Research projects for students have become much easier in the digital age thanks to the internet. Here are six of my favorite sites that I used during my teaching days.
There are many excellent websites, but before you get your students out on the internet searching for cool sites, make sure they know what a great website is because there’s a lot of junk out there. Some of it is just a waste of space, but some of it is wrong and/or malicious. Take a look at the criteria of American Library Association. Go over it with your students and do a few lessons with the criteria and some specially selected sites.
BBC-Religions
During my years of teaching middle school social studies, I always did a unit on world religions. Especially during these difficult times of religious bigotry and intolerance, it is important to give students a broad overview of world religions. The BBC site has 20 featured religions and beliefs, including atheism, Candomble, Islam, Judaism, Rastafari, Sikhism, Unitarianism, Baha’i, Christianity, Jainism, Mormonism, Santeria, Spiritualism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Paganism, Shinto and Taoism. Each religion or belief has a set of features that explain their key concepts, texts and practices. For example, if you click on Buddhism, you go to another page that has sections on Buddhism at a glance, beliefs, ethics, customs, history, holy days, people and subdivisions. This site is appropriate for students at the middle school and high school level, in addition to being a great resource for teachers. This is a definite check it out site.
This Day in History – History.com
During my last year of teaching, I liked to start off the day with a short history fact. Why? Because students (well, not just students, American adults are terribly uniformed about history) need to have a stronger foundation in history and geography than they currently have. If you have a smartboard or LED in the classroom that is connected to the internet, you can have this page up when students come in. Have them read the lead story and write a one-paragraph summary. When they’re finished, ask a student to read her summary and act as the leader of a short discussion about the story. All this can be done as part of homeroom class. Or, if you don’t have time in the morning, do it at the end of the day.
CIA – The World Factbook
Regardless of what you may think of the CIA, this is an excellent site for teachers, students and librarians. I’ve had students use The World Factbook for a variety of projects in social studies and computer classes. Country information is organized around topics, such as geography, people and society, government, economy, communications, transportation, military and transnational issues. Images of the country flag and a map are also available. You can look at country comparisons for a variety of indicators such as unemployment rate, education expenditures and population growth rate.
BBC News – Country Profiles
This site has information that is similar to The World Factbook, although in less detail. Countries are grouped according to region. Information is available on the history, political leaders, media, and the national anthem of each country, along with a few links to related stories.
The Ancient Web – The Ancient World’s Great Civilizations
The Ancient Web has a nicely designed site that is easy to navigate and has attractive graphics. This is a site for students and teachers who want to learn about ancient civilizations. The mission of The Ancient Web is to help develop an interest in, and understanding of, the past. The site donates 5% of its advertising revenue to charities. The content on the site comes from users and The Ancient Web notes that there may be issues with accuracy.
The site covers 48 ancient civilizations that are organized on geographical locations. For example, under the general heading of Asia, there are articles on Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Thailand, and Tibet. The Indonesian section includes detailed information on: The Early Indonesian Archipelago, Buddhist and Hindu Kingdoms reach Sumatra, Srivijaya Empire, Central Javanese Kingdoms, The Hindu Kingdom of Mataram, The Arrival of Islam, History of Bali and The Temples of Prambanan. The articles in each section are fairly detailed and the level of language makes the site better for middle school and high school students.
There is a section on videos that includes videos from the BBC, the Discovery Channel and CNN. The videos are short and ideal for starting a discussion with your students.
Ben’s Guide to the U.S. Government for Kids
Teachers who work in the U.S. or in international schools that use an American curriculum will end up teaching about the government in social studies. Take a look at this website that is created by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office. This site has information and resources about how the U.S. government works that can be used by students in grades K-12, parents and teachers. Among the resources is a set of excellent links to U.S. government websites for students, such as the one to the National Zoo for students who want to learn about animals, and the link to the Encyclopedia Smithsonian that has a wealth of activities, resources and information. But, besides the excellent resources, the main reason that I really like this site is the information about the government. There are separate sections for students in K-2, 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12. The information is written in age appropriate language and is organized around specific topics. For example, in the Grades 6-8 section, the topics are Our Nation, Historical Documents, Branches of Government, How Laws are Made, National versus State Government, Election Process, Citizenship, Games and Activities, Glossary and U.S Government Web Sites for Kids. This is a great site for developing a solid understanding of how the government works and what a citizen’s responsibilities are when living in a democracy.
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