As COVID-19 deaths spiked in 2020, Suzanne Firstenberg’s public art installation "In America: How could this happen…"
Lessons & Activities
Grade Range:
5-12
Resource Type(s):
Primary Sources, Lessons & Activities, Worksheets
Date Posted:
1/22/2011
In this set of classroom activities developed for the exhibition America on the Move, students will use visual, analytical, and interpretive skills to examine primary sources including historical maps to answer questions about farming, transportation, immigration, and racism in
Grade Range:
9-12
Resource Type(s):
Lessons & Activities, Worksheets
Date Posted:
10/24/2013
Using documents and historical background from the exhibition Changing America: Emancipation Proclamation 1863, March on Washington 1963, students will d
Grade Range:
K-12
Resource Type(s):
Lessons & Activities
Date Posted:
2/22/2010
Prototype Online: Inventive Voices is a podcast series from the Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center that reveals the stories behind the invention—motivations, successes, and disappointments—and highlights the persevering spirit shared by all who call themselves “inventor.”
Grade Range:
9-12
Resource Type(s):
Primary Sources, Interactives & Media, Lessons & Activities
Date Posted:
11/11/2009
This teacher's resource challenges students to think about the short-handled hoe and its connection to agriculture and the organizing of Latino farm workers after World War II. It includes a preliminary activity intended to introduce students to doing history with objects and 3 les
Grade Range:
9-12
Resource Type(s):
Reference Materials, Primary Sources, Lessons & Activities
Date Posted:
7/7/2008
Students can read the story of Pete Koltnow's 1950 hitchhiking trip across the country. This reference page is included in the online exhibition entitled America on the Move, which focuses on transportation in US history.
Grade Range:
9-12
Resource Type(s):
Primary Sources, Interactives & Media, Lessons & Activities
Date Posted:
11/7/2009
This object-based learning activity revolves around the gold nugget that began the California gold rush. In this resource, students will learn how examining the gold nugget can help them understand the story of the gold rush and its importance to the story of westward expansion. After explor
Grade Range:
4-12
Resource Type(s):
Lessons & Activities
Date Posted:
7/7/2008
In this classroom activity, students will identify and discuss the condition and aspirations of free African Americans in the years following the Civil War, identify the social factors that led to the rise of Jim Crow segregation and evaluate the effects of segregation. This lesson is part of the
Grade Range:
6-12
Resource Type(s):
Primary Sources, Interactives & Media, Lessons & Activities, Worksheets
Date Posted:
3/27/2013
Introduce students to using oral histories as primary sources with these interviews with jazz musicians recorded by the Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program in partnership with the National Endowment for the Humanities. The resource includes a guide for teachers and links to oral histories, and
Grade Range:
9-12
Resource Type(s):
Primary Sources, Interactives & Media, Lessons & Activities
Date Posted:
11/8/2009
This object-based learning activity revolves around an 1898 Standard Voting Machine, the fight against voting fraud and the extension of voting rights in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Students will learn how voting technology was used to democratize the voting process in the
Grade Range:
5-12
Resource Type(s):
Primary Sources, Lessons & Activities, Worksheets
Date Posted:
1/22/2011
In these classroom activities developed for the exhibition America on the Move, students will use visual, analytical, and interpretive skills to examine primary sources including historical maps and answer questions about them to learn more about railroads, transportation, raci
