The Internet enables teachers to enhance the teaching and learning of history through quick and extensive access to primary sources. Introducing and using primary sources in the history classroom will almost certainly lead to active learning and development of critical thinking, reasoning, and problem solving. This Digest discusses: (1) types and…

This ERIC Digest describes what primary sources are and how and why they can be used in elementary school classrooms. Primary sources are historical artifacts with which students can interact to effectively engage in active learning. Topics discussed in the Digest include: "What Are Primary Sources?"; "Why Use Primary…

The year 2003 marks the bicentennial of the 1803 Treaty of France, by which the United States of America acquired the Louisiana Territory, an area of more than 828,000 square miles. Upon this acquisition, known as the Louisiana Purchase, the territory of the United States doubled. Historians consider the Louisiana Purchase to be a landmark event…

Social studies educators live and teach in the middle of an information revolution as the Internet becomes an integral part of education. The rate of Internet use in the classroom has risen dramatically. From 1994 through 1998, the percentage of public schools with Internet connections jumped from 35 percent to 89 percent. This Digest summarizes…

Great ideas about law, government, and the rights of individuals, embedded in U.S. founding documents, are the connective cords by which national unity and civic identity have been maintained in the United States from the 1770s until today. To be a citizen is to understand and have a reasonable commitment to the ideas in the founding documents.…

World War II was a turning point in global history, an event that had a large and lasting impact on many people and places across broad areas of the earth. Compared to other wars, World War II involved the largest armed forces, the longest battle lines, the most destructive weapons, the most casualties, the most destruction of cities and other…

This digest addresses the uses of oral history projects in the secondary U.S. history classroom. The document advocates that oral history is a stimulating classroom process designed to increase student involvement in a United States history class and improve student understanding of a relatively recent historical period. Oral history also involves…

"Teaching with Historic Places" is a program administered by the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places that identifies ways teachers can share the stories that historic places have to tell. The program creates classroom-ready educational materials based on properties that are listed in the National Register of…