The U.S. Census is a geography teacher's toolbox. As a member of the Statistics in Schools (SIS) development team, Chris Bunin was tasked with exploring existing resources to develop lesson plans. Census.gov is a dynamic online reservoir filled with infographics and visualizations, articles and reports, and best practice instructional materials.…

Presents two sample lessons designed to promote research skills at the secondary level. A world studies and an American history lesson are outlined. Students find answers to questions by consulting encyclopedias, histories, and dictionaries. Discussion of the learning experience follows. (KC)

In this lesson, students study census data showing the names and occupations of early settlers of the English settlement at Jamestown, Virginia, to discern how life changed in the Jamestown settlement in the first few years after it was founded. Learning objectives of the lesson plan are: (1) to gain experience gathering information from primary…

This lesson offers students experience in making historical meaning from eyewitness accounts that present a range of different perspectives. Students begin with a case study in working with alternative reports of a single event: the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. First, they compare two newspaper reports on the fire, then two memoirs of the fire…