In this lesson, students use a guided reading to look at a report on the status of education in North Carolina in 1869, and discuss the reasons given then for why the Governor and Legislature should support educating North Carolina's children. They are provided an opportunity to compare and contrast the 1869 document against their own ideas about the civic duty to attend school through age sixteen, and its relative value to the state and the country.

For many years scholars have recognized that late nineteenth-century Durham, North Carolina makes an ideal case study for examining emancipation, industrialization, immigration, and urbanization in the context of the New South. "With its tobacco factories, textile mills, black entrepreneurs, and new college," the historian Syd Nathans observes, "Durham was a hub of enterprise and hope." By the early twentieth century, Durham became renowned for its vibrant entrepreneurial spirit. Both W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington wrote articles for the national press about their visits with members of Durham's African-American community. After his visit in 1910, Booker T. Washington dubbed Durham the "City of Negro Enterprises." The Digital Durham website offers students, teachers, and researchers a range of primary sources with which they can investigate the economic, social, cultural, and political history of a post-bellum southern community. Letters from mothers to daughters, parents to children, and husbands and wives give insight into the domestic lives of some of Durham's elite citizens. Entries from Atlas Rigsbee's general store ledger together with data from the 1880 census provide a view into the social experience of those Durham citizens who have not left written documents. Taken together the new materials on Digital Durham touch on over 600 topics including African American business enterprise, the emergence of textiles, tobacco production and marketing, child labor, prohibition, evangelical revivalism, nineteenth-century medical practices, women's experience of childbirth, and public and private education. The holdings of the website provide access to a wide range of manuscript and printed materials from the 1870s through the 1920s. The site also features a new collection of maps that depict Durham from the late 1860s to the present day. Digital Durham offers its users a selection of manuscript letters taken from the Southgate-Jones family papers and James Southgate papers, accounts from Atlas M. Rigsbee's general store ledger, photographs, ephemera, census data, printed works as well as a rich collection of maps. The site also includes audio postcards created by Duke students in an undergraduate research seminar on the history of Durham and the New South. Additionally, the site includes resources for K-12 educators--a reference section with glossary of terms used in the 1880 census and lesson plans that tie to the North Carolina Standard Course of Study.

A book-length resource for teachers and students to learn about North Carolina. Over 400 pages of teacher resources (including rubrics and answers) and student pages provide a greater depth and breadth to North Carolina studies than any other resource for middle and secondary students. These sections consist of lesson materials for students related to North Carolina. The lessons contained herein are intended for students in middle school, chiefly eighth grade, and are aligned with the North Carolina Standard Course of Study. This project is not intended as new research on North Carolina. Instead, it is a compilation of available resources made accessible for today's youth. Research and data from disparate sources have been distilled into discrete units for helping students understand North Carolina - the state, its peoples, and its place in the world. This project is intended to introduce students and teachers to North Carolina and help them develop interest in and appreciation for this diverse and fascinating state. Many pages are also translated into Spanish. Individual components are uploaded separately in both English and Spanish for easier reference. This work is modular; each section can be used in isolation if desired to support instruction in Social Studies, math, English, or other topics.

In this video, filmed thirty miles off the coast of North Carolina, there is a shipwreck on the bottom, 130 feet down. Swarming around the wreck are dozens of Sand Tiger sharks. They look menacing, but they seem to be very docile. What are they all doing there, in one spot? That's what Jonathan wants to find out. Using a variety of filming techniques, Jonathan attempts to discover the secrets of the Sand Tiger shark gatherings at the wrecks, and does the first ever night dive with these shark..talk about scary! Please see the accompanying study guide for educational objectives and discussion points.

In partnership with the Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, the NC Forestry Association, and the Weyerhaeuser Corporation, agricultural education students will understand sustainable forestry practices and the forestry industry. Students will explore the pertinence and value of the forestry industry in North Carolina, while also learning skills that are used in today’s forestry industry. The agricultural education curriculum will also lead students through the exploration of forest ecology, tree identification, and the many practices involved with sustainable forestry and the forestry careers.