There are many different topics within exploration that students have some background information with.  Topics like the Atlantic Slave Trade and the Columbian Exchange are parts of history that students either have background knowledge on or they are easy for students to grasp.  However, there are other topics, like mercantilism and triangular trade, that students struggle with.  This lesson is designed to be done in an 80-minute period (or more), or over the course of two days.  It allows students some autonomy to work on their own, and to take the notes that they need, but also allows the teacher to lead a portion of the lesson and clarify any quesitons that might arise.

This lesson can be used to introduce students to the concept of different map projections that they might encounter throughout the year.  It helps them to understand that there are many different ways to view the world and that certain views give them different information.

In this video segment from Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, learn about Muslims in Lawrenceville, Georgia, their plans to build an Islamic cemetery and the stiff objections from their Christian neighbors.

Created by NHPRC Teacher Participant/Creator Steve Haller for AP World History; Adaptable to other grades. In this project, students interview a family member about why they immigrated to the United States (or a person who might know the story). The student then places this story into world history and explains the push and pull factors that the family experienced. The student will be writing a biography for the family member in a historical context.

Summary/ Description Overview:
Created by NHPRC Teacher Participant/Creator Nancy Condon for her Grade 10 US History course; Adaptable to World History and to other grades. The goal of this scaffolded project is for students to research their own family immigration history looking into the reasons they left their home country and why they chose to settle in the United States. The project requires the student to do multiple stages of research, including an interview, origin country research, US research, and geographic research before handing in a final project in a choice of format – essay, poster board or website – to connect family immigration, and US History to world history events.

Created by NHPRC Teacher Participant/Creator Judith Jeremie for her AP World History course; Adaptable to other grades. This assignment asks students to make meaningful connections between the past and their family/neighborhood history by conducting an interview of / researching a relative, gathering and organizing evidence of a historical moment / theme that has impacted that relative, and presenting their findings through art (graphic novel/ comic strips) or writing (narrative/poem).

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.

This course will focus on the emergence and evolution of industrial societies around the world. The student will begin by comparing the legacies of industry in ancient and early modern Europe and Asia and examining the agricultural and commercial advances that laid the groundwork for the Industrial Revolution. The student will then follow the history of industrialization in different parts of the world, taking a close look at the economic, social, and environmental effects of industrialization. This course ultimately examines how industrialization developed, spread across the globe, and shaped everyday life in the modern era. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to: identify key ideas and events in the history of industrialization; identify connections between the development of capitalism and the development of modern industry; use analytical tools to evaluate the factors contributing to industrial change in different societies; identify the consequences of industrialization in the 19th and 20th centuries in different societies; critique historical interpretations of the causes and effects of industrialization; and analyze and interpret primary source documents describing the process of industrialization and life in industrial societies. (History 363)

This video segment adapted from NOVA/FRONTLINE looks at the future of global warming as developing nations, including India and China, increase their need for energy.

Ted Talk: On March 15th, 44 BCE, Roman dictator Julius Caesar was assassinated by a group of about 60 of his own senators. Why did these self-titled Liberators want him dead? And why did Brutus, whose own life had been saved by Caesar, join in the plot? Kathryn Tempest investigates the personal and political assassination of Julius Caesar.

This course examines how the natural world has shaped and been shaped by the exercise of state power over time. It considers how the pursuit of natural wealth has led people and governments to alter the world around them, and what the consequences of those alterations have been for natural and human communities. It considers places and practices as wide-ranging as silver production in sixteenth-century South America, sugar in the eighteenth-century Caribbean, opium in nineteenth-century India, cocaine in twentieth century Latin America and the United States, and petroleum in the modern Middle East. It examines how capital investment in labor and technology has reflected political regimes and how the production and circulation of natural commodities have shaped global patterns of forced and free migration. It will also examine global themes such as imperialism and colonialism, the spread of epidemic diseases, and global capitalism, among others.

This course is a history, from ancient to modern times, of the interactions between human societies and the natural environment, including other forms of life that inhabit the planet. This course investigates how environmental changes have affected the history of human societies, and also how human activity has transformed nature.

In this video segment from Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, meet an American Muslim as he prepares for Hajj, the pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca that commemorates the Abrahamic roots of Islam.

Performed with over two million other Muslims, the rites of Hajj, the required pilgrimage to Mecca, have a profound personal impact on each pilgrim. In this video from Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, a Muslim from America experiences Hajj for the first time.

Students learn about an American Muslim's impressions of his first pilgrimage to Mecca in this video segment from Religion & Ethics Newsweekly.

A dining hall at Dartmouth College accommodates the religious dietary requirements of Muslims, Jews and Hindus as explained in this video from Religion & Ethics Newsweekly.

The History Engine is an educational tool that gives students the opportunity to learn history by doing the work—researching, writing, and publishing—of an historian. The result is an ever-growing collection of historical articles or "episodes" that paint a wide-ranging portrait of life in the United States throughout its history, available in our online database to scholars, teachers, and the general public.The History Engine project aims to enhance historical education and research for teachers, students, and scholars alike. It allows undergraduate professors to introduce a more collaborative and creative approach to history into their classrooms, while maintaining rigorous academic standards. The History Engine gives students a more intimate experience with the process of history. Participants who work with the History Engine project learn the craft of an historian: they examine primary documents, place these documents in a larger historical context using secondary sources, and prepare cogent analysis of their sources for the public eye. Finally, the History Engine provides a way for professors to take advantage of digital technology in their classrooms while maintaining rigorous academic standards. The cumulative database provides all the easy-access and searchability of other websites, but also subjects its contents to a careful academic screening process on the part of library staff, archivists, professors, and teaching assistants.

This course introduces students to modern world history and geography. It provides an opportunity for students to learn and further develop foundational research and writing skills by incorporating practice into every class session. Early in the course, students select a country to study, then all research and writing activities are focused on that country. It also utilizes the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to help students explore their country.The course utilizes openly licensed textbooks and publicly available materials as course materials.This survey course is intended for freshmen and sophomore-level students who are interested in exploring historical, political and social contexts beyond their own. Students will have ample opportunities to practice foundational skills including writing, research, source citation, critical thinking and public speaking.It was originally taught over 13 weeks as part of a Fulbright US Scholar grant in the International College at Tunghai University in Taichung Taiwan. It was developed with support from the Open Education for a Better World Program.

This course surveys the rise, growth, and flowering of world civilizations in Africa, America, Asia, and Europe. It emphasizes diversity as well as universal themes which unite all human cultures. It is appropriate for grades 11-12, community college stidents, and university underclassmen.