Social Studies Resources
Path of the Elders
– An amazing website about First Nations culture and heritage as
described by the Mushkegowuk Cree and Anishinaabe Ojibway Elders.
– Teachers can access primary source videos, letters, photos and audio clips, as well
as detailed lesson plans.
– Very user friendly and great for students!!
– Bonus points for being so close to home (Ontario-based)
– http://www.pathoftheelders.com/
** This website has been under my Fav Websites page since I started my blog but I wanted to share it again because it is such a good resource!
Sir John A Day
– A website celebrating the first Prime Minister of Canada, Sir John A MacDonald.
– Teachers can access historical timelines, video lectures and teacher/student
resource packages.
– Great website to use with your students.
– http://www.sirjohnaday.com/
Canada’s First Peoples
– An interactive website about Canadian history.
– Teachers can use this to obtain sources for your classroom or use it with your
students.
– Yay for Canadian material!
– http://firstpeoplesofcanada.com/index.html
What Was There?
– A website featuring an interactive map of the world featuring historic photographs
organized by location and year. Their goal is to provide a photographic history of
the world!
– Teacher can use this website to provide primary visuals during Social Studies,
Geography and History lessons specifically but the possibilities are endless!
– Users can upload pictures and some locations have more photos than others
so make sure to do your research before class!
– http://www.whatwasthere.com/
Resources for History Teachers
students explore certain pages for information.
– http://resourcesforhistoryteachers.wikispaces.com/
Roadmap to Harmony
– An article from the “Good” network that visually summarizes important
concepts such as sustainable development, education, globalization and
relationships between humans and the earth.
– Teachers could use this as an activating strategy for many social studies
units.
– Great for visual learners!
– http://awesome.good.is/ecosystem/index.html#/home
Manitobia
– This website provides a detailed archive of Manitoba-based archives
including photos, videos, newspapers, letters, public documents, etc.
– Teachers can use this website to gather primary sources for their
lessons plans and students can use this website to research reliable
material for projects.
– Yay for local information!
– http://www.manitobia.ca/
Topogropa
– This a great interactive website all about the geography of Europe.
– Teachers could use this website to discuss geography, politics, history or
economics and it is all summarized in colourful and fun graphics!
– http://www.toporopa.eu/
ChronoZoom
– This website hosts an amazing timeline that has pretty much sums up all timelines
ever created! It includes information from humanities and science and provides
information in text, video, audio and images.
– I found it a bit difficult to navigate but after some playing around I was able to
get it all figured out.
– http://www.chronozoomproject.org/
Standford Primary Document History Lessons
– This websites allows access to 70+ free history lesson plans that use
primary documents ONLY.
– The purpose? Getting our students thinking like historians!
– http://sheg.stanford.edu/?q=node/21
World War II Database
– This website has put together a great compilation of World War II resources
including topics such as important people, events, equipment, countries and
sources such as pictures, video, text, and primary documents.
– http://ww2db.com/index.php
Alliance Outline and Thematic Maps
– The Arizona Geographic Alliance and ASU’s School of Geographical
Sciences has put together a FREE online resource of printable maps.
– Includes different maps of the world, countries, regions, grade specific
maps and historical maps.
– http://alliance.la.asu.edu/maps/maps.htm
PowerPoint Palooza
– How many times have we sat at the computer wishing that we had a
quick PowerPoint to accompany a lesson. PowerPoint Palooza is
a great collection of social studies pre-made PowerPoints covering
American History, European History, Global Studies and student
projects.
– Can be used in a pinch or modified if you are stuck for ideas, just give
credit where credit is due!
– A great example of teacher collaboration!
– http://www.pptpalooza.net/
CIA: The World Factbook
– A great website for researching a country’s history, people, geography
and much more!
– This website is extremely user-friendly and clearly laid out for student
use.
– Takes a while to load and countries may show up as “undefined” until
proper loading time takes place.
– https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/
X Timeline
– Maybe it is just because I am specialized in social studies but I love this website! It
not only provides the option to search timelines on various subjects such as
biographies, organizations and history (plus more) but it gives users the option to
create their own timelines!
– Perfect tool for projects, introducing topics or as an assessment strategy.
– www.xtimeline.com/index.aspx
National Geographic Kids: Countries
– This website provides information on different countries around the world.
Students can explore information about geography, nature, history, culture
and more! It provides textual information and multiple pictures as well.
– It does not have EVERY country, but still provides valuable information.
– http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/places/
I Witness: Holocaust Video Archives
– I Witness is the perfect resource to bring history to life!
– This website is an archive of 1,000+ one-on-one interviews with
Holocaust survivors and other witnesses.
– This website is specifically designed for educators, allowing users to
not only watch videos but edit their own video projects, browse the
encyclopedia and create secure accounts for students.
– http://iwitness.usc.edu/SFI/Default.aspx
Smart History: Khan Academy
– This website is a video website meant to add to many art history textbooks
that are being used today. Users can pick a time period on the left hand side
menu and scroll through short videos about prominent pieces of art from that
time.
– Not only can it be used for art, but we know that art is a reflection of what was
happening during the time so it can be great for showing different interpretations
of major events.
– Maybe it is just the History major in me but I love this website!
– http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/videos.html
ORBIS
– This website can be described as a “Google map” of the Roman
Empire, it is so neat! Users can pick locations in the Roman
Empire (at it’s height) and calculate the time and cost of various
methods of travel that would have been used at the time.
– You can even calculate how much it would cost to travel by donkey,
including the costs of feeding your donkey’s along the way!
– ORBIS is perfect to accompany a history lesson, geography lesson,
or math lesson. You could even use this to map out the setting of
novels such as Spartacus.
– http://orbis.stanford.edu/%20
Women in World History
– Created by The Center for History & New Media (CHNM), this website houses
a collection of primary documents, support materials and lesson plans centered
around women and women’s issues throughout world history.
– The CHNM has a strong focus on comparing women in different societies, the
contact different societies have had with one another and how global issues such
as technology have impacted women.
– Well this is obviously perfect for a history classroom this website could also provide
valuable insight if you are studying a novel such as Lives of Girls and Women by
Alice Munroe.
– http://chnm.gmu.edu/wwh/modules.php
Google World Wonders Project
– This Google endeavour is currently a virtual encyclopedia of 132 historic sites
from five different continents. Not only do users have imagery from Google
Streetview and Google Earth but they also have information from UNESCO
World Heritage, pictures and videos!
– World Wonders has a specific tab for Education where teachers can download
resource packages that have some pretty interesting project ideas that could
work with math, English, social studies or science curriculums.
– Google will continually be adding more sites to the list which I think is good
because I was disappointed that entire continents were left out and they didn’t
have the pyramids of Egypt.
– http://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/worldwonders/
World History For Us All
History course that includes readings, worksheets, and maps!
Documents are in PDF form and can be accessed by anyone.
– Teachers could use portions of this website or the entire thing if they
wanted to!
– http://worldhistoryforusall.sdsu.edu/
Creswell Crags: Virtually The Ice Age
Go Social Studies Go
– G.S.S.G is a website that has content organized and developed by
actual Social Studies teachers as a means of engaging the different
types of learners we find in a 21st Century classroom.
– Information is broadly organized into topics such as World Religions,
Geography, World History, etc. Each topic features various images,
maps, videos, text, and activities. As this website was designed by
teachers, it can be used to find info for your class or you can send your
students right to it and they can explore individually.
* I found this website took quite a while to load, but it may have just
been my connection.
– http://www.gosocialstudiesgo.com/homepage
Ancient Egypt Review
– If you ever teach about Ancient Civilizations, this website is a good
resource and you don’t HAVE to use it as a review! It takes students
through a list of questions that are more than just the basic recall questions
that you often find on many webquests. In addition to questions, there is
also a mapping activity and video clips from National Geographic.
* The website asks students to use “their textbook” as one of their resources
but doesn’t specifiy what textbook they used so you would have to read over
the questions beforehand and make sure they are appropriate for the resources
you have been using.
– http://ecplatz.wix.com/ancientegypt
Crash Course!
– If you haven’t already subscribed to the Crash Course! YouTube Channel
you should go do so right now! John and Hank Green have created short
(14 minutes or less, approximately) videos to teach about World History
(John’s specialty) and Biology (Hank’s specialty). So far there are 81 videos!
– These videos give a breakdown of all of the important information on a topic
through easy-to-understand lecture, videos, images, maps, neat graphics, etc.
I like the fact that these videos explain the how and why and not just “this is
how it is” explanation that you often find on the internet.
– These videos are definitely something that I am going to use in my class as a
review tool or even as an activating strategy!
– http://www.youtube.com/user/crashcourse?feature=watch
Canada 1812 – Forged in Fire
– This website features film clips, informational articles, images, and an
incredibly detailed (over 100 pages) graphic novel all about the War
of 1812 and the inspiring people who took part in it.
– This website really pays attention to detail and I used to multiple times
when I covered the War of 1812 with my Grade 11 students. We
even used the graphic novel as inspiration to create our own to use to
teach the younger grades about what we learned!
– http://canada-1812.ca/
Raven Tales Episode Guide & DVDS
– Raven Tales is an award winning television program that centers on the Raven,
who is seen as a mischievousness trouble-maker in First Nations folklore. The
episodes themselves depict stories from various First Nations cultures across North
America. While this website is only an episode guide, many of the full episodes are
now available on YouTube to watch at your convenience.
– These funny videos could be the perfect addition to your class if you are teaching
about First Nations people including customs, world view, spirituality, day-to-day
life, etc.
– http://www.smithsonianchannel.com/site/sn/show.do?series=731#episode-guide
* You can also buy DVD sets of the episodes, books and teacher guides from the
official Raven Tales website: http://www.raventales.com/
History Detectives
– History Detectives is a television series on PBS that explores, “historical
mysteries that connect local folklore, family legends and interesting objects.”
It is also a great online resource for the classroom! If you are interested in
spicing up one of your history lessons this is definitely a site to visit for
inspiration! Users can learn more about historical investigations and even
watch full length episodes.
– They even have a specifically designated “For Educators” section that
includes detailed lesson plans and suggestions on how to use History
Detectives in the classroom!
– http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/
Manifest Destiny: The Story Of The US Told In 141 Maps
– As you can probably guess, this website shares the expansion of the US with
141 different interactive maps. By clicking on a specific map, users can hover
over the different territories and read about what changes happened during that
specific time period.
– Whether you are covering manifest destiny, teaching an American history
course or covering the evolution of settlement, this website is definitely
useful! Think of how helpful it could be for our visual learners.
– http://michaelporath.com/projects/manifest-destiny/#overview
Out of Eden
– “About 60,000 years ago, our ancestors took the first steps out of their
prehistoric African “Eden” to begin exploring the Earth. In early 2013,
reporter Paul Salopek will follow in their footsteps during an epic on-foot
– http://www.outofedenwalk.com
HipHughes History
– If you haven’t already subscribed to the HipHughes YouTube Channel
you should go do so right now! Keith Hughes, a YouTube Next EDU Guru,
has created hundreds of videos (approximately 30 minutes or less) to
teach about World History, US History, Politics and more!
– Keith seems like an awesome teacher and his videos are very engaging!
He uses a lot of different music, backgrounds and eye-catching intro clips
to catch your attention quickly. I really like that Keith’s explanations really
seem like he is talking to a class, not a robotic scripted speech like some
edu-videos I’ve watched.
– I like that he has created playlists so that videos are easily searchable by
topic!
– http://www.youtube.com/user/hughesDV?feature=watch
Good Video Sources for ________
– I love to include video clips when I’m teaching. It is a great
way to differentiate your instructional method and can be really
engaging for our students who have essentially grown up around
a television screen.
– Richard Byrne at, Free Technology for Teachers, has been posting
an awesome series of great video sources by subject area. Each post
is subject specific and features about ten online resources to check
out to find educational videos to include in the classroom. The great
part is that, in the comments section of the post, visitors have also
been sharing their favourite video sources too!
* If you want to learn more about using video in the classroom,
check out my previous article, More Than Just Bill Nye… Using
Video in the Classroom
– Social Studies Video Sources
– Science Video Sources
– Math Video Sources
The Story of Stuff Project
– The “Story of Stuff” is an awesome animated short feature about the
amount of trash that is created in the world and touches on a lot of
environmental and consumerism themes.
– This accompanying website features a blog, other movies by the author,
podcasts, classroom resources, and various downloads. The videos and
podcasts can easily be used to incorportate a “flipped classroom” lesson
and the resources and blog has a lot of great project ideas to build on the
themes brought up in the video.
*The “Story of Stuff” video can be found on YouTube, I’ve embedded it
below!
– http://www.storyofstuff.com/
Resources For History Teachers Wiki
– This wiki, created by education students at the University of Massachusetts,
features hundreds of great resources for social studies teachers! Resources
are organized by grade level and topic area and are specifically organized
by specific learning outcomes. Each outcome features textual information,
video clips, maps, images and/or sound clips that can utilized in the classroom.
– These resources align with the Massachusetts, United States curriculum but can
be utilized to fit the needs of any classroom. I can’t imagine how useful this would
be if I was actually in Massachusetts; all of the work is done for you!
* Thank you University of Masachusetts!
– http://resourcesforhistoryteachers.wikispaces.com
– The Harvest of History is an interactive learning opportunity that takes
students back in time to learn about the history of agriculture. While it
is centered on the state of New York, it has a lot of important themes
that I think would carry forward to many agricultural areas.
– Students can explore a colonial village to learn about the importance
of agricultural development. There is also a teacher resource center
featuring curriculum connections, lesson plans, resources, and extension
questions.
– http://www.harvestofhistory.org/explore.html
– http://histography.io/