Essential Question: What do social scientists do?

In a Response Group activity, students discuss artifacts from the perspective of each of these social science traditions: economics, geography, political science, and history.

Why Teach This Lesson?

Essential Question: How do geographers study the regions of the United States?

In a Social Studies Skill Builder, students work in pairs to interpret a series of special purpose maps depicting five regions of the United States and attempt to identify the locations where five images of the United States were taken.

Why Teach This Lesson?

Essential Question: How have different groups contributed to the United States?

In a Social Studies Skill Builder, students work in pairs to read about one of five ethnic groups American Indians, Latinos, European Americans, African Americans, and Asian Americans and draw images and symbols to represent that group's experience.

Essential Question: What are different parts of the Northeast like?

In a Writing for Understanding activity, groups of students sit on a "train" and listen to a tour guide while they view images of places in the Northeast to learn key concepts and facts about the region.

Essential Question: How do people live in the Northeast?

In an Experiential Exercise, students use their bodies and desks to simulate the population density of the Northeast and several comparative locales.

Essential Question: What factors have shaped the culture of the Southeast?

In a Writing for Understanding activity, students "travel" by boat and bus while listening to a tour guide and viewing images depicting life in the Southeast. The tour stops at three sites, where students engage in interactive experiences and learn key concepts and facts about the region.

Why Teach This Lesson?

Essential Question: How has geography helped shape daily life in the Southeast?

In a Social Studies Skill Builder, students look at maps and answer questions about climate, elevation, natural resources, and bodies of water in the Southeast.

Why Teach This Lesson?

Essential Question: Why do we call the Midwest "America's Heartland"?

In a Writing for Understanding activity, students "tour" the Midwest in a crop duster and listen to a tour guide and view images of the Midwest. Through interactive experiences, students learn key concepts and facts about the region.

Essential Question: How has farming changed in the Midwest over time?

In a Visual Discovery activity, students analyze images of farm life in 1800, 1900, and today to discover how agriculture has changed in the Midwest.

Essential Question: How have geography and history shaped life in the Southwest?

In a Writing for Understanding activity, students sit in "big rigs" in groups of three, listen to a tour guide, and view nine images depicting life in the Southwest. The trucks stop at three sites, where students learn more through interactive experiences.

Essential Question: How do people depend on the Colorado River and share its water?

In an Experiential Exercise, students act out the roles of people living near the Colorado River in four different time periods to understand how its water has been used and shared, and how it might be used in the future.

Essential Question: What are the features that have drawn people to the West?

In a Writing for Understanding activity, students take a "van and airplane tour" and listen to a tour guide and view nine images of places in the West. Through interactive experiences, students learn key concepts and facts about the region.

Essential Question: What attracts people to the cities of the West?

In a Problem Solving Groupwork activity, students learn about seven cities in the West as they research, plan, and perform television commercials about the cities.

Essential Question: How has geography influenced life in your state?

In a Social Studies Skill Builder, pairs of students research the geography of their state using maps, atlases, library books, and the Internet and then design a board game that includes the geographic features they identified.

Essential Question: How can you learn about your state's history?

In a Writing for Understanding activity, students research a building, create a model of the building, write a script that tells about one era in the state's history from the perspective of the building, and bring the building to life to tell the story of their state's history.

Essential Question: What do you need to know to understand your state's economy?

In a Problem Solving Groupwork activity, students research one of eight economic activities in their state and then create a museum exhibit about that activity. Each figure in the exhibit "comes to life" to talk about the essential aspects of the state's economy.

Essential Question: How does your state's government work?

In a Writing for Understanding activity, students play a game to learn the sequence of a state's legislative process. After researching their state's government, they write a letter to a state leader asking that he or she help solve a problem by working to get a new law passed.