The Bill of Rights Institute www.BillofrightsInstitute.org provides instruction in U.S. government, history, law and democracy. The Institute offers to partner with your school for Teaching American History Grant proposals. Contact Catherine Wigginton 800-838-7870, ext.11 or go to www.ed.gov/programs/teachinghistory.

The Center for Civic Education at http://www.civiv.org/index.php is a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational corporation dedicated to fostering the development of informed, responsible participation in civic life by citizens committed to values and principles fundamental to American constitutional democracy.

The Center on Congress at Indiana University was established in 1999 to improve broad public understanding of Congress and its role and impact on the lives of ordinary people, everyday. http://congress.indiana.edu/about/index.php .

Liberty Day at http://www.libertyday.org is a non-partisan grassroots celebration of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S Constitution. The site offers lessons on appreciating democracy that are designed mainly for civics and American government courses taught at the high-school level. They can also be used in courses on American history. http://www.ncsl.org/public/TYrust/DemocracyLesson/Overview_deomocracylesson.html  

Project Citizen at http://www.civiced.org/project_citizen.php We the People: Project Citizen is a curriculum program for middle school students that promotes competent and responsible participation in local and state government. The program helps young people learn how to monitor and influence public policy. In the process, they develop support for democratic values and principles, tolerance, and feelings of political efficacy.

Presidential Classroom: http://www.presidentialclassroom.org/content/about/whatwedo.asp provides academic and leadership development experience in Washington, D.C. for high school juniors and seniors.

We the People at http://www.civiced.org/wethepeople.php the primary goal of We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution is to promote civic competence and responsibility among the nation’s elementary and secondary students. What makes the We the People so successful is the design of its instructional program, including its innovating culminating activity, a state-wide contest tied into the national We the People Competition. Contact Kristi Wallin kwallin@uwyo.edu.

The Wyoming Partnership for Civic Education www.uwyo.edu/wyo-pce, sponsored by the University of Wyoming’s American Heritage Center and College of Education, provides information, resources and administrative support to civic education programs and teachers throughout the state. It hosts a summer workshop for civics educators each August. Contact Kristi Wallin at kwallin@uwyo.edu.

Of particular interest to Wyoming: The Heart Mountain Japanese Relocation Center: Powell, WY: http://ahc.uwyo.edu/eduoutreach/lessonplans/heartmountain/default.htm See: Heart Mountain Relocation Center: A Lesson Using Primary Source Documents To Critically Analyze The Relocation Of Japanese Americans To Wyoming. This lesson, from the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming, correlates with National Standards for United States History Era 8, Standard 3c: Evaluate the internment of Japanese American during the war and assess the implication for civil liberties. It is designed for grades 7-12.

Youth for Justice: http://www.crfc.org/yfj.html is the national, coordinated law-related education (LRE) program supported by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention of the U.S. Department of Justice.

II. Cultural Diversity and Heritage

Cultural Arts Resources for Teachers and Students (CARTS) http://www.carts.org is the leading site for incorporating folk arts, folk lore, and the traditions of people, place and cultural into the classroom.

The American Association for State and Local History (AASLH): AASLH is an organization that supports community history and expressions of personal and regional heritage: http://www.aash.org . The site offers templates for conducting oral histories, archiving and interpreting historical photographs, and other resources useful for students who want to explore and research their heritage and their communities.

The American History Association (AHA): AHA’s Teaching Diversity: People of Color, an essay series from AHA’s Committee on Minority Historians is a good teacher resources.

The Montana Heritage Project www.edheriatge.org and the Heritage Education Network, (THEN) at www.mtsu.edu/~then. These two sites offer exceptional materials for involving students in researching and expressing their personal cultural heritage or that of their immediate community.

Teaching Tolerance: Teaching Tolerance is an excellent on-line destination for people “interested in dismantling bigotry and creating, in hate's stead, communities that value diversity.” The site publishes both a newsletter and magazine, offers curriculum on subjects such as the holocaust and excellent free materials produced by the Southern Poverty Law Center on subjects such as Rosa Parks and the Birmingham Children’s March. http://www.tolerance.org  

III. Economics

EconEdlink: For lessons that match Wyoming or any other state’s standards click on EconEdLink at http://my.econedlink.org/standards/.

The National Council for Economic Education (NCEE): NCEE is “a national network that leads in promoting economic literacy with students and their teachers.” It’s website at www.ncee.net has materials for classes on Financial Fitness for Life, a comprehensive K-12 program that consists of teacher resource manuals, student workbooks, parent guides, interactive activities, and a CD- Rom. Materials, which must be purchased, are designed to help “students apply economic and decision-making skills to the real world of earning and spending”. They include “income, savings, using credit, investing, and managing money.” http://www.ncee.net?ea/program.php?pid=8  

Virtual Economics: Also try CS4’s newly minted Virtual Economics at http://www.ncee.net/ve3  

IV. Geography

National Geographic: National Geographic http://www.nationalgeographic.com, offers “on-line adventures” teacher guides, lesson plans and history activities, a teacher's store, and “much more” through www.nationalgeographic.com/education.  

Marco Polo: www.marcoploo-education.org offers free K-12 standards-based lesson plans across many disciplines, including social studies and geography.

Wyoming Geographic Alliance: The Wyoming Geographic Alliance coordinates and sponsors the Wyoming State Geography Bee: http://ngsednet.org/community/about.cfm?community_id=94. Since 1986 the Alliance has helped build a state-wide network dedicated to improving geography education in K-12 schools.

Geography and US History

The Best of Both Worlds: Blending History and Geography in the K-12 Curriculum is an innovative curriculum framework written by Richard G. Boehm, David Warren Saxe, and David J. Rutherord in which major historical periods in U.S. history are supplemented and enriched by the introduction of relevant geography. This curriculum, which you can download for free, provides teachers with ample material to explore the complementary nature of these two subjects. http://www.edexcellence.net/institute/publication/publication.cfm?id=68

V. History

There are so many outstanding sites under this category it’s hard to choose but here are a few of that are exceptionally useful:

Fordam University’s Internet Modern History Source Book is a rich, multi-dimensional source for primary resource documents, content and links. Its “Source Books” give some indication of the site’s scope. They include: Ancient History Sourcebook; Medieval Sourcebook; Modern History Course; African, East Asian, Indian, Islamic and Jewish Sourcebooks and an online guide to Women’s History, LGBT and Science History. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook.html

George Mason University’s Center for History and the New Media also has excellent resources at the high school level on world history. See, for example, their World History Matters and American Social History Project. The site also offers resources on using material culture effectively in the classroom, with units that demonstrate how maps, symbols, and images can be incorporated for research and interpretation. The Center’s Teaching American History component has a wealth of projects created by Virginia school districts in collaboration with the Center and other partners. www.http://chnm.gmu.edu.  

For enlivening visuals try Herblock’s History: Political Cartoons from the Crash to the Millennium www.loc.gov/rr/print/swann/herblock/

VI. Sources on Wyoming History

The American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming has a number of Wyoming-based lesson plans, collections and photographs pertaining exclusively to the history of Wyoming: http://ahc.uwyo.edu/eduoutreach/default.htm.

The Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody at www.bbhc.org offers a wealth of materials and traveling trunk exhibits on the history of the American West. Contact Maryanne Andrus at maryannea@BBHC.org

For a wealth of primary resource materials on early Wyoming history try The Diaries of John Hunton: Made to Last, Written to Last – Sagas of the Western Frontier edited by Michael Griske. The original diaries are at the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming.

For Historic Trails in Wyoming, the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office has an excellent site: http://wyoshpo.state.wy.us/trailsdemo/select.htm See, for example, their resources on the Bridger Trail : http://wyoshpo.state.wy.us/btrail/acknowledgements.html

For Native American History in Wyoming: www.windriverhistory.org.  

Women’s Suffrage: To see where the West fits in try the National Endowment for the Humanities Edsitement website at, http://edsitemnet.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id+439 entitled, Women’s Suffrage: Why the West First?

Wyoming Voices: Wyoming Public Television’s three part series on the history and people of Wyoming can be purchased by call 1-800-495-9788, or through their website at http://www.wyoptv.org

VII. American History

The History Channel offers a free 92 page Teacher Sourcebook, a valuable resource created for teachers to work with their 100 Milestone Documents which focuses on key documents in the National Archives. The Sourcebook includes an annotated timeline, key themes, guidelines to primary resources, and detailed lesson plans. www.historychannel.com

The Gilder Lerhman Institute of American History provides documents and exercises for classroom use and encourages excellence in student writing with essay prize. Its Teaching Modules in American History cover more than twenty topics that correspond to major periods in American. Each module includes: a succinct historical overview; learning tools including lesson plans, quizzes, and activities; recommended documents, films and historic images. http://www.gilderlehrman.org/teachers/index.html

Journey Back in Time at http://www.journeybackintime.com  is an exceptionally well designed site which offers online access to a wide and rich array of primary American history resources, aligned to National Social Studies Standards, that correspond to thematic units based on major historical eras.

VIII. Latino/Latina

For an excellent collection of primary resources of Colonial Latin America go to Fordam University’s Internet Modern History Sources: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook08.html#Colonial%20Latin%20America

IX. Native American

American Indian History: For primary, middle school and senior high take a look at the Minnesota Department of Education’s American Indian History, Culture and Language Curriculum Framework, especially their Sovereignty Lesson Plan Modules. http://education.state.mn.us/content/066018.doc.  

Arapaho, Cheyenne and Ute: For classroom material on the Arapaho, Cheyenne, Ute (and Puebloans) entitled American Indians of Colorado: Snapshots in Time, go the Denver Public School’s Indian Education department: http://indianeducation.dpsk12.org  

Canada- Canada’s Coalition for the Advancement of Aboriginal Studies at the University of York, www.edu.yorku.ca:8080/~caas/about.htm offers a number of resources on Native Canadians or First Peoples. Their standards for First Nation students offer a good structure for approaching Native American histories and cultures in the U.S. CAAS also host an inter-active teacher help line on what strategies works best in the classroom and post requests for information.

Cradleboard: www.cradelboard.org, the web site of the Nihewan Foundation for Native American Education has promising resources for the classroom that are based on the Native perspective.

Law: A Brief History of U.S. Laws Applied to American Indians: http://rtc.ruralinstitute.umt.edu/indain/Facts/sheets/AIDLHistory.htm.

Many Lands, Many Histories: This guide to help you and your students learn about the Native American communities of Wyoming or neighboring states, entitled Many Peoples, Many Histories: Exploring Native American Cultures of the United States, can be downloaded at no charge from TechKnow Associates. This “fully developed, standards-based interdisciplinary project, using the power of technology,” is appropriate for grades 6 to 8: http://techknowassociates.com/projects/native/htm .

TechKnow Associates (http://techknowassociates.com) also offers similar project-based learning units on South America, Meso America Calling, the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Blazing Trails with Lewis and Clark! and others that might be of interest. http://techknowassociates.com/projects/index.htm.

Native Village: A four star site for articles, essays and educational materials, links and an online newspaper concerning contemporary issues entitled Native Village Youth and Education News. Native Village offers updates on grants and other opportunities. Their Native Library is a wonderful resource broken down into topics such as: Animals Library; Arts and Crafts Library; Books, Literature, Storytelling; Clothes, Food, Shelter; Current Events; Earth and Environment; Elders, Leader and Heroes; European Invasion; Games and Sports; Health, History and Traditions; Media; Music and Dance; Plants, and its award winning, Native Language Library. www.nativevillage.org.

Powwows: The Denver Public Schools’ Department of Indian Education offers curriculum and lesson plans on Powwows entitled Powwow: Dancing the Circle http://indianeducation.dpsk12.org/stories/

Sheep Eater Indians of the Greater Yellowstone: Sometimes referred to as the Mountain Shoshone, the Sheep Eaters were the only full time inhabitants of what is now Yellowstone National Park. http://www.windriverhistory.org, the web site for the Chief Washakie Foundation has articles and other materials on these Mountain Indians including a four-part video series and traveling trunk for the classroom. To purchase and/or reserve the latter contact the Dubois Museum at (307) 455-2284.

Sovereignty – see above under American Indian History at the Department of Education in Minnesota.

Thanksgiving: The Denver Public Schools’ Department of Indian Education also offers curriculum and lesson plans for elementary teachers on Thanksgiving that includes the Native perspective. http://indianeducation.dpsk12.org/stories/

Wyoming Native Americans: For Native American history in Wyoming go to http://www.windriverhistory.org the web site of the Chief Washakie Foundation. You can also locate the four part video series on the Sheep Eater Indians of the Greater Yellowstone through this site which maintains a virtual archive of historical photographs, oral histories and other resources.

For Field trips: The St. Stephens Mission’s Heritage Center across from the St. Stephen’s School offers historical displays, traditional crafts and beadwork, historical photographs, and a replica of dormitory life for Arapaho students during the early days of the mission. You can also make arrangement to see the historic St. Stephen’s Mission Church. Contact the St. Stephen's Indian Mission & Heritage Center at 307-856-7806. The Mission’s hours are 9am-12pm, 1-4pm Mon-Wed. & Friday

X. Social Justice Issues

Facing History and Ourselves: http://www.facinghistory.org/facing/fhao2.nsf/main/about+us  “For more than 27 years, Facing History has engaged teachers and students of diverse backgrounds in an examination of racism, prejudice, and anti-Semitism in order to promote the development of a more humane and informed citizenry. By studying the historical development of the Holocaust and other examples of collective violence, students make the essential connection between history and the moral choices they confront in their own lives.”

Holocaust Education: Echoes and Reflections is a multimedia curriculum, rich with visual history and testimony on the Holocaust integrated into lessons for high school students. This resource was created by the Anti-Defamation League, Survivors of the Shoah – Visual History Foundation and Yad Vashem. www.echoesandreflections.org  

The Heart Mountain Japanese Relocation Center: http://ahc.uwyo.edu/eduoutreach/lessonplans/heartmountain/default.htm  Heart Mountain Relocation Center: A Lesson Using Primary Source Documents To Critically Analyze The Relocation Of Japanese Americans To Wyoming. This lesson, from the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming, correlates with National Standards for United States History Era 8, Standard 3c: Evaluate the internment of Japanese American during the war and assess the implication for civil liberties. It is designed for grades 7-12.

American German and American Italian Internment during World War II: Here are two interesting sites:

• http://www.serve.com/shea/germusa/intern.htm
• http://www.foitimes.com/internment.

The second contains a number of first hand counts that students might find particularly engaging

Teaching for Change, Multicultural Diversity and Anti-Bias: www.teachingforchange.org.