Believes that serious fun holds great promise for engaging special needs students in meaningful learning experiences in social studies. Describes how creative play with plastic action figures led to four students in a self-contained special education classroom collaborating on writing and illustrating their own book. (CMK)

Describes the use of a token economy in a fifth-grade classroom that teaches students economic concepts and helps develop their decision-making skills. States that students learn about scarcity, savings, price, inflation, insurance, rent, and utilities. Includes additional resources. (CMK)

Discusses how to incorporate conflict resolution into history focusing on the Conflict Resolution in History project. Provides a case study depicting how to use conflict resolution by presenting a lesson plan exploring the 1846 War between the United States and Mexico. (CMK)

Describes a study of 14 fifth graders concerning their understanding and attitudes toward the Persian Gulf War. Finds that the public school served as a significant socialization agent during the war, although television was even more important. Concludes that patriotic issues and activities overshadowed any attempts to have students think…

Involving students in the planning, use, and assessment of their own questions can help them realize that they can control the direction of their own learning. A sample lesson involving a class of middle school students in a study of Canadian culture and national unity is presented. (RM)

This article describes a class geography project which involves middle school and junior high school students in re-mapping the United States. A bibliography of print and human resources is included. (Author/RM)

Maintains that children's literature broadens students views and understanding of the past while also offering teachers a means for integrating the elementary curriculum. Provides an integrated unit using a literture-social studies connection that focuses on the Great American Prairie during the pioneer period and gives a list of supporting…

A junior high school teacher describes how newspapers can be used to teach elementary, middle, and junior high school students about the different lifestyles of the American colonists. (Author/RM)

Computer software that will help intermediate and secondary social studies students learn to make rational decisions about personal and societal concerns are described. The courseware places students in the roles of business managers who make decisions about operating their firms. (RM)

Provides direction for developing appropriate, meaningful social studies instruction for the middle school. Identifies characteristics of early adolescents that have a direct relationship to curriculum design and the selection of appropriate social studies instruction strategies. Offers National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS)…

Contends that geography teachers are always looking for ways to excite their students while engaging them in geographic skills development. Describes using "Wanted Posters" as a springboard to geographic learning in middle schools. Includes sources for obtaining wanted posters from government and social service agencies. (CFR)

Intended for middle school social studies classrooms, this publication features articles that spotlight diverse and innovative learning activities. This document includes the three issues of the "Middle Level Learning" supplement published in 1999 and the three that were published in 2000. Articles and classroom activities highlighted in this…

Presents three activities adapted from the "How Big Is Africa?" Curriculum Guide developed by the African Studies Center of Boston University. Includes activities designed to make students aware of the diversity extant in Africa and the vastness of the continent. Targets students at the upper-elementary and middle school levels. (DSK)

Describes a collaborative project called "Mystery from History" involving a rural Indiana elementary class and a computer education college class at Indiana University. Explains that the university students sent a mystery via e-mail to the elementary students in which they continued to send clues and questions until the mystery was…

Describes the "Neighborhood Walking Tour" project in which gifted sixth graders worked with college students in Duluth, Minnesota to compile histories of buildings located in their neighborhoods. Evaluation results show that the project results in a greater awareness of appropriate sources for the collection of various types of data. (RM)