Museums are everywhere. Along the Northern Rail Trail in Franklin, New Hampshire, the author came across an old train yard with an interpretive sign indicating, "the granite blocks you are looking at are all that remains of this eighteenth-century railroad table." Of course, trains did not cross the region until the nineteenth century.…

U.S. politics has been primarily focused on the exploration of presidential power. People have engaged in traditional Master Narratives with the examination of U.S. Presidents where their actions are elevated and the catalysts for seismic societal changes. What is not examined in as much detail is legislative power wielded by members of the House…

This paper reports results from a six-state study of 62 USA social studies classrooms. We examined the extent to which intellectually challenging authentic pedagogy was present in study classrooms, the characteristics of classroom practice at different levels of authentic pedagogy, and how those characteristics may promote or inhibit high levels…

What happens when one controversial text meets another in performance? How do diverse audiences from rural and metropolitan areas respond to powerful yet provocative material? The Kennesaw State University Department of Theatre and Performance Studies sought to answer these questions with "Splittin' the Raft," a dramatic adaptation of…

This study attempted to determine whether students participating in a summer camp learn more about a fifth grade history concept of social studies, the Reconstruction Era, via a theater arts production. Data collected for this qualitative study included pre- and post-test drawings, scripted comments, student interviews, teacher interviews, daily…

"Americans," historian Richard White often reminds his audiences, "prefer celebrating to remembering history." The landscape of the United States is populated with local, state, and national sites, house museums, working farms and other places of collective past that are deemed of historic significance. Many of these sites do…

This report is from a study designed to determine: (1) the extent to which specific instructional media, technologies, and strategies are used in teaching U.S. history; (2) titles and types of resources found to be effective in teaching U.S. history; and (3) the extent to which history teachers are involved in cooperative activities with school…

Discusses using interdisciplinary classroom projects planned jointly by students and teacher in a language arts based gifted program for students in grades K-6. Describes projects based on the study of teddy bears and real bears, publicizing National Children's Book Week, and conducting a study of the students' school and community.(DHP)

Describes use of group or individual projects in an eleventh grade American history class to develop a scrapbook, a journal, and an oral presentation on any related topic. Discusses necessary alterations in classroom organization and management, guidelines and requirements for projects, grading procedures, and project presentation. (DHP)

Discusses student participation in many short-term projects related to regular study units in a second grade classroom. Describes projects of writing a class constitution, constructing a model colonial town, creating a mural of local colonial life, making corn shuck and apple-head dolls, and learning apple types grown locally. (DHP)

This paper reports from an observant participant's point of view on a theme study conducted in a fifth-grade classroom at a laboratory elementary school of a small, private liberal arts college in Georgia. The "Theme Study" is a student-centered approach that "emphasizes a coherent and holistic approach to learning through the study…

Presents a classroom lesson based on the Civil War prison camp at Andersonville, Georgia. Includes drawings, three maps, two photographs, and two student readings from the National Register of Historic Places registration file on the Andersonville National Historic Site. (CFR)

The material in this K-8 curriculum guide is designed to help local Georgia school systems integrate objective knowledge and skills in the social studies curriculum. Two chapters cover scope and sequence and instructional strategies. In chapter 1, 4 main curriculum components (knowledge, values and attitudes, skills, and social participation) are…

This paper reports on the Digital Historical Inquiry Project, an initiative for developing activities and programs that enable preservice and inservice social studies teachers to learn the methods of digital historical inquiry and implement those methods in their teaching experiences. At one of the project sites, San Diego State University social…