The author describes how high school students can use Google Tour Builder to track the impact of local Civil War veterans by conducting research with primary and secondary sources. In the article, there is a description of an example from Larned, Kansas where more than one hundred Civil War veterans settled a community on the plains. Digitized…

Hull-House was a unique social experiment by which Jane Addams realized her egalitarian vision for a shared civic life. Facing soaring social problems of the early twentieth century, Hull-House's most important mission was to help new immigrants learn the rule of self-government and become successful drivers of it. Hull-House was an unusual group…

The potential for social studies to embrace instructional technology and Web 2.0 applications has become a growing trend in recent social studies research. As part of an ongoing process of collaborative enquiry between an instructional specialist and social studies teachers in a Professional Learning Community, a table of Web 2.0 applications was…

This article describes a method--Collaborative Civics Conference Protocol (3CP)--that teachers can use with any civics education program to engage students in meaningful collaborative assessment of each others' thinking and writing and to make connections between civics activities and essential social studies content. Borrowing from the Writer's…

Learning about local government seems boring and irrelevant to most young people, particularly to students from high-poverty backgrounds. The authors explore a promising approach for solving this problem, Storypath, which engages students in authentic learning and active citizenship. The Storypath approach is based on a narrative in which students…

Maintains that many educators have recommended that public school students need to develop social action skills and participate in community service programs. Discusses student volunteer participation in community food service programs. Provides recommendations for teachers about developing such programs. (CFR)

Collecting, utilizing, and displaying old or antique items will give elementary children some firsthand experience of how people in the past lived, what they worked with, and the progress of their industrial development. Using brainstorming, interviews with senior citizens, resource people, and classroom demonstrations are suggested techniques.…

A conceptual approach for teaching conservation so that it relates directly to the pressing resource issues confronting our modern urban-industrial society. (MB)

Explains that an organic curriculum embraces a social studies curriculum that is supported by multidisciplinary social science methods and is grounded in the students' real-world experiences. Maintains that this organic social studies methodology is a means for implementing the thematic strands of the National Council for the Social Studies…

Presents a program for making oral history real to elementary children by sponsoring a senior citizens' tea. Describes the experiences of the children in preparing and giving the tea. Discusses the program's benefits of enhancing the store of information about community history and oral history and promoting student use of language in many forms.…

Contends that the best way to learn about citizenship is by discussing real societal issues that are connected to student interests. Maintains that a democratic classroom environment also provides an opportunity for practicing civic values. Provides four guidelines for establishing community service projects in the schools. (CFR)

Profiles the Indiana Exchange Project, an endeavor that uses technology to link fourth-grade teachers and students from three geographically and ethnically diverse communities. The students exchange letters, photographs, response journals, local newspapers, and videotapes of classroom and community activities. Includes an example of a summary…