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HISTORY-SOCIAL SCIENCE RESOURCES, LESSONS & INTERACTIVE SITES
Social Science Sites
Social Science Sites.
WORLD HISTORY/SOCIAL SCIENCE SITES
You or your students can receive instructions here on how to add or subtract using this ancient yet modern calculator. A good site to help you supplement your units on Asia or the ancient Aztecs. Gives the history too!
CHALLENGES OF GUATEMALA - http://www.worldtrek.org/odyssey/teachers/guatlessons.html
Lessons about Mayan achievements, and life. Links to great pictures. Also links to lessons on Mexico (same type), Mali, Zimbabwe, Peru and Egypt. GREAT!!
This website was created to support the series of PBS shows on Africa. There is something for all levels of students. For younger children, go to Africa for Kids. Learn about the daily life of students in four African nations, play a virtual thumb piano, or figure out how the hero of a Swahili folktale can accomplish his mission. Teacher tools has four wonderful units on Africa. Photography teachers can use the Photoscope area to getstudents talking about the impact of photographs. For those who think they already know it all, take the Africa Challenge.
AFRICA - http://www.geographia.com/indx06.htm
Geographia's survey of the dark continent, looking at history and modern nations in this quickly changing, evolving political climate; great layout - attractive and easy to navigate.
AFRICA GEOGRAPHY WEBQUEST - http://questgarden.com/34/21/5/061014144911/index.htm
This is designed to help students explore African geography.
West Africa by Region and Country - flags of each country and links to everywhere.
AFRICAN VOICES -http://www.mnh.si.edu/africanvoices/
From the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, this site explores Africa's past and the history of the land and people. Topics presented in themes are about various forms of the wealth, working and living in Africa; more themes will be added. History looks at Mali, the slave trade, colonialism and more. The Learning Center contains an excellent hotlist of African resources. Some sections of the site need browser plug-ins to enhance your experience: Macromedia Flash 4 or Apple Quicktime 4.
BOOK - http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/africa/africasbook.html
This site is from the people who gave us the Medieval Sourcebook. This is a great starting point for the study of Africa, including Egypt, Ghana, Mali, Zimbabwe, and others. It includes all of Africa from Egypt and Sudan to West Africa and Zimbabwe. Try it, you will like it.
THE HORIZON TO THE PAST - http://www.akhet.co.uk/
A major site out of the United Kingdom, covering ancient Egypt in all its glory. Learn about the Art of the Afterlife, Grave Goods, Mythology, and Monuments and Tombs. Let your students explore the Clickable Mummy. While studying about the rulers of Egypt, they will learn more about day-to-day lives of the Egyptian people.
ANCIENT ADVENTURES - http://members.tripod.com/~jaydambrosio/
Teacher created, interactive learning adventures for ancient history.
Board games were very common in ancient Egypt and people from all levels of society played them. The British Museum now presents a marvelous interactive overview of ancient Egyptian life. There are ten topics (for example Pyramids, Geography, Pharaoh), each featuring a Shockwave challenge such as playing a board game or matching tools to the correct tradesman. There are curriculum notes for teachers in the Staff Room.
WEBQUEST - http://www.iwebquest.com/egypt/ancientegypt.htm
You must locate the burial mask of the Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamen - on the inside of the mask is written a message that if successfully decoded could solve our earth's environmental crisis; your quest is to decode that message and return to our time.
INDIA (BRITISH MUSEUM) - http://www.ancientindia.co.uk/
This site provides teachers with an online resource that is user-friendly and combines suggested classroom activities and online activities with background support and information, and presents information about ancient India through the use of objects from the British Museum's collection. The sites are divided into Geography, Story of the Buddha, growth of civilization around the Indus Valley, ancient scripts, how time was kept in ancient India, and the evolution of the gods and goddesses and the development of the modern Hindu religion. Don't miss the "Staff Pages" for a browsable search tool as well as aids for using the site.
ANCIENT INDUS VALLEY - http://www.harappa.com/har/har0.html
Extensive treatment of this rich culture from ancient times, including Around in Indus in 90 slides.
ANCIENT OLYMPICS - http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Olympics/
Wonderful comparison of the ancient Olympics and the Centennial Modern Games in Atlanta with plenty of substance provided from the Perseus Project; this is a first rate treatment of the evolution of the Olympic tradition
ANCIENT STONES OF SCOTLAND - http://www.stonepages.com/ancient_scotland/
This fascinating site is part of SCRAN, a searchable archive of history and culture. Links lead to pictures of natural and manmade stone outcroppings, with the local lore included. The glossary can pump up your vocabulary a bit, too.
THE AZTECS: A Pre-Columbian History - http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1999/2/99.02.01.x.html
This curriculum unit endeavors to offer a supplement to the present high school textbooks and lesson plans on the Aztec Civilization on the eve of the Spanish conquest. This information is appropriate for World Cultures, Latin America Cultures and Spanish Language courses.
AZTECS MEET THE SPANISH - http://score.rims.k12.ca.us/activity/aztecs_spanish/
Some links are not working, but this is an interesting simulation written by Gina Otto. This lesson begins: "Spanish explorer Hernan Cortes encountered the Aztecs in 1519 and conquered them in 1521, claiming their empire for Spain. He then destroyed the Aztec capital city of Tenochtitlan and rebuilt a Spanish city on its ruins. It is the year 1527 and an Independent Counsel has been chosen by the College of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church to determine a policy for the Church toward future exploration, conquest and conversion of the native people of Mexico." Students are asked to represent either the Spanish or the Aztecs, research the information pertinent to their roles and cultures, and present a legal argument before Coronado begins his search for the legendary Seven Cities of Gold, and Pizarro sets off on his expedition to Peru.
BBC: ROMANS - http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/romans/
Highlights of this wonderful BBC site include seven printable activity sheets, a quiz about Roman technology such as aqueducts and arches, a Roman timeline, and a glossary of Roman terms from "amphitheater" to "wreath." Learn the story of how Rome, Italy's capital, got its name from the legend of Romulus and Remus, two orphaned twins raised by a wolf and other things.
KIDS' ZONE - http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/page218.asp
Check out British monarchy or a peek at their art and residences, you'll find it all here. This entry page take you to the kids' section which includes a fact file about the Queen (she owns twelve dogs) and her heirs, and an ABC glossary of royal vocabulary. To explore the rest of the site, use the menu displayed horizontally across the top of any page.
PREHISTORIC HUMANS THROUGH PICTURES - http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=362
Students explore how people in earlier times used art as a way to record stories and communicate ideas.
CAVE OF LASCAUX -
From the Ministry of Culture in France, this site lets you take a virtual tour of the Palaeolithic wall paintings of Lascaux. Explore the caves and learn more about the images created by artists 15,000 years ago. Available in English, French, Spanish, and German.
Students of all ages can access these easy-to-understand lessons that teach the basic strategies of chess. There are online line lessons, offline lessons to download (you need to load a special font on our computer), and free interactive quizzes.
GUIDE TO THE ANCIENT WORLD - http://www.artic.edu/cleo/index.html
An interactive guide to the Ancient Art Collection of The Art Institute of Chicago, Cleopatra, queen of Egypt from 51 to 30 B.C., embodied the three great cultures of the ancient Mediterranean region: she was Greek by birth, ruled Egypt as its queen, and lost her kingdom to Rome. To see the "Close-up" views of the Ancient Art objects, their "Stories" and listen to the Glossary pronunciations you will need QuickTime. Includes printable lesson plans for grades 4 thru 12 (http://www.artic.edu/cleo/Teachfolder/LPMainSearch.html).
LIFE IN ANCIENT
CIVILIZATIONS - http://www.mrdonn.org/ancienthistory.html
This site is exactly what it says. Learn all about the daily life of many different Ancient Civilizations. - Think of all the ways you could incorporate this into your teaching. Another great site from Mr. Donn.
DAY AT THE
- Rome - http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/lostempires/roman/
Wander through the frigidarium, tepidarium, caldarium, and other vital rooms in an online reconstruction of the famous Baths of Caracalla. Part of the PBS NOVA series. You can also construct an aqueduct!
DISCOVERING EGYPT - http://discoveringegypt.com
On this site is info about Ancient Egypt, the pharaohs, pyramids, 3D temple reconstructions, Mummification, and the hieroglyphic script. You can write your name in hieroglyphs, use the Hieroglyphic Typewriter, learn about the anciet number system, and readstories of the Egyptians. Also see Egyptian Mathematics site.
MATHEMATICS - http://discoveringegypt.com/egyptian-hieroglyphic-writing/egyptian-mathematics-numbers-hieroglyphs/
This page offers basic lessons in the Egyptian number system and then offers several pages full of math problems that require students to work with Egyptian numerals in order to solve them.
FIGURES: SCROLL PAINTINGS - http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=349
Students identify and represent in their own drawings figures from the Book of the Dead, a funereal text written on papyrus and carved on the walls of tombs to help guide the deceased through the afterlife.
This site provides a World WideWeb resource for information on Egypt.
ITALY - http://www.enchantedlearning.com/europe/italy/
Click here for a great introduction to Italy for elementary and middle-schoolers, which has an overview of important country stats, and lots of maps and flags to print and color like the coloring pictures of Italian art masterpieces by Michelangelo, da Vinci and Raphael, and an overview of Italian inventions such as the battery, eyeglasses, parachute and radio. Be sure to look at the printable story books with Italian vocab.
EXPLORERS OF THE WORLD - http://www.fno.org/bio/explore.htm
Another great site by Jamie McKenzie, this sites divides explorers by land, ideas, sky and art and links to biographies, student ideas, etc.
Virtual travel through the Renaissance city of Florence. Free audio guides of Florence for your iPod, iPhone or mp3 players. Check out the interactive map of Florence too.
Ever wonder what the Vikings ate when they set off to explore the new world? How Dolly Madison made her ice cream? What the pioneers cooked along the Oregon Trail? Who invented the potato chip...and why? Food is the fun part of social studies! The tricky part is finding recipes you can make in a modern kitchen, with ingredients bought at your local supermarket and bring into school to share with your class.
A CHINESE NAME - http://www.mandarintools.com/chinesename.html
This is a fun way to learn about Chinese Names (like, the fact that there is no one right way to directly translate an English name to a Chinese one) and to get a name that's based on the sounds in your English name and the meaning you choose."
Treatment of Greek heroes from a child's point of view.
INSTITUTE OF HEALTH) - http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/greek/index.html
An online exhibit, this site covers loss and recovery of Greek medicine, timeline, vocabulary, Olympian healers, Hippocrates, Aristotle, Galen, and other Greek physicians.
It is 1273, and you can play a free on-line heraldry game - learn about Shields, Knights and Heraldry. Role-play as a young aristocrat, recognizing friends and enemies.
IBN BATTUTA: A TRAVELER'S LOG -
"In a era when few had the means, time, or courage to submit to curiosity and venture off the map's edge, Ibn Battuta set out to complete Islam's traditional pilgrimage to Meccam and ultimately spent the better part of his life wandering." Interesting site.
POMPEII - http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=271
Students take a virtual field trip to the ruins of Pompeii to learn about everyday life in Roman times.
ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY - http://www.memphis.edu/egypt/
Online exhibit of ancient artifacts plus a virtual tour of a dozen sites along the Nile; brings together Science, Social Studies, Language Arts, Math and Health
ITALY GUIDES: VIRTUAL
TRAVEL IN THE CITY OF
THE RENAISSANCE: FLORENCE
Like a mini-vacation, Italy Guides brings you the best of Florence with QuickTime Virtual Realty tours, downloadable audio tours in MP3 format, and a photo gallery. Virtual tours are available for the Duomo (cathedral) of Florence, the Giotto's Bell Tower, the Dome of Brunelleschi, and twelve other sights.
KID’S CASTLE - http://www.kidsonthenet.org.uk/castle
Kids' Castle is currently closed to new submissions of writing. However the site is fully open for reading and there are lots of activities on the site including instant stories, word games, Dress the Knight, puzzles, wordsearches, quizzes etc.
KINGS AND QUEENS OF
ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND
Includes dukes, earls, knights, lords, popes, princes and others.
From the Boston Museum of Science; this site begins with a letter to teachers, followed by an Inventor's Workshop, a look at Leonardo's Perspective, and other resources. Curriculum connections to History, Science, Math, Health, and Language Art
CASTLE - http://www.castlewales.com/life.html
Info on The Hall, The Kitchen, Accommodations, Water, and The Chapel, and a link to the call Greensleeves.
Students explore the cultural and historical context of Greek drama.
MAGIC TALES OF MEXICO - http://www.g-world.org/magictales/
Nine stories with English and Spanish side by side.
- AGE OF EXPLORATION - http://www.mariner.org//educationalad/ageofex/
The age of exploration from the Ancient World of Egypt, Phoenicians, Greece, China, to Arabia and Ibn Buttuta, the Vikings, Portuguese, Spanish and others. Can be explored by Menu or Timeline. Great stuff.
MAYA CALENDAR - http://www.mayacalendar.com/
The Maya Calendar was the center of Maya life and their greatest cultural achievement. The Maya Calendar guided Mayan existence from the moment of birth and little that escaped its influence.
Just click on the name of the instrument and you will get a picture and a history. Great stuff.
MEDIEVAL TECHNOLOGY PAGES - http://scholar.chem.nyu.edu/tekpages/Technology.html
From Agricultural Tools to the Wine Press, learn how inventions and adaptations made a difference in how people lived their lives 500-1500 A.D.
A timeline organized in 200-year increments from 500-1600 AD; compliments of the Department of Chemistry of New York University. Items are listed by time period, but you can click on the item to get a picture or drawing and further information about it. This is a great source!!.
Take me out to the ballgame, as played in Mesoamerica, the subtropical area between present-day countries of Mexico and El Salvador. Learn about the eight major cultures found in this area between 1500 BC and 1519 AD, as well as the effect of the Spanish conquest in this region. Then, explore the architecture of the court, as well as the the balance between sport and religion within the game. Offline activities include creation of masks, clay effigies, headresses and clay ballgame figurines.
AGES - WORLD
HISTORY LESSON PLANS - http://medievaleurope.mrdonn.org/index.html
This is my personal favorite after my own of course! Tried and true lesson plans and activities on ancient Mesopotamia, Greece, Egypt, Rome, China, Africa and the Americas, and all other world history from Mr. Donn.
Need to memorize the order of the English royals? Try the mnemonic ditty that starts with William the Conqueror: "Willie, Willie, Harry, Stee. Harry, Dick, John, Harry three." You'll find the rest on the Monarchs' front page at Brittania.com Other goodies include a brief British history, a guide to royal titles and honors, and many biographies.
NEANDERTHALS ON TRIAL
“In 1856, bones of an unrecognizable hominid turned up in Germany's Neander Valley....Neanderthals. "Neanderthals on Trial" investigates this long-standing mystery. Check out: Casts of Characters--QuickTime movies to compare casts of two famous skulls and learn their histories and their differences; Into the Fray--the producer describes how he went about making the PBS film; Tracing Ancestry with MtDNA--geneticists have traced the maternal lineages of all modern humans back to a common ancestor who lived 150,000 years ago; Dig and Deduce--Uncover bone fragments and artifacts at three Neanderthal excavation sites, then step into the morass known as archeological interpretation; Resources and a Teacher's Guide. (Standards addressed: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/teachers/activities/2902_neandert.html#standards)
PYRAMID PUZZLE - http://wcvt.com/~tiggr
This site features an interdisciplinary Web-based project designed for middle school math students to determine how much it would cost to build an Egyptian pyramid today.
NORMANDY 1944 - http://normandy.eb.com/
Presented by Encyclopedia Britannica, a multimedia remembrance of Operation Overlord and the triumph that followed. Great!
ODYSSEY IN EGYPT - http://carlos.emory.edu/ODYSSEY/EGYPT/homepg.html
Ten week virtual dig in Egypt in which students can follow the excavation of an ancient Egyptian monastery and participate vicariously via QuickTime movies - nice format and lots of information for Middle School on up.
Welcome to Mexico's Palenque. This website, presented by the Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute, Merle Greene Robertson and Mesoweb, hosts the official homepage of a current archaeological dig at this classic Maya site. Check out the update links and reports.
PEACE CORPS. KIDS WORLD - http://www.peacecorps.gov/kids/
This Peace Corps site for kids is designed to educate and entertain children about world geography and the cultures of other countries. Children can also send electronic postcards, read folk tales from around the world, download coloring pages and test their geography savvy with an interactive game. Grade Level: Elementary, Middle School.
REAL STORY OF THE ANCIENT OLYMPIC GAMES - http://penn.museum/sites/olympics/olympicintro.shtml
From the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, this site takes a popular culture look at the ancient games. This site may be easier for younger students to understand
RENAISSANCE - http://www.learner.org/exhibits/renaissance/
An Annenberg/CPB project on the cultural rebirth of the Middle Ages - excellent production and activities.
With a creative interface and six lesson plans written in PDF, you can hear accompanying music as you explore the life of a Renaissance artists or imagine yourself a patron of the arts.
RENAISSANCE & REFORMATION - http://www.sc.edu/library/spcoll/sccoll/renprint/renprint.html
An online exhibit with text and pictures originally exhibited by the Thomas Cooper Library, University of South Carolina. Thumbnails of the documents/paintings and links to enlarging them in another window. Great stuff.
A joint offering of the BBC and Open University, this website explores mysteries from a historian's point of view. Who tried to poison Queen Elizabeth? Did Gutenberg invent the printing press? Is Venice a second-hand city? Lots of neat stuff.
RENAISSANCE: WHAT INSPIRED THIS AGE OF BALANCE AND ORDER? - http://www.learner.org/exhibits/renaissance/
Renaissance, French for rebirth, perfectly describes the intellectual and economic changes that occurred in Europe from the fourteenth through the sixteenth centuries. During the era known by this name, Europe emerged from the economic stagnation of the Middle Ages and experienced a time of financial growth. Also, and perhaps most importantly, the Renaissance was an age in which artistic, social, scientific, and political thought turned in new directions. It includes some interactive activities.
Ball-playing was popular among the Romans, and they often spent their morning exercises playing games on the fields (palaestra) or ball-courts (sphaerista). The Romans enjoyed a variety of ball games, including Handball (Expulsim Ludere), Trigon, Soccer, Field Hockey, Harpasta, Phaininda, Episkyros, and certainly Catch and other games that children might invent, like Dodge Ball. An additional game called Roman Ball is theorized to fill some gaps. The pages linked on the right provide descriptions of these games. Also see Board Games below!
The Romans played a wide variety of board games, including Knucklebones, Dice (Tesserae), Roman Chess, Roman Checkers, The Game of Twelve Lines, The Game of Lucky Sixes, Tic-Tac-Toe, Roman Backgammon, Egyptian Backgammon, and others. Site has all with directions and pictures of the board. Great!
THE ROMAN INQUISITION - http://galileo.rice.edu/
A brief history of Galileo and the Inquisition - timeline, censorship, the process and trial
TECHNOLOGY - http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/tech_01.shtml
Roman technology, arts and crafts, survival, mines and iron, quarries and stoneworking transportation, construction and civil engineering, war, health, death, medicine, science and gadgets.
Check oout the links to everything about the silkroad -- China and Rome, timelines, history, geography.
PRIMARY SCHOOL - http://home.freeuk.net/elloughton13/index.htm
I LOVE THIS SITE! Snaith’s website has kid links to all kinds of times and places is a great find for any elementary classroom. There are all kinds of excursions into the middle ages, great cities of Europe and Asia, myths, legends and other tales, and even animals, plants and water. Each trip is written expressly for students, and the site is GREAT.
TOME - http://www.sirclisto.com/
Sir Clisto Seversword's Tome of Adventure and Knowledge takes you on a journey through the Middle Ages in the first person using sight and sound to simulate a right medieval experience - very different! There are 75 chapters of information on every aspect of Renaissance life from armor, weapons and castles to architecture, arts and monarchs. Each chapter is a concise collection of links that look at the students.
VIRTUAL TOUR OF EDO - http://www.us-japan.org/edomatsu/
This website is designed to take you exploring in Edo. Hopefully it will offer not only some enjoyment, but also some insights into the source of "traditional Japan". Although modern Tokyo may look very "Western" on the surface, in its heart the spirit of Edo still lives on!
WALK THROUGH HISTORY - http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/walk/games_index.shtml
From the BBC, students can walk through a Roman street, a Tudor Street, a Victorian Street, a Viking house and a 1950s living room, the click on the things that don't belong there.
A LESSON FROM AFRICA - http://smithsonianeducation.org/educators/lesson_plans/currency/start.html
In modern society, trade transactions are often hidden in computers behind the doors of banks and mail-order companies. It is possible to buy a house, a ticket, or even a pair of shoes without ever meeting the seller face-to-face or passing money from one hand to another. To understand the meaning of currency and to appreciate why precise weights and measures were once necessary for fair trade, it is useful to examine trade practices in Africa several hundred years ago when trading transactions were quite visible and direct.
WOMEN CHEMISTS THROUGHOUT HISTORY - http://www.peoplefinders.com/article-people-research-women-chemists-throughout-history.aspx
Marie Curie and others are included in this list.
HISTORY - http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/
Full of information and resources about women's experiences in world history. For teachers, teenagers, parents, and history buffs. Includes women rulers.
WOMEN'S LIFE IN GREECE AND ROME -
Documents explaining the role of women.
PLANS - http://www.mrdonn.org/
This is my personal favorite after my own of course! Tried and true lesson plans and activities for K-12 students and teachers in all facets of of history.
Also see Extra
Credit lessons on Rome, Spice Trade, Middle Ages,
Islam, African Countries, Renaissance and the Inca Scavenger Hunt
Also see Innovative
Ways to Teach and other Interesting Lessons
Or Projects on Line
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Last Updated October, 2015
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