Bob Poelking
Social Studies Teacher & Michigan State Grad Student
Curated Links for Teachers & Students
As mentioned in my Future Learning essay, I like the idea of collecting and indexing Social Studies resources I have found over the years. This page is an effort to translate a number of the bookmark folders I have assembled over that decade or so. Below you will find links and brief explanations as to the value of said links, if you have a suggestion for additional content, please don't hesitate to contact me here.
The links below are broadly sorted into three topics: World History, U.S. History, and Government with the content aimed at the High School level. While not everything I use by a long shot, the collected links on this page hopefully give some insight into my class and act as a proof of concept for an ongoing endeavor. Enjoy.
Note: Images function as links.
World History
History of the World in 100 Objects
Originally a podcast series authored by Neil MacGregor, the head of The British Museum, the work has propagated into book and digital form as well. Giving users a history of the world in microcosm, the digital version provides users with a fantastic journey through human history that takes both the personal and the epic into account. A fantastic tool for teachers as a learning experience, inspiration for student projects, or last minute extra credit for a class (pick one item and share out). This is a personal favorite.
Note: if you enjoy this, MacGregor also authored a similar series on religion here.
Alpha History written and maintained by a cadre of current and former social studies teachers, Alpha history is an accessible rabbit hole of information that covers the length and breadth of human civilization, albeit with a focus on more big events than the human experience.
Wikipedia I completely understand that you may think this is a joke; it is not. Any social studies teacher (and I would think many others) will tell you of the limitless value of Wikipedia. No website, alive or dead, better provides both brief summaries of content and a truly great bibliography from which research can originate than Jimmy Wales' baby. Should you ever cite Wikipedia? No. Should it be your first stop in virtually any research project? Yes, it should.
Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History Authored and maintained by the experts at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Heilbrunn is my go-to spot whenever I am teaching humanities-focused content. More than merely offering high resolution images of pretty much anything imaginable from the world of art, the site also provides some nice commentary and context on the object. The easy search functions that let you drill down by not only time period, but region are icing on the cake.
If you need some help (and have $20), Time Maps is a nice mix of maps of all sorts: regional, national, and historical in both local and international context. A subscription will also free up a number of lesson plans across the scope of the entire subject area. Also included on this site is decent encyclopedia for using in guided research.
If you have a date in mind, GeaCron's World History Atlas is a reliable, albeit somewhat clunky comparative history map. Not particularly valuable as an in-the-moment tool for class, the site does offer a great degree of flexibility that allows teachers to show exactly where and what they are currently teaching.
Animated- a nice asset (especially for quickly covering European history up to 1400 in an AP Euro class), The Map as History provides 200+ animated maps ranging from Ancient Greece to the Scramble for Africa. Perfect for overviews and helping students who went on vacation in the middle of the semester catch up.
The Ancient History Encyclopedia outside of the sprawling Wikipedia, this is the most all-encompassing and reliably helpful of these World History sites. Commended by a raft of institutions including Oxford, and Michigan State University, this site not only contains a stellar assortment of maps, but also a ton of vetted encyclopedia entries and interactive timelines written in accessible prose- think Wikipedia, but officially alright to use.
U.S. History
YouTube is perhaps the most helpful single site for teaching the latter-half of U.S. history. Reading about Walter Cronkite denouncing the Vietnam War is one thing, but being able to see it happen is a different beast altogether. I am not going to link to a ton of videos below because YouTube does have an irritating habit of clearing out old news broadcasts, leaving links useless; but know that they are there and they are goldmines, covering everything from supercuts of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X speeches to WWII cartoons to playlists covering Cold War culture.
The Avalon Project, though technically a World History resource, I find that I use Yale Law's Avalon Project most often in US history. The scope of the site allows the user to search all manner of primary source documents from Jamestown to Wilson's 14 Points to the 9/11 Commission report. There are few sites better geared toward getting great sources for students to read, annotate, and analyze.
Government
The National Archives beautifully mixes primary source documents from the founding of the country with class resources that play equally well with 7th graders and 12th graders. Offering up a plethora of curriculum content and ideas, this website is a great way to ease students into a subject that has a daunting reputation for being hard and boring (it's neither, but they might need some convincing and this site is here to help you do just that).
Annenberg Classroom is my go-to resource for pretty much everything American Government, a clean, wonderfully organized resource, Annenberg offers up everything from simple games (much like this Gerrymandering game that has never not been a hit in class) that slickly teach tricky concepts to discussions between Supreme Court Justices. There is not a thing on this website that I would hesitate to use in class, and for that reason, this resource not only functions as a treasure trove of items to build a lesson or unit around, but also as a safe place to fall back when you are suddenly stricken with the flu and need to knock out a sub plan before you are laid low for the next 3 days.
The National Constitution Center, which in a fun bit of trivia is located a hop, skip, and a jump from the Annenberg Center in the real world (and is a phenomenal field trip), offers a stimulating interactive Constitution website that encourages students to explore the subtleties of the text and then jump into specific cases that deal with them. As an added bonus, the entire thing is also available as a free app.
OpenSecrets.org presents the perfect tool for students to learn about lobbying. The site keeps meticulous data on campaign donors across the US and to whom they have donated. Special in its simplicity and single mindedness, this goes wonderfully with Politifact to encourage students to take ownership of their political future and make informed decisions.
What the District? and 538's Atlas of Redistricting offer the best current look at the increasingly hot-button issue of Gerrymandering from an interactive, easily accessible angle that enables users to see the immediate effect various changes would make on their home Congressional District or the entire country. A great way to have fun for 5 minutes at the end of a class or start an in-depth investigation into what partisan politics looks like in a geographic sense.
Links Download
Images on this page were retrieved from the corresponding websites via screenshot on 7/3/19
