Social+Studies

Helpful Web Links Social Studies - General Sites
 * [|The Ohio Social Studies Resource Center] - The Ohio Social Studies Resource Center (OSSRC) exists to enhance teaching and learning through the identification and posting of quality web-based resources that promote best teaching practices. The OSSRC has made steady progress to create and promote an effective delivery system that provides free access to peer-reviewed resources to all Ohio social studies educators. Twelve partnering agencies presently serve the OSSRC and have exemplified their commitment to working together to improve the teaching and learning resources available to Ohio social studies educators.
 * [|The National Council for the Social Studies] - Standards, teaching resources (internet, print and videos), and links to social studies web sites.
 * [|Social Studies Lesson Plans and Resources] - links to sites with lesson plans for history, geography, and current events. There is also a section on online activities.
 * [|World History for Us All] - a curriculum for teaching world history to middle and high school students. This is project of San Diego State Unversity and involves the collaboration of K-12 teachers and university instructors
 * [|Social Studies Resources] - Plans and links from the Michgan eLibrary.
 * [|Social Studies Lesson Plans] - From Teachnology.
 * [|Social Studies] - Lesson plans and other materials from PBS
 * [|Social Studies Theme Units] - For history, geography, and related Social Studies topics.
 * [|History and Social Studies Lesson Plans] - From EdSitement.
 * [|Smithsonian Education] - Good web site for teachers, students, and families. It has lesson plans for all subjects.
 * [|Asia for Educators] - Lesson plans for history, geography, and literature. This site is by Columbia University.
 * [|Professional Cartoonists' Index] - A teacher's guide to using political cartoons in the classroom at all grade levels. This web site contains an excellent collection of polital cartoons organized by artists' names and by state. This is a great tool for teaching current events and can also be included in the Language Arts, Journalism, and Art curriculum.

Geography
 * [|Education@NationalGeographic] - Online expeditions, lesson plans, free printable maps, and, of course, National Geographic products for sale.
 * [|Xpeditions] - National Geographic site with virtual field trips, lesson plans, and maps.
 * [|National Geographic News] - Current news of geography and other science and social studies topics.
 * [|My Wonderful World] - A campaign by the National Geographic to improve student knowledge of geography. There are resources here for students, teachers, and parents.
 * [|Geography Lesson Plans] - From Discovery School.
 * [|Geography Lesson Plans] - From Education World.
 * [|Geography Home Page] - From About.Com. There is quite a bit of geography information here.
 * [|National Council for Geographic Education]
 * [|World Mapper] - These maps are resized based on the subject of interest such as population, age, tourism, exports and imports. By the University of Sheffield.
 * [|Nation Master] - An excellent site for statistics from countries of the world. Your students will be able to compare education, income, oil consumption, life expectancy, and many other statistics. There are also maps and country information.
 * [|Teaching and Learning About Canada] Geography and history of Canada.
 * [|AskAsia] - This is a good source of lesson plans for Asian countries.
 * [|Teaching Resources on Southeast Asia in the Classroom] - By the Center for Southeast Asian Studies of Northern Illinois University.
 * [|StateMaster] - This site has a wealth of statistics about the United States. There are statistics for education, health, finances, and much, much more. It can be used for both social studies and math classes.
 * [|Geology.Com] - This site has maps and satellite images for the United States and the countries of the world.
 * [|K-12 Electronic Guide to African Resources on the Internet] - By the African Studies Center of the University of Pennsylvania.
 * [|Pennsylvania Lesson Plans] - Plans for Pennsylvania geography from ProTeacher.
 * [|Online Map Games]
 * [|Geography Lesson Plans and Resources] - A large collection of lesson plans for all grade levels.

Government
 * [|U.S. Government and Civic Lesson Plans] - From Mr. Donn's Free Lesson Plans.
 * [|Government Lesson Plans] - From Teachnology.
 * [|Elections and Voting Lesson Plans] - From Teachology.
 * [|Congress Link] - This site has lesson plans for the study of the US Congress. There also links to other lesson plan sites and to web quests. By the Dirkson Congressional Center.
 * [|USA.gov] - The US government's information portal.
 * [|Constitution Day] - Information and lesson plans for teaching about the US constitution.
 * [|The National Constitution Center] - in Philadelphia. This site has lesson plans for study of the constitution.
 * [|Pennsylvania State Government]
 * [|VotesPa] - Information for Pennsylvanians who are voting for the first time or who want to learn how to use the new voting machines.
 * [|Pennsylvania Uniform Crime Reporting System] - Obtain statistical information about crime in Pennsylvania. Data is available by location, age and race of offender, type of crime, and other parameters. This information can be used to assist in social studies research or in math studies.

History - General
 * [|The Best of History Websites] - A large collection of history and lesson plan sites compiled and rated by a secondary school history teacher.
 * [|History Lesson Plans] - US and world history plans from the Awesome Library.
 * [|American Women's History : A Research Guide] - Print and online sources in women's history.
 * [|The Conquistadors] - Based on the PBS TV series. This site has both information on the conquistidors and lesson plans for middle and high schools.
 * [|The Food Timeline] - The history of food with recipes and lesson plans.

United Stated History
 * [|U.S. History Lesson Plans] - From Discovery School.
 * [|United States History Lesson Plans] - From ProTeacher.
 * [|Social Studies Lesson Plans] - Search for lessons by topic and grade level. From EdSitement.
 * [|National History Education Clearinghouse] - Lesson plans and other helps with history instuction.
 * [|Links to the Past] - From the National Parks Service. Information on our national parks and lesson materials for teachers.
 * [|Lesson Plans] - From the Library of Congress.
 * [|American Heritage] - Lesson plans for all grade levels. Note that there are some lesson plans in Spanish.
 * [|The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History] - This site has teaching modules for American history. Each module has lesson plans, primary source documents, visual aids, and other resources such as suggested books and web sites.
 * [|Teaching With Documents] - US history lesson plans from the National Archives.
 * [|Teaching with Historic Places] - A guide to teaching American History using the National Register of Historic Places. There are lesson plans on the middle school level.
 * [|National Park Service] - Curriculum based programs. If you are planning a field trip to a national park, this site helps you plan your visit and has teaching materials.
 * [|H.I.P. Pocket Change] - This is a site for both students and teachers by the US Mint. In the teacher's section you will find lesson plans using US coins.
 * [|PBS Online: Social Studies]- This site has a wealth of information relating to PBS broadcasts on history.
 * [|Crossroads]- A K -16 American history curriculum.
 * [|Digital History] - A wealth of information about American history. Lesson plans are keyed to primary sources. There are also biographies, chronologies, maps, and much more.
 * [|History Matters] - Site for high school and college students and their teachers. It has a wealth of material for US history and history lesson plans.
 * [|Teaching Future Historians] - Lesson plans using primary sources by the Illinois Historical Digitization Project.
 * [|Picture History] - A very large collection of pictures from American History.
 * [|The Age of Exploration] - Lesson plans for the age of exploration by the Mariners Museum.
 * [|Gilder Lehrman Center for Slavery, Abolition, and Resistance] - The Source Documents section has many primary sources such as court decisions, cartoons, letters, and maps which may useful to educators. There is also a page on the Amisted with related web links.
 * [|Lesson Plan: The Civil War] - Literature based unit on the civil war for upper elementary classes
 * [|Civil War Interactive] - An excellent starting point for locating civil war web sites. This site also has a Civil War Cookbook, On-this-day in the Civil War, and a guide to current Civil War shows on television.
 * [|Coming to America: Immigration Builds a Nation] - Lesson plans on immigration to America from Education World.
 * [|From Sea to Shining Sea: A Nation Moves Westward] - Ideas for teaching the westward expansion from Education World.
 * [|The Age of Imperialism] - Lesson plan.
 * [|US History and Children's Literature] - Teach history through children's literature. By Carol Hurst.
 * [|Martin Luther King, Jr. Day] - Lesson plans for the holiday from Education World.
 * [|The History and Culture of Puerto Ricans] - with lesson plans.
 * [|Battle of Shiloh Video] - Help your students understand the Civil War with this battlefield recreation.

World History
 * [|Mr. Donn's World History Lesson Plans] - Links to lesson plans for all periods of history. Also links to world history clip art.
 * [|World History Lesson Plans] - For all grades from Discovery School.
 * [|History Lesson Plans] - For elementary grades from ProTeacher.
 * [|National History Education Clearinghouse] - Lesson plans and other helps with history instuction.
 * [|History Lesson Plans and Resources]
 * [|The Student's Friend History & Geography] - This site offers a free alternative textbook for world history along with teaching suggestions for High School Social Studies.
 * [|Kidipede] - This is a history site for middle school students. There are some teaching ideas.
 * [|Ancient Egypt Lesson Plans] - From the Detroit Institute of Arts.
 * [|Ancient Egypt Web Quest] - Online teaching unit about ancient Egypt created by a 4th grade teacher.
 * [|Ancient Mesopotamia] - Teaching resources from the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.
 * [|Bringing Ancient History to Life] - Lesson plans from Education World.
 * [|Asia for Educators] - This is a site by Columbia University.
 * [|A Visual Sourcebook of Chinese History] - Resources are arranged by subject, and there is a timeline and maps. There are also lesson plans in pdf format.
 * [|The Middle Ages: Moving Back in Time] - Teaching ideas and web resources from Education World.
 * [|Archaeology Magazine] - Keep up with news in archaeology.

Multimedia Resources
 * [|UnitedStreaming] - Engage students today with 5,000 awe-inspiring videos and thousands of other classroom resources. Customize and personalize lessons to different subjects, grades, and learning styles using an interactive World Atlas, compelling video clips, 20,000+ images, writing prompts, and more.
 * [|Face to Face] - A Blog from the National Portrait Gallery - Here's a great teacher resource for American history (and art) - a blog maintained by the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery (which means you can subscribe via RSS). It's a bit hard to describe but most all the entries are tied in some way to images housed in the Gallery. Recent posts present interesting Presidential and White House historical trivia, a story about the 1930s War of the Worlds radio scare (on Halloween), and the Gallery's first-of-its-kind exhibition on Hip Hop and Contemporary Portraiture. Students, we predict, would be fascinated by the online painting, photography and graffiti.
 * [|Edwards Middle School]

Ohio Achievement Test Resources
 * [|Ohio Online Assessment Reporting System] - Help students in grades 3-8 get ready for the OATs. Assign practice tests to students, view content standard and benchmark information, see released test questions, and learn how to score written responses.
 * [|Ohio Value-Added Webpage]

Current Events
 * [|CNN Students News] - Resources for both students and teachers.
 * [|New York Times Learning Network] - News summaries and a news quiz.
 * [|PBS News Hour] - News for students and lesson plans for teachers.
 * [|C-Span] - Topics for the discussion of current events in the classroom.
 * [|The Cyber School Bus] - United Nations education portal with information and activities for both current events and geography.
 * [|Teachable Moment] - Activities and resources for the study of current events.
 * [|Current Events!] - Lesson plans from Education World.