This article describes a project-based social studies activity that gave young children the autonomy to photograph what they wanted within the classroom environment while interacting with peers. Social studies learning in the early years has great potential to offer active, playful, and meaningful experiences for children and can prepare young…

A project-based approach to studying the civil rights movement can stimulate student engagement and their sense of connection to this historic period. The authors taught this project-based learning (PBL) unit on the American civil rights movement multiple times in the past 10 years to classes of middle school, high school general education,…

Election simulations are considered a viable tool to instigate democratic learning in schools. This paper reports an explorative qualitative inquiry into one type of simulation project: mock-elections (ME). Main objective was to gain an insight into the organization of ME-practices in eight schools in the Netherlands in 2012. Thematic analysis of…

This article is about a year-long teaching and research project conducted with 696 4th graders (mostly 10-year olds) and their 36 teachers in Wyoming/USA. The researchers employed an action research approach. They planned and taught a two-day, Wyoming-themed, interdisciplinary unit, "We Are Wyoming", which integrated Social Studies,…

School segregation and inequity are deep-rooted realities in U.S. society. Despite historical efforts at integration, too many schools are de facto segregated, and those serving mostly students of color are routinely under-resourced when compared to those servicing mostly white students. Teachers and students can struggle to talk about this…

This manuscript, written with the educator in mind, describes the Youth Historians in Harlem (YHH) program, a twenty-week after-school history program that engaged urban students in history by immersing them in aspects of the historical process. Throughout the program, a group of Black male high school students were apprenticed as historical…

The article describes a semester-long project that draws on Suzanne Collins' "The Hunger Games" as a resource and over-arching theme for preservice teachers taking a content area literacy course. We examine how preservice teachers learn to connect written texts to content area (disciplinary) literacy and consider ways to prepare them for…

In order to ensure teachers are willing and ready to promote global perspectives in their classrooms, pre-service social studies teachers must know how to teach about the world, its people, and issues (Merryfield, 2000). This manuscript describes a qualitative research study that undertook an 8 month qualitative investigation at a large Midwestern…

Hands-on projects such as creating a three-dimensional diorama are among the most memorable of positive elementary school experiences, yet they are generally uncommon because these complex projects are daunting to undertake. Therefore, it is important to prepare preservice teachers with the skills to lead children in creating these types of…

Discusses problems in finding appropriate projects for an economics fair. Offers guidelines for planning such projects, focusing particularly on the selection of topics. Concludes by stressing the importance of establishing a good start for continued motivation and high quality projects. (BR)

Describes a six-week economics project for high school students. Suggests teaching consumer economics by having students pretend they are broke and out on their own. Discusses activities, materials, and student essays demonstrating the use and understanding of basic consumer terminology, credit, insurance, budgeting, and housing. (DK)

"Trick" your students and treat them to an uncustomary classroom celebration. (Editor)

The oral history section of a Penn State University course, "Culture and Ethnic Groups in the Social Studies," is described. (SJL)

How to use elementary school children as curators of a classroom museum is described. The teacher decides the concept or unit to be showcased in the museum. As curators students are responsible for many tasks including writing descriptive paragraphs for the artifacts and arranging the artifact display. (RM)

Fourth and fifth grade students at Bulman Elementary School, Redford, Michigan, learn economics concepts by selling potato chips: company stocks are sold and part of the profit is invested in a student-run bank which has checking accounts and issues monthly statements. (AV)