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Showing 275 results for primary sources ...

Primary vs. Secondary Sources in Archeology
  • Type: Lesson Plan
  • Grade Levels: Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade

How do primary and secondary sources help archeologists learn about the past? Students will: 1) Learn the differences between primary and secondary sources and 2) Glean information from examples of different sources.

Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park

Learning about Mill Workers through Primary Sources
  • Type: Lesson Plan
  • Grade Levels: Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade

In this lesson, students will examine primary resource documents of mill workers at the Lonsdale Company in 1942. Though these are injury reports, students can get a glimpse into who was working at the mills and what types of jobs they had. Students will compare primary sources to determine similarities and differences among this sample of mill workers.

Whitman Mission National Historic Site

Primarily Me: Primary Sources from Whitman Mission
  • Type: Lesson Plan
  • Grade Levels: Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade

Primarily Me is a lesson for older elementary students to explore the various primary sources from Whitman Mission NHS and learn about how primary sources help us learn about the events of the past and how they can be used in different ways.

Trail Of Tears National Historic Trail

TEACHING WITH PRIMARY SOURCES—MTSU, Lesson Plan: The Trail of Tears
  • Type: Lesson Plan
  • Grade Levels: Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade

Students will understand the background of the Trail of Tears, the different views of the Indian Removal Act, and how the Trail of Tears affected the American Indians who participated in it.

Salem Maritime National Historic Site

What can we learn about the lives of enslaved people from primary sources?
  • Type: Primary Sources ... Student Activities ... Teacher Reference Materials
  • Grade Levels: Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade

Students examine primary and secondary sources, including two short films, to explore the life of an enslaved woman in Salem. The essential question asks students to consider what we can learn about the history of slavery from primary sources.

Shiloh National Military Park

Research Made Real – Using National Park Service Web Pages to Locate Primary Sources
  • Type: Lesson Plan
  • Grade Levels: Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade

Students will learn how to navigate these sites to find information about the Civil War and then use that information to enhance their writing on an informative paragraph assignment.

Tumacácori National Historical Park

Critical Source Evaluation
  • Type: Lesson Plan
  • Grade Levels: High School: Ninth Grade through Twelfth Grade

National parks are valuable repositories of information including subject matter experts, photographs, and tangible objects. One of the founding principles of national parks is that this primary source information be preserved so that people may learn from it in the future. Students today may take advantage of this opportunity both in person and online.

Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site

Why People Move: Introduction to Using Primary Sources (Grades 3-5) Lesson 3 of 3 Carl Sandburg Home NHS
  • Type: Lesson Plan
  • Grade Levels: Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade

This lesson helps upper elementary students to identify primary and secondary sources and explain how they are used to better understand historical events. It introduces Carl Sandburg and helps students to understand the relevance of the Carl Sandburg Home NHS to the history of the area. Students will learn to differentiate between primary and secondary sources throughout the lesson's activities. This is the 3rd of three lessons intended to build upon on another's content and exercises.

Cowpens National Battlefield

Comparing Sources: The Decision to Fight at Cowpens
  • Type: Primary Sources
  • Grade Levels: Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade

Students will use multiple primary sources to build analytical and corroborative skills to examine the circumstances surrounding Daniel Morgan’s decision to fight when and where he chose in the American Revolution.

Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument

So You Wanna Be a Paleontologist?
  • Type: Lesson Plan
  • Grade Levels: Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade

Students will become familiarized with fossils that have been uncovered in Florissant Fossil Beds from the Eocene and Quaternary. They will select a certain extinct species and make a sketch on a Popsicle stick canvas. After shuffling their Popsicle stick fossil, they will then hide the sticks around a room and have someone else find and "excavate" the Popsicle stick fossil and attempt to put it back together. Best done with a partner to exchange fossils to find and put together.

Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument

So You Wanna Be a Paleobotanist?
  • Type: Lesson Plan
  • Grade Levels: Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade

Students will re-create scientific studies done by paleobotanists analyzing data from fossil plants found at Florissant Fossil Beds to draw conclusions about the paleoclimate 34 million years ago. In this activity, students will identify fossil plant species by their leaves, review data on the growing conditions of their nearest modern plant relatives, and compare as many species as possible to determine the range of temperature and precipitation that the fossil plant community can live in.

Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site

Consider the Source: The Stories We Tell and The History We Know (Grade 6 -8) Lesson 3 of 3 Carl Sandburg Home NHS     
  • Type: Lesson Plan
  • Grade Levels: Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade

This is the 3rd of 3 lessons designed to contribute to middle school student's working knowledge of Black history in Western North Carolina (W.N.C.) and to give them the skills to identify common myths of the region as well. This lesson introduces critical thinking concepts such as anachronisms and explores myths and deferred histories from W.N.C. This lesson is intended to exercise historical thinking skills and encourage the dialogue studied in previous lessons.

President William Jefferson Clinton Birthplace Home National Historic Site

So you want to be an American President
  • Type: Lesson Plan
  • Grade Levels: Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade

This lesson is opened with a discussion, followed by the reading of Judith St. George and David Small's book, "So you want to be President", then progress into assignments, presentations, gallery walk and awards as applicable to the teacher.

Cowpens National Battlefield

Voices from Cowpens
  • Type: Lesson Plan
  • Grade Levels: Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade

Students work with primary sources related to the Battle of Cowpens.

Tonto National Monument

The FIRST Field Trip to Tonto National Monument
  • Type: Lesson Plan
  • Grade Levels: Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade

Students will be able to state the differences between primary and secondary sources; students will be able to give examples of each type of source. After reading a primary source, students will be able to retell the story of the first field trip to Tonto National Monument.

Cowpens National Battlefield

The Battle of Cowpens: Lesser-Known Participants
  • Type: Lesson Plan
  • Grade Levels: Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade

What can a primary source document tell us about the past?

Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park

History and Memory: Contrasting the Civil War South in Film and Primary Documents
  • Type: Lesson Plan
  • Grade Levels: High School: Ninth Grade through Twelfth Grade

How do different forms of media impact our understanding of slavery and the Civil War?

Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site

Consider the Source: Migration to the Mountains: From the Lowcountry of Charleston, South Carolina to the highlands of Flat Rock, North Carolina. (Grades 6-8) Lesson 2 of 3 Carl Sandburg Home NHS
  • Type: Lesson Plan
  • Grade Levels: Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade

This is the second of three lessons intended to exercise critical thinking, historical dialogue, and empathic skills. This lesson enables middle school students to develop an understanding of how geography, disease, migration, and racism influence societal changes in Western North Carolina. Students will use secondary and primary sources to understand causes and effects in antebellum western North Carolina society over time.

Everglades National Park

"What's So Special?" Environment: 4-6 Grade
  • Type: Lesson Plan
  • Grade Levels: Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade

Students will draw a favorite plant, animal, or activity common to the Everglades environment and explain, in writing, the reason they chose it. This will help students recognize and identify one valuable aspect of a national park’s environment, and draw conclusions as to why they value that aspect of the environment.

Independence National Historical Park

The Liberty Bell as a Symbol for Civil Rights, grades 4-8
  • Type: Lesson Plan
  • Grade Levels: Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade

Students will examine primary sources to discover the connection between the inscription on the Liberty Bell and the Civil Rights Movement.