This course will explore how Americans have confronted energy challenges since the end of World War II. Beginning in the 1970s, Americans worried about the supply of energy. As American production of oil declined, would the US be able to secure enough fuel to sustain their high consumption lifestyles? At the same time, Americans also began to fear the environmental side affects of energy use. Even if the US had enough fossil fuel, would its consumption be detrimental to health and safety? This class examines how Americans thought about these questions in the last half-century. We will consider the political, diplomatic, economic, cultural, and technological aspects of the energy crisis. Topics include nuclear power, suburbanization and the new car culture, the environmental movement and the challenges of clean energy, the Middle East and supply of oil, the energy crisis of the 1970s, and global warming.

In small groups, students closely examine one sentence from the Gettysburg Address and create a multigenre project communicating what they have discovered about the meaning and significance of the text.

"I never knew a whole family to live together, till all were grown up, in my life," recalls Lewis Clarke of his twenty-five years enslaved in Kentucky.1 Families were separated due to sale, escape, early death from poor health, suicide, and murder by a slaveholder, overseer, slave patroller, or other dominant person. Separation also occurred within the plantation itself, e.g., by segregating "field slaves" from "house servants," removing children from parents to live together with a slave caretaker, or bringing children fathered by the slaveholder to live in the "Big House." How, then, did the slave family provide solace and identity? "What the family does, and what the family did for African Americans," writes historian Deborah White Gray, "was create a world outside of the world of work. It allowed for significant others. It allowed a male slave to be more than just a brute beast. It allowed him to be a father, to be a son. It allowed women to be mothers and to take on roles that were outside of that of a slave, of a servant."2 When did the enslaved child realize how his or her family life differed from the slave-holder's? How did enslaved adults cope with the forced disintegration of their families? Here we read a collection of texts—two letters, a memoir, and interview excerpts—to consider these questions. (See also Theme II: ENSLAVEMENT, #2, Sale.)

Nikki Giovanni's poem 'The Funeral of Martin Luther King, Jr.' is paired with Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech, taking students on a quest through time to the Civil Rights movement.

This site offers geography and history activities showing how two years in history had an indelible impact on American politics and culture. Students interpret historical maps, identify territories acquired by the U.S., identify states later formed from these territories, examine the territorial status of Texas, and identify political, social, and economic issues related to the expansion of the U.S. in the 1840s.

Practice working with primary documents by comparing accounts of the Chicago Fire and testing the credibility of a Civil War diary.

Slavery has existed around the world for generations. It has spanned across cultures and spread throughout continents, leaving its mark on families, communities, countries, governments and industry. Its reach continues to exist today. In this lesson, students will hear about the history of slavery and examine how it has evolved over time.

Students explore the concepts of audience and purpose by focusing on an issue that divided Americans in 1925, the debate of evolution versus creationism raised by the Scopes Monkey Trial.

This lesson outlines the importance of Susan B. Anthony and Martin Luther King, Jr. in U.S. history. It also presents information about the civil rights movement and reviews the First Amendment rights. Prior to teaching Fighting for Our Rights, we recommend covering two other USCIS civics lessons first: Benjamin Franklin and the U.S. Constitution, and Bill of Rights and Other Amendments. Depending on your schedule, you may also want to cover the lessons on Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War as there is related historical information that would help your students better understand the current lesson. Covers civics test items 6, 77, 84, 85, and 100.

At the Virginia Museum of History and Culture in Richmond’s exhibit on 400 years of African American history, curator Karen Sherry described the first Africans who were bought to the Virginia colony as slaves in 1619.

Students will create a timeline outlining various groups' struggles for equal opportunity and create a 30-second radio or video public service announcement (PSA).

Students will analyze shapes and patterns in a photograph, hear stories about people who were forced to move to internment camps because of their ethnicity, and create drawings that tell a story about a young girl's life in an internment camp.

Students will read primary source documents about the U.S. internment of Japanese Americans following the bombing of Pearl Harbor and will examine various versions of a photograph by Dorothea Lange and explore how cropping can evoke different effects.

Despite dramatic increases in the number of women earning advanced degrees in science and engineering, women remain scarce at the senior ranks in these disciplines in both industry and academia. Dr. Elga Wasserman, author of "The Door in the Dream" speaks about possible causes for this imbalance and suggest steps that can be taken in order to remove the barriers that persist. (47 minutes)

Renowned science scholar Naomi Oreskes and science producer Gene Rosow discuss how Hollywood and the news media portray global warming and what responsibility scientists have to educate the public about global warming. (57 minutes)

This Teacher Resource Guide is designed for incorporation into history and social studies curricula. It will introduce your students to some of the events and issues that shaped George Washington’s life. The activities should enhance your students’ knowledge of Washington and expand their horizons about this complex and interesting man.

This lesson plan asks students to analyze two primary sources, in the form of letters, that address the issues relating to religious freedom for the newly formed United States and its relation to the nature of citizenship and equality in a religiously diverse society. Students will also analyze the 1st. Amendment and develop an argument regarding 1st amendment issues today.

This video segment, adapted from NOVA, chronicles the education of leading chemist Percy Julian. Although Julian began his elementary school years in the Deep South under Jim Crow laws, he became one of the few African Americans of his time to earn a Ph.D.

Students examine primary resources, photographs by Dorothea Lange, and a U.S. map to understand the migrant experience during the Great Depression.

Ever wondered how comics are made? How about how to draw your own? In this video, Thien Pham, a graphic artist from Oakland, CA, will show you step-by-step how to create your own comic, from writing the plot to drawing the four-panel itself.