Civics
Finishing the Dream - NBC News archives - Civil Rights Era clips
Project Vote Smart's Vote Easy - See how your views match up with those of major political candidates. Learn their stance on topics like abortion, economy, guns, health care, immigration and more
CIRCLE - The official website of the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning is home to information on the civic and political engagement of young Americans. There are a lot of cool graphs and charts that will get your students excited about fulfilling their civic duties
iCivics - Free lesson plans and interactive games for learning civics. Some of the topics covered by materials at iCivics include citizenship and participation, separation of powers, branches of government and budgeting
White House.gov The official website of the White House. Watch the weekly address to stay informed on the most important events in our government
The machinery of Democracy - This website teaches students how ballots and voting systems have changed over the years in response to political, social and technological change
Civil War - U.S.
Civil War 150 - An interactive map/timeline/infographic hybrid that is packed with cool facts about the Civil War. It’s got over 2,000 likes on Facebook
Culture & Geography
Mental Floss's Geography Challenge - A fun, yet difficult, geography trivia game that tests your knowledge of where countries are located
NationsIllustrated - View over 7,700 pictures from all over the world. Just type in a large city or country
Traveler IQ Challenge - TravelPod.com - The web’s most popular free geography game. Over 42,000 people have “liked” it on Facebook
GeoBeats - An award-winning website that hosts hundreds of short, guided video tours of the most famous cities throughout the world
iknowthat - Neat interactive maps to review Geography – requires flash and shockwave player
Google Earth - puts the planet’s geographic information at your fingertips and can be utilized in a variety of educational activities. There’s even a helpful Google Earth for Educators Community where you can go for new ideas or to share some of your own
Culture Crossing - A guide to culture, customs, social, business and study abroad etiquette for every country in the world. The information posted in each country guide is submitted by people who are either natives or residents (or former residents) of the featured countries
Current Events
Economics
Humanities
hypercities - Collaborate using social technologies to delve into the past, present or future of city spaces. View architectural maps of some of the world’s most famous cities from different time periods and overlay important structures
EDSITEment - National Endowment for the Humanities - High quality lesson plans, activities and student resources for history and social studies, sortable by grade level
Interactive Timelines
Media
New York Times Learning Network
Media Ed Foundation - produces and distributes documentary films and other educational resources to inspire critical thinking about the social, political, and cultural impact of American mass media
Printable Maps & Mapping Tools
Scribble Maps - teachers: easily draw on Google Maps and then share with your students or post to your teacher blog
quickmaps - QuickMap’s slogan is “Doodle on Google!” It’s another free and easy way to draw on Google Maps
Perry-Castañada Library Map Collection - High-quality historic, thematic and topographic maps of the world including Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia/Pacific, Europe, Middle East, Polar Regions, Oceans and United States
Printable World Maps - Free printable maps of the world's countries. Each map is a blank outline
Nat Geo Education: Mapping - Free, printable 1-page maps, printable large-format maps and an online interactive student map
Mapping History - Animated socio and political maps of 18th and 19th century United States, Europe, Latin America and Africa
Animaps - lets you create maps with markers that move, images and text that pop up on cue, and lines and shapes that change over time. Your finalized Animap appears like a video that can be played, paused, slowed down and sped up
Research & Media
Revolutionary War - U.S.
Liberty - PBS.org - Chronicle of Revolution provides students with a detailed look at the events that contributed to the start of the American Revolution by reading newspaper articles from key cities
Mission US - Mission U.S. is home to two free, interactive U.S. history games. One focuses on the American Revolution, the other focuses on a slave’s quest for freedom
Rhetoric, Public Speeches
American Rhetoric - an index of over 5,000 textual, audio and video versions of public speeches, sermons, legal proceedings, lectures, debates, interviews and more
Social Studies in General; Misc.
WolframAlpha - look up anything (it's like Wikipedia)
U.S. History & Government
Turning Points in American History
Zinn Education Project - lesson plans, etc., for teachers
Docs Teach - documents from National Archives & paired ready-to-use activities, for teachers (mostly)
America in 20th Century - Media Rich Learning.com
HarpWeek - excellent index of issues from 1857 through 1912 of Harper's Weekly ("the only consistent, comprehensive, week-to-week chronological record of what happened world-wide in the last half of the nineteenth century.") Historical & political cartoons, great for classroom warm ups or discussions
Digital Vaults - "a National Archives experience" - View digital versions of the nation’s most important historical documents
Historic Documents - US History.org - words that shaped the government and culture
Freedom Trail Foundation - educational resources on U.S. Revolutionary War places
100 Milestone Documents - chronicle United States History from 1776 to 1965
Library of Congress - An enormous collection of historical memories, prints, photographs, newspapers, sound recordings, films, maps, manuscripts and more
Charters of Freedom - digital versions of the nation’s most important historic documents
PictureHistory - This collection of images from American History includes the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. The majority of photographs are of presidents, the White House, iconic people and events from America’s past
Oyez Project - A database on major constitutional cases heard by the United States Supreme Court, with multimedia resources including digital audio of oral arguments
Chronicling America - Search through pages of America's historic newspapers from 1836-1922 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published from 1690 to the present - National Endowment for the Humanities and Library of Congress
WYZANT HPOL archive database - History and Politics Out Loud is a searchable multimedia database that contains important audio clips from American history and politics
ConstitutionFacts.com - Did you know that the U.S. Constitution has only 4,400 words? It is the oldest and shortest written Constitution of any major government in the world. Find out more interesting facts at this Web site
U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum - An online version of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s exhibitions on Rescue and Resistance, Anti-Semitism, Propaganda, Persecution, Camps, the Aftermath and more
Mission US - Mission U.S. is home to two free, interactive U.S. history games. One focuses on the American Revolution, the other focuses on a slave’s quest for freedom
American History Demographic Chart Book - A demographic history of the United States dating back to the first census in 1790. It includes maps, information on population growth and distribution, ethnicity, age, home ownership, education, occupation and more
FedFlix - FedFlix features the best videos produced by the United States government, from training films to historical documentaries
Fold3 - This website is an online collection of historical military records. There are millions of images and documents that can be searched and annotated with additional information
Law Focused Education - Entertaining games and animations covering topics including checks & balances, federalism, popular sovereignty, separation of powers, Bill of Rights, Preamble of the Constitution, American symbols and more
Vermont
Vermont Social Studies Inquiry Collaborative
Web 2.0 Resources
World
Crash Course in World History - funny
HarpWeek - see U.S. History & Government for description
HyperCities - Collaborate using social technologies to delve into the past, present or future of city spaces. View architectural maps of some of the world’s most famous cities from different time periods and overlay important structures
HistoryPin - through photos, a way for millions of people to come together, from across different generations, cultures and places, to share small glimpses of the past and to build up the huge story of human history
EuropeanVirtualMuseum - an online collaboration between twenty-seven prestigious European museums and showcases historical artifacts from all over the world
TimeMaps - an all-inclusive look at world history that combines maps, timelines and chronological narratives
Spartacus Educational - This online encyclopedia focuses on historical topics and figures from England, the United States, Russia, Germany and France. All of the articles are easy-to-digest and are written for students
Hieroglyphics Translator - Type in a phrase and see what it looks like when it’s translated to Egyptian Hieroglyphics. This is a cool activity to do if you’re covering Ancient Egypt
Women in World History - Over 200 primary source materials about women in world history including photographs, propaganda, commentary and more. These materials are great discussion and essay starters
HyperHistory - covers 3000 years of world history including culture, religion, politics and historical figure
HistoryWorld - 300 informational narratives and 10,000 events in a searchable database. HistoryWorld is great for conducting preliminary research for papers and projects
EyeWitness to History - home to first-hand accounts of historical events, vintage photographs, original radio broadcasts and more
Ancient Civilizations - WikiBooks - easy-to-understand descriptions of some of the world’s most influential civilizations including the Babylonians, Chinese, Egyptians, Greeks, Vikings, Persians, Romans and more
World History - Simple English Wikipedia - The history of the world—according to Wikipedia—told in plain English
History.com videos - Watch video clips from the History Channel on a variety of topics including the American Revolution, American Civil War, World War II, the Titanic, Black History Month, Ancient Civilizations and more
Go Social Studies Go - A modern-looking website dedicated to world religions, history and world geography. Each topic includes a separate page with information, images and links to relevant websites. Some pages even have videos
The Avalon Project - Yale Law School - A collection of historical documents in law and diplomacy from 4,000bce to the present. It includes documents such as the Athenian Constitution, Magna Carta, Articles of Confederation, Civil Rights Act of 1964 and more
Playing History - Playing History aggregates all of the free history games on the web into a simple, searchable database
World History for Us All - World History for Us All offers teaching units, lesson plans and resources for middle school and high school world history teachers. It is a collaboration between K-12 educators, collegiate instructors and educational technology specialists
Bridging World HIstory - 26 thematic world history units include videos, an audio glossary and a database of over 1,500 images and maps. Use Bridging World History to teach your students about the ties that bind historical events together
World History Connected - The best online journal for world history
Crash Course YouTube Channel - Crash Course's YouTube Channel currently has 13 quality videos that cover topics in world history such as the fall of Rome, Alexander the Great, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Mesopotamia and the Agricultural Revolution. If you're unfamiliar with this YouTube channel, you should definitely check it out! FYI - some of the narrator's humor may be unsuitable for younger students
For Teachers
Using Primary Sources - Library of Congress
The Choices Program - Watson Institute, Brown Univ., History and Current Issues for the Classroom
WWI Lesson Plans - History Simulation.com
WWII Lesson Plans - National WWII Museum, New Orleans
U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum - Lessons, Activities, Guides
HarpWeek - see U.S. History & Government for description
Fold3 - online collection of historical military records. There are millions of images and documents that can be searched and annotated with additional information. Everything is categorized by war which makes it easy to fit into a history lesson plan
EDSITEment - National Endowment for the Humanities - High quality lesson plans, activities and student resources for history and social studies, sortable by grade level
C-SPAN Classroom - Primary source materials for Social Studies teachers
GoEd - Aside from having a good blog, GoEd Online is a one-stop resource for fun social studies materials. Click here to check out their streaming of social studies videos, downloadable eBooks, PowerPoint presentations and interactive games
iCivics - Free lesson plans and interactive games for learning civics. Some of the topics covered by materials at iCivics include citizenship and participation, separation of powers, branches of government and budgeting