Benjamin Franklin was a man of many talents and one of the key figures in the founding of the United States. Franklin was also a printer and a writer. One of his most well known publications was an almanac, or yearly handbook, published under the pseudonym (a made-up name) of Richard Saunders. The source above, Poor…
Read this In Custodia Legis blog post on State of the Union addresses from the Library of Congress. List the main points covered in the post. Then look at the text cloud made from the text of President Barack Obama’s final State of the Union address given on January 12, 2016. What key words and…
This activity is adapted from lessons in the Barat Education Foundation Our American Voice® program. This civics program for 4-8 graders features a spiral curriculum and emphasizes critical thinking, collaboration, and problem-solving skills as students learn the fundamentals of American democracy and work to create positive change in their communities. Overview Using Cesar Chavez as an…
Zoom into this 1997 Geology of the Solar System map to read the text. List the challenges geologists face in mapping the solar system. Choose one planet (Venus, Mercury, Earth, Mars) and summarize what you learned about it from the map. Compare your findings with a peer who chose a different planet. Compare and contrast what you…
Zoom into a more detailed image of this newspaper page but before reading the article, what do you learn about the featured woman and Justice Brewer just from reading the headline and the photo captions? Make a list of as many facts as you can. Then provide an educated guess as to why this was a news…
This map was published in 1789. Zoom into the map online or using this map document (.pdf) and review “A Table of the Diameters, Periods & of the several Planets in the Solar System”. Compare the information in that table to the data scientists have today. Make a new table with the same column headers and fill it in…
Become a time traveling sleuth with historical newspapers to discover how the hot new technology at the turn of the 20th century evolved. Work in groups to analyze the primary sources and, together, uncover the evolution of radio technology. Next, investigate other primary and secondary sources to compare and contrast radio’s evolution to another technology…
Zoom into a more detailed image of this newspaper page from 1912. Look at the images carefully and only read the headline and image captions. Outline the assertions—facts or beliefs—that are suggested. Now read the first paragraph of the article. Describe your reaction to this text. Then relate how the descriptions of weather events compare to what…
Zoom into a more detailed image of this newspaper page from 1901. Read only the headline and image captions. Then carefully review the images and make an educated guess about what the article will discuss. Now read the article. How does it answer the question posed in the title? What evidence is provided to support this…
Imagine you are from another planet and have been charged with reporting back to your commander on this country called Kenya on the continent of Africa. Zoom into this composite map and investigate the information presented. Create an outline of your findings. Compare the information in this composite map with one of the maps linked to below, noting similarities…
The title of this print is “Grandma’s Toilet”. Zoom into this artwork and use details from the image to figure out what toilet meant in this time (1893) and context. After, look up different definitions of toilet. What can you infer, or figure out, about the relationship between the young girl and the older woman? Use…
Background The “Corps of Discovery” expedition led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark in the years 1804-1806 was instrumental in opening up western North America to settlement. After this defining exploration, fur companies further investigated westward routes. Financed by John J. Astor’s Pacific Fur Company, an 1812 expedition led by Robert Stuart began on the west coast…