Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

This site contains several templates for familiar TV games useful for teacher (or student) created review. The activities include Family Feud, Wheel of Fortune, Who Wants to be a Millionaire, and others. Most of the games are done in PowerPoint. Depending on the version of PowerPoint you have, the formatting may be slightly off once you input your words, questions, or answers. Original games created by a teacher complete the offerings. Our editors note that the sound files included with some templates may be copyrighted material, and TeachersFirst does not condone the use of this content without the permission of the copyright holder(s). Most templates are "clean" of such potential problems. This website requires PowerPoint and Adobe Acrobat. Download both from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..

tag(s): air (101)

If it's a college, why doesn't it have a football team? Unfortunately, that's about the level of understanding about the Electoral College among many students. Once students learn that we don't really elect presidents by popular vote, many are also quick to condemn the Electoral College as "stupid" or "unfair." This site might help teachers put the Electoral College and the process we use to determine our president into sharper focus. The interactive map is fairly simple, but can be adapted to show the peculiar way that "all or nothing" Electoral College voting state by state can affect the outcome of an election. We need look no further than the most recent 2008 election to see its impact in real terms. You can highlight a particular state and get a historical view of electoral votes for the republican or democratic candidate in past presidential elections. Although the site will have usefulness beyond the 2024 election, it is currently featuring the progress of that race through the straw polls, then primaries and beyond with polling data.

Be aware: during election season, this site opens slowly. But it is well worth the wait.
This site includes advertising.

tag(s): college (45), elections (82), electoral college (22)

From PBS, this site is associated with the series "Building Big." Unlike many sites that relate to a TV program, however, this site contains a number of excellent "stand-alone" features that can be integrated into more general lessons, and do not require students to have seen the series. The site is generally organized around five types of super sized engineering projects: bridges, domes, skyscrapers, tunnels, and dams. There are lesson plans tied to national standards, a neat searchable database of structures, some career-development content related to engineering, and information about the related television series. The highlights of this site are the flash-enabled interactive labs. They are outstanding. Illustrating basic principles of physics and engineering, students can experiment with building materials and see the impact of their choices on virtual buildings. Some activities at this site require Flash; however there is a lot to learn from the features that don't require Flash.

tag(s): bridges (11), engineering (129)

This is a comprehensive site offering detailed information on the black leagues and the players who made them great. This is an excellent addition to Black History Month! There are links to learn about the history of black leagues, the players of black leagues, and the teams of black leagues. Be aware - there is a link to buy merchandise from the Negro Baseball League. However, all of the information provided is free.

tag(s): baseball (32), black history (133)

Come to this website for one-stop learning about baseball. Some of the many activities and links at this website include "Stathead," "Teams," "Players," "Seasons," and more.

tag(s): baseball (32), sports (82), statistics (121)

This content-rich website, from the Baseball Almanac, offers definitions of some of the more common - and also more obscure - offensive, defensive, and pitching statistics. There are links to learn more about abbreviations, a baseball stats calculator, history of baseball, players of baseball, quotes about the game, and several others. This site does include some small advertisements.

tag(s): baseball (32), statistics (121)

Jared Diamond's book Guns Germs & Steel won a Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction. This website presents an overview of some of the major threads of Diamond's thesis as presented in the PBS special based upon the book. Diamond suggests that geography may have been the single most important factor in the rise and fall of civilizations over the course of human history. The site examines some of the variables that have contributed to the success or failure of societies through history, including crops, animals, technology, and climate. There are lesson plans tied to national standards associated with each of the televised episodes. While viewing the series is an option, much can be gained by examining the lesson plans even without watching the series.

tag(s): cultures (180)

Art and world history come alive through this dazzling collection of the Yale University Art Gallery. The collections span time and continents: African art, American painting, sculpture and decorative arts, ancient art, art of the ancient Americans, Asian art, coins and medals, and early European, modern, and contemporary art. Each collection is easily viewed in a via individual picture format with detailed descriptions, which combine art and history. Scroll to the bottom of each collection to find a video about the collection. The video times vary from three minutes to over an hour. The "Kids and Families" section of the website has stories, activities, coloring books, and online jigsaw puzzles that could also be used in the classroom. The website includes resources for K12 educators has information for professional development and after-school programs and classes.

tag(s): art history (103), artists (85), coins (6), painting (55), photography (130), sculpture (18)

Africa Focus offers a wealth of digital images and sound recordings from contemporary Africa. This collection from the University of Wisconsin contains more than 3000 slides, 500 photographs, and 50 hours of sounds from 45 different countries. Click Search the Collection to see image categories which include artisans, buildings and structures, cities and towns, education, landscape, religion, and women. Sound recordings include drums, greetings, rites and ceremonies, songs, and signing. The site is easily searched by keyword or by subject heading.

tag(s): africa (148), air (101), architecture (75), black history (133)

Students know something about Shakespeare, but they tend to think he was the only playwright of his day. This site helps them realize that he was only one of many in the Elizabethan period and that there was a Tudor period before and a Jacobean period after him. This is an exhaustive, albeit entertaining, and authoritative look at English drama as it moved from the Middle Ages through the Renaissance. The articles are written by professors and they all contain links with explanations for all the referenced allusions. While rather encyclopedic in nature, having all the resources in one place is extraordinarily handy for the teacher of this period.

tag(s): elizabethan (13), renaissance (38)

This wonderfully informative website provides numerous "case files" about many famous people from the world of science and technology. There are five major areas including computing, transportation, cosmic inquiry, energy, and communications. Click the names of the famous people to learn more about their specific inventions and/or contributions to science and technology. The downloadable PDF also includes images of artifacts from each scientist's life: diaries, writings, and more. Numerous famous scientists and inventors are included (Alexander Graham Bell, William Jennings, Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, Henry Ford, Catherine Gibbon, and many others).

tag(s): aviation (40), energy (133), inventors and inventions (80), scientists (67), transportation (30)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City offers this site. View World Maps, Timelines, Thematic Essays, and more. Click on the "Works of Art" link to search by time period, geographical region, or thematic category. Time periods include 8000 BC to the present. Thematic categories include African, Renaissance, Colonial, Medieval, Modern, and more. The timeline features nearly every continent and many categories of art.

tag(s): art history (103), medieval (32), renaissance (38)

This Wikipedia-type dictionary includes more than 33,000 biographies on men and women from ancient times to today. Search by birth or death dates, professions, achievements, name or other keywords. Anyone can register to edit or add to a biography. If you do recommend this site as a source for research, be sure to have the discussion about its unknown authorship and usefulness as a general information tool but not as a "scholarly" resource.

tag(s): critical thinking (127)

The National Museum of African American History and Culture is the only national museum devoted to documentation of African-American life in the United States. Explore the virtual museum through collections, exhibitions, stories, and more. Search collections by topic, era, or name to view artifacts including photographs, maps, and much more.

tag(s): africa (148), african american (115), black history (133), cultures (180)

Although this website doesn't have a lot of "bells and whistles." It is very useful to learn more about the physics behind thrill rides, the history of the roller coaster, and more. The site provides statistical information, historical information, construction information, and more about various thrill rides (mainly roller coasters). Did you ever wonder what the tallest steel roller coaster was in the world? This website provides a "record book" with a wide variety of statistical information about what roller coasters can claim to be the tallest, longest, fastest, and more.

tag(s): motion (47)

Posted by the New Hampshire Concord Monitor Newspaper in the Classroom program, this website offers many interactive ideas that students can use either with a physical newspaper in front of them, with an online news service such as CNN, or with online editions of newspapers that you find here. The examples used all refer to the New Hampshire newspaper, but are easily adaptable to whatever topic you want the students to deal with. This site includes such varied activities as creating a database and writing recipes. It covers every section of a newspaper. Students could create their own classroom newspaper using some of these activities or simply create journalistic articles based on whatever topic you are currently teaching. This is adaptable to almost any grade level and subject area.

tag(s): local history (14), news (229), newspapers (93)

Clearly, students love playing games of all kinds. This website takes a look at the history of games from board games to lawn games. It both describes the pieces, the boards, the rules, and the history. Since many of the games are from other places around the world, this site affords the opportunity to investigate how game playing relates to life in different times and places. This is a great site to get kids involved in history, games, and creativity. Not only can they learn about games from the Renaissance and before; they will laugh at names like "Toad in the Hole" and "Ringing the Bull." While many of these games will show the origins of games they play today, it will give students ideas on how to create their own games.

The National Women's History Museum site includes a rich collection of resources. Although the collection is certainly deep on issues related to women's suffrage, there is also information on women in World War II, women and education, women and the Progressive movement, and women spies. There are good photographs of artifacts from the women's movement, and a nice collection of lesson plans, grouped by grade level.

tag(s): jamestown (6), women (151), womenchangemaker (37), womens suffrage (52), world war 2 (161)

An admirable effort by a California school district to honor Japanese Americans who were discriminated against and sent to internment camps during World War II, this site contains a wealth of information for those doing research on this difficult chapter of American history. Although this site would be most useful for either teachers or students doing in-depth research on the topic, there are some more generally helpful gems here. Along with the wonderful interviews with people who were directly affected by discrimination, there are video clips and photographs that would be helpful in illustrating this time to students.

tag(s): california (17), japan (57), japanese (47), world war 2 (161)

The National Museum of American History contains some of the most beloved artifacts from US cultural and political history. This site highlights a handful of these artifacts, and uses them to teach students of history (both those in the desks and those at the front of the class) the power of artifacts to educate. For each of five artifacts, there is a Quick Time 360-degree look at the piece, and a number of context-setting resources associated with it. However, the most important aspect of this site is the section providing tips to teachers for how to use artifacts to add impact to a lesson.

tag(s): museums (52)