Social Studies Technology Project

Fall 2000

ED 417

Dr. Ronald Helms

Authors

• Andrea Weser

• Tracie Welsh

• Marcie Miller

Introduction

• The following are websites and activities we have found to be beneficial in teaching social studies in a sixth grade classroom. Included are a total of 30 websites and a useful activity from each site.

Introduction

• Rationale: This project is created as a resource for teachers interested in teaching social studies through technology.

• Goal: To provide a list of internet resources that can be used to teach social studies in a sixth grade classroom.

Introduction

• Objective statement: Students will perform activities that will provide knowledge about American Heritage, People in Societies, World Interactions, Decision Making & Resources, Democratic Processes, and Citizenship Rights & Responsibilities.

World Interactionswww.gsn.org/

Activity: Students will create a newspaper where they write their own articles and post them on the

web for the world to see.

www.usgs.gov.education/

Activity: Students will read a story about a little girl who takes a balloon ride that gives her different views of the world. Students will relate this to reading maps.

www.kidsvista.com/socialstudies/ geography.html

Activity: Students will use maps and compasses to find their way around the school.

www.lonelyplanet.com.au/1p.html

Activity: Students will read articles about happenings in other countries then report them to the class.

www.kidsat..jpl.nasa.gov/

Activity: Students will become penpals with students from another country.

Decision Making & Resources

www.nesa.uiuc.edu/edu/RSE/RSE/ yellow/gnb.html

Activity: Students will work with an interactive stock market.

www.landmark-project.com/ecomarket/

Activity: Students will try an sell an imaginative new product over the internet.

www.cochran.com/theodore

Activity: Students will read interactive stories about a boy named Theodore and help him to make the right decisions.

www.frbchi.org/

Activity: Students will examine the role of money in history and use it to buy goods.

www.eced.web.unomaha.edu/teach.htm

Activity: Students will read a story dealing with unlimited wants, goods and services.

American Heritage

www.geneologytoday.com

Activity: Build a family tree.

www.1.umn.edu

Activity: Bring a simple dish from their culture.

www.jefferson.village.virginia.edu

Activity: Students will use “The Valley of the Shadow” newspaper abstract to explore causes of death in the late 1850’s and early 1860’s.

www.lcwebz.loc.gov

Activity: Click on today in history and see what happened in different years on this date.

www.materialreligon.org/objects.html

Activity: Students will pick one religious object from the list, click on it and read about it. Then they will create a picture of it and describe it to the class.

People in SocietiesPeople in Societies

www.artsednet.getty.edu

Activity: Students will investigate some important public building, parks and monuments where they live. Then they will pick someone important to them and design a monument for that person.

www.csuohio.edu/history/japan

Activity: Go to the link about Oragami and then design their own Oragami.

www.icom.org/vlmp

Activity: Pick a country and take a virtual museum tour. Then give short report to the class as if they had been there and tell about what they saw.

www.Ireland.com

Activity: Read over the page and write about a couple of things going on in Ireland that day.

www.china.com

Activity: Post a question about Chinese society.

Democratic Processes

www.solanco.k12.pa.us/technology/6-12_lesson_plans.htmA Story of Democracy News Coverage of the Recent Mexican Elections and Why the World Wants to KnowIn this lesson, students focus on the recent Mexican elections to evaluate how different journalistic accounts can present different aspects of the same event. 

http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/lessons/991220monday.html

It's Up for Debate Exploring the Platforms of the Presidential HopefulsIn this lesson, students investigate the different platforms of each of the Presidential hopefuls for the 2000 election. Small groups will each carefully research the platforms of an assigned candidate and then create a political pamphlet supporting their candidate, using persuasive language and images to "influence" their audience of potential voters.

http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/lessons/000412wednesday.html

Taking the Lead Creating a Visual Comparison of Electoral ProcessesIn this lesson, students investigate the election process in several South American countries and create posters to display their knowledge.

http://www.congresslink.org/lesson1.html

In this lesson, you will direct students to log into the computer and go directly to CongressLink Home Page, to the Table of Contents. Here they will click on Lesson Topics, and for this assignment they will choose Student Research Activities.

http://www.yahooligans.com/tg/constitution.html#stage1

Students will identify the positions of specific states regarding crucial conflicts during the Constitutional Convention, analyze the degree to which compromise was important to the ratification of the Constitution, orally express the viewpoints of the respective states, complete simple keyword and category searches on Yahooligans, and identify sites where information was found.

Citizenship Rights & Responsibilities

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/newyork/laic/lessons/e1_t3-lp.html

Students research examples of slavery in the world today, and learn about some ways they can help current slaves gain their freedom. After students develop a plan for helping to fight slavery, they take an action and then publish their accomplishments on this Web site.

http://www.civiced.org/wtp_ms28_sb.html

In this lesson you will learn about one of the most important rights of citizenship. This is the right to participate in governing our nation. The lesson will discuss the different ways you may participate. It will also suggest those things you should think about in deciding whether or not you should participate.

http://ofcn.org/cyber.serv/academy/ace/soc/cecsst/cecsst027.html

Using materials from the local library and historical society, the students do research and write reports about how the founding fathers established your city.

http://ericir.syr.edu/Virtual/Lessons/Social_St/Civics/ IV0003.html

All students will individually list the rights guaranteed by the First Ten Amendments to the Constitution. These will be checked and discussed to insure all students understand these rights.

http://dent.edmonds.wednet.edu/IMD/lessons.html#Civics%20Education

•It's Up For Debate - In this lesson, students investigate the different platforms of each of the Presidential hopefuls for the 2000 election. Small groups will each carefully research the platforms of an assigned candidate and then create a political pamphlet supporting their candidate, using persuasive language and images to "influence" their audience of potential voters.

Conclusion

The previous resources listed in this unit should help teachers develop lessons regarding the different aspects of social studies. All of the addresses listed provide links to various websites concerning social studies lessons that are appropriate in a sixth grade classroom.