Technology in the Secondary Social Studies Classroom
The ZinnEd Project provides a unique view of history through the lens of ordinary people by delving into personal stories and information about large historical events. The website contains audio recordings, news articles, videos, and much more. You can search by theme, time period, or resource type to find exactly what you need.
Big History Project is an amazing resource that was originally designed for social studies, but contains tons of science-related topics. BHP covers historical events from the Big Bang to present-day happenings. It is a repository for lessons and free interactive resources that help students learn about the history of scientific concepts/ideas.
The National Archives’ Digital Classroom - DocsTeach.org is an online teaching tool from the US National Archives for teachers to find and create interactive learning activities with primary-source documents that promote historical thinking skills in 21st century classroom.
The Library of Congress contains resources in the “For Teachers” page include ready-to-use materials that brings the Library’s primary sources aligned with state standards into the classrooms.
Teachinghistory.org is a website that collects history resources and materials and provides support for K-12 history teachers through funding from the U.S. Department of Education. The site contains videos, links to resources, and materials that teachers can use in their classrooms.
iCivics offers seventeen educational game for students. The games introduce students to the roles of citizens and government in the United States. Students who register for a free iCivics account can pause the games and come back to them at a later time. Click here for a list of all of the games offered by iCivics. All of the iCivics games have curriculum units connected to them.
Facing History is a non-profit organization that helps educators teach about racism, antisematism, and prejudice through historical events. All of the resources are designed to ignite discussion surrounding historical and current events while helping students become thoughtful, responsible citizens.
The CIA World Fact Book provides information on various countries, including facts on its native people, types of government, and currency used. Information is provided by the Central Intelligence Agency.
The KML Factbook is an interactive worldwide demographic database that displays information on Google maps.
Scribblemaps is a cool, creative tool that allows you to mark up Google Maps and share them with your students - or have the students do the work to create marked up maps that tell a story!
Historypin allows you (or your students) to personalize Google Maps with your own pictures and stories. The idea is to create a collaborative map of community history and personal stories.
The Oyez Project at Chicago-Kent is a multimedia archive devoted to the Supreme Court of the United States and its work. It aims to be a complete and authoritative source for all audio recorded in the Court since the installation of a recording system in October 1955. The Project also provides authoritative information on all justices and offers a virtual reality Tour of portions of the Supreme Court building, including the chambers of some of the justices.