Pa'lante: Onward With Art

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Students begin this unit by discussing their relationship with art, and the extent to which they believe art drives resistance movements. Students then participate in a Gallery Walk that highlights how members of the Puerto Rico community in the Young Lords used art to advance their ideas and preserve their culture. Students center the activism of Indigenous peoples in Puerto Rico by studying bomba music and murals. This helps them understand the roots of art—both visual and performance—as activism, and respond to the question: How can understanding Latinidad through art help us confront social and political injustices? Throughout this unit, students work in teams to create a poster series that inspires civic engagement and action on issues of social and political injustice.

Material Type: Lesson, Lesson Plan, Module, Teaching/Learning Strategy, Unit of Study

Author: Educurious .

Reporting on Reconstruction's Legacy

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Students learn about the efforts of Ida B. Wells and other Black female journalists who used investigative reporting to challenge ideas and people that perpetuated social and political injustices. Students look to Black female journalists today by learning about Natasha S. Alford’s feature stories on race in Puerto Rico, and draw on past and present examples of journalism to help them respond to the unit driving question: How can journalism challenge inequality and injustice? Students use the tenets of investigative reporting to explore the achievements and challenges of the era, then work to shine a light on the possibilities of racial equity by writing and publishing a feature story about an issue of injustice today.

Material Type: Lesson, Lesson Plan, Module, Teaching/Learning Strategy, Unit of Study

Author: Educurious .

Voices of the Transatlantic Slave Trade

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This unit begins by asking students to consider life in Africa before colonization and the forced enslavement of Africans. Students read Omar ibn Said’s autobiography to understand the Islamic scholar’s experiences before he was captured in West Africa and after he was enslaved in America. Excerpts from Olaudah Equiano’s autobiography provide a detailed glimpse of his childhood in Africa before he was kidnapped and sold into slavery. Students examine these two stories and others for evidence of resistance, liberation, connection to culture, and shared humanity as they develop a response to the question: How can we better understand America’s past and present by listening to often omitted and unheard voices from the slave trade? Working in teams, students create a podcast about an unheard story in order to start a conversation about the lasting effects of the Transatlantic slave trade and the importance of Black history in America.

Material Type: Lesson, Lesson Plan, Module, Teaching/Learning Strategy, Unit of Study

Author: Educurious .

Ké Chuyên: Vietnamese American Experiences

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Students begin this unit by exploring the themes of humanity and community as they discuss  the many factors that influence the development of personal identities. They unpack together how we show versus hide different parts of ourselves, and how our identities can be both fixed and ever-changing. Then, students listen to oral histories by Vietnamese Americans to learn how displacement and resettlement have impacted them personally and shaped their outlook on helping others. Using evidence from these firsthand accounts, students answer the question: What can the experiences of displaced people teach us about community, resilience, and humanity? Throughout this unit, students work in teams to create a podcast where they reflect on their collective responsibility to stand in solidarity with displaced people.

Material Type: Lesson, Lesson Plan, Module, Teaching/Learning Strategy, Unit of Study

Author: Educurious .

Pursuit of a More Perfect Union

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Students analyze James Madison’s notes to understand why delegates at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 compromised on equality in order to form a United States government, what steps they later took to create a Bill of Rights, and whose rights were protected and whose were not. Students learn about key efforts to uphold the rights of people in the United States, from the Constitutional Convention in 1787 to examples of participatory journalism today in order to respond to the question: How can we use examples of activism from the past and present to recognize America’s potential for living up to its democratic ideals? Students then analyze artifacts from the Colored Conventions, which was one of the first Black political intellectual movements in the United States to advocate for the rights of people who have been marginalized. Students create an original political pamphlet to raise awareness and inspire action on issues of injustice and inequality today.

Material Type: Lesson, Lesson Plan, Module, Teaching/Learning Strategy, Unit of Study

Author: Educurious .

Smoke & Haze: Hazardous Horizons

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How can we help keep our community safe from wildfire smoke?In this unit, students delve into wildfire science, exploring factors that influence wildfires and smoke through a Gallery Walk and multimedia activities. They analyze regional wildfire history and investigate how winds carry smoke through informational texts, interpreting wind barb maps and understanding the Air Quality Index. Students then learn about the body's defenses against air pollution by constructing respiratory system models to demonstrate these defenses. As teams, students employ their analytical and creative skills to design public service announcements, synthesizing their learning to educate the community on the effects of wildfire smoke, prevention, and safety strategies during smoke events. These PSAs represent their understanding and response to the unit driving question allowing them to leave a meaningful and educational impact on their community.

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Author: Educurious .

Guardians of the Block: Safe Communities By Design

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How can we design communities that are safe for people?In this unit, students delve into urban design through a practical lens. The unit launches with students assessing pedestrian safety through a neighborhood walk, evaluating safety features and identifying potential enhancements, concluding with a calculated walk safety score for their routes. Students then utilize the engineering design cycle to draft solutions for pedestrian safety challenges they discover in their community through virtual walks using Google Earth and Street View. Student urban design teams prepare to showcase their proposals for safer community spaces by incorporating peer feedback into their designs and developing map models that clearly communicate how their solutions will increase pedestrian safety. This unit culminates in an Urban Planning Exhibition, where students present their safety recommendations, aiming to inspire real-world change in their communities.

Material Type: Full Course, Lesson, Lesson Plan, Module, Teaching/Learning Strategy, Unit of Study

Author: Educurious .

Connected

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This unit is designed to build inquiry about and interest in the themes and topics woven throughout Educurious’s multi-unit Washington State History course. To start off, students discover and share how they are connected to their classmates by participating in a “Web of Connectedness” activity. Throughout the unit, students engage in mapping, data visualization, and cost-benefit analyses in order to unpack the theme of connectedness and answer the unit driving question: How are people in Washington connected to each other and the rest of the world? As students learn about resources, economies, innovations, people, and places in Washington, they draft a series of six interactive community boards that educate others about the ways in which people are connected. For the culminating product of this unit, student teams finalize one of their six draft community boards to help students in their school make connections between themselves, Washington, and the world.

Material Type: Lesson, Lesson Plan, Module, Teaching/Learning Strategy, Unit of Study

Author: Educurious .

Innovation Through the Lens

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Students kick off the unit with an analysis of images by engaging in a Four Corners activity, in which they begin to unpack the many positive and negative impacts of innovations on communication, infrastructure, and workers’ rights. After this initial analysis, students listen to oral histories, read narrative accounts, and study photos of people and places, to answer the question: How does innovation impact communities in Washington? Throughout the unit, students research a transformative innovation in workers rights, communication, and infrastructure in order to create a thought-provoking photo essay about how their chosen innovation impacts people and places in Washington.

Material Type: Lesson, Lesson Plan, Module, Teaching/Learning Strategy, Unit of Study

Author: Educurious .

Roaring Rivers

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This unit begins with a challenge in which students must make a decision for the common good. The task highlights the importance of considering various stakeholder perspectives in order to serve the common good. Students transfer what they have learned to their study of a major dam project in Washington State. Teams focus on one of four projects (Upper Skagit Hydroelectric Project, Lower Snake River Project, Columbia River Gorge Project, Columbia River Basin Project). Each team works together to understand the perspectives of diverse stakeholders as they develop a response to the unit-driving question: How can dams in Washington serve the common good? Teams apply what they have learned to come up with a recommendation for the future of the dam project that considers how it will impact people and places.

Material Type: Lesson, Lesson Plan, Module, Teaching/Learning Strategy, Unit of Study

Authors: Educurious ., Educurious .

Resettling In Washington

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Students begin this unit by exploring the themes of humanity and community as they discuss  the many factors that influence the development of personal identities. They unpack together how we show versus hide different parts of ourselves, and how our identities can be both fixed and ever-changing. Then, students listen to oral histories by Vietnamese Americans in Washington to learn how displacement and resettlement have impacted them personally and shaped their outlook on helping others. Using evidence from these firsthand accounts, students answer the question: What can the experiences of displaced people teach us about community, resilience, and humanity? Throughout this unit, students work in teams to create a podcast where they reflect on their collective responsibility to stand in solidarity with displaced people.

Material Type: Lesson, Lesson Plan, Module, Teaching/Learning Strategy, Unit of Study

Author: Educurious .

Decisions That Define Us

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Students learn about the controversial history of a mural in Anacortes, WA, and consider what it would take to create a more inclusive and accurate mural in Anacortes today. Then students learn about the tribes, immigrants, and settlers in the region where they live and how their stories are represented in local murals in public spaces. Students draw on what they have learned to respond to the unit driving question: What decisions and whose stories define Washington state? Then, drawing on local resources such as tribal members, historical societies, and museums, students work in teams to propose a new mural that tells an inclusive story of the people and place where they live.

Material Type: Lesson Plan, Module, Teaching/Learning Strategy, Unit of Study

Authors: Educurious ., Educurious .

#Rights #Representation #Change

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Students learn how young people in Washington exercised their rights and responsibilities through “fish-in” protests to fight for tribal fishing rights in the 1960s. Students use this example of civic engagement to reflect on their rights and responsibilities today, then begin to consider the unit-driving question: How can we use social media to engage community members on issues of injustice? Working in teams, students examine a case study on one of three critical issues: natural resources, the environment, or hazard preparedness. The case studies help students understand how social media can be used to raise awareness and promote action. Finally, teams create a social media campaign that engages their local elected officials and community on an issue of social and environmental justice.

Material Type: Lesson, Lesson Plan, Module, Teaching/Learning Strategy, Unit of Study

Authors: Educurious ., Educurious .

Educator Adaptation Guide for Washington State History Course

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The Washington State History Project is a multiyear initiative that originated in 2020 with the goal of transforming how Washington state history is taught. The project brought together educators, district facilitators, cultural consultants, and local experts to create six project-based learning (PBL) units that are anti-biased, interdisciplinary, place-based, and aligned to the Washington State Social Studies Learning Standards and the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards. The course weaves together original content, multimedia resources, primary sources, and curricular materials from Since Time Immemorial: Tribal Sovereignty in Washington State, developed by Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI).

Material Type: Teaching/Learning Strategy

Author: Educurious