Browse Interactives

Federalism Approaches Activity

The U.S. has a federal system of government where the states and national government exercise separate powers within their own spheres of authority and the lines of power change over time. Explore how the balance of power has shifted over time.

Discipline: Social Studies and History
Audience: Student

Graphing Lab -- Skiing

Michael and friends are planning a skiing weekend. Show them how to afford it.

Discipline: Social Studies and History

The Human Brain

Explore the three interconnected layers of the human brain. The central core (basic life processes), limbic system (emotion and memory) and the cerebral cortex (higher cognitive functions).

Discipline: Social Studies and History
Audience: Student

Image as History: Civil War Photography

After many of the Civil War battles, photographers took pictures of the mangled bodies waiting to be buried. Does this photograph depict an actual battlefield scene, or did the photographer contrive it?

Discipline: Social Studies and History
Audience: Student

Image as History: Colonial Society

What does this portrait suggest about eighteenth-century attitudes toward the family? See how portraits of the rich and powerful can provide a picture of life in the American colonies.

Discipline: Social Studies and History
Audience: Student

Image as History: Re-Mapping History

Maps of the routes of the Lewis and Clark expedition have tended to represent the West as empty country for the taking. On this map, made for a biography of Sacagawea, whose journey is represented?

Discipline: Social Studies and History
Audience: Student

Image as History: Reconstruction Cartoons

See how African Americans faced numerous assaults upon their newly won political rights after the Civil War. What are the references employed by the cartoonist Thomas Nast in his cartoon, <em>This is a White Man's Government?</em>

Discipline: Social Studies and History
Audience: Student

Image as History: Slave Culture

Slaves found a variety of ways to resist their oppression, including running away. What does Eastman Johnson's painting tell us about slave culture?

Discipline: Social Studies and History
Audience: Student

Image as History: Stamp Act Cartoons

In this cartoon, how does the artist use symbolism and humor to deride Parliament? See how anti-British political cartoons helped shape colonial attitudes towards British actions, like the Stamp Act of 1765.

Discipline: Social Studies and History
Audience: Student

Image as History: Surviving Conquest

How has Ácoma accommodated change while maintaining a deep connection to the past? See how this ancient American pueblo has survived and adapted in the face of centuries of conquest.

Discipline: Social Studies and History
Audience: Student

Image as History: The White City

The World's Columbian Exposition made a statement about the future of city life — a chance for something better than the squalid, polluted, and overcrowded industrial cities of the 19th century. What vision of the future city did the fair present?

Discipline: Social Studies and History
Audience: Student

Images as History: Depression Era Photography

This image of a steer skull seems straightforward, but it generated enormous controversy at the time. Can you imagine why? Hint: It was taken to document the hardships Americans suffered during the Depression.

Discipline: Social Studies and History
Audience: Teacher

Interactive Map: Mapping Conquest

The United States used a variety of devices to conquer the West. What can we learn about the processes of conquest from looking at maps?

Discipline: Social Studies and History
Audience: Student

Interactive Map: Slave and Free Soil

How did the legal status of slavery change in the United States between the Revolution and the Civil War? See how over time, slavery spread in some areas while disappearing or constricting in others.

Discipline: Social Studies and History
Audience: Student

Interactive Map: The Elections of 1896 and 1900

In 1896, the big issue was the monetary standard, while by 1900 imperialism had taken over as the key national issue. What can you discover in the geographical patterns that emerged in the elections of 1896 and 1900?

Discipline: Social Studies and History
Audience: Student

Interactive Map: The New West

The Old Rocky Mountain West had been a wild, untamed place. But with the late 20th century technology, population growth,it seemed that a smaller, more accessible "New West" had arisen. Is the New West still a distinct region or just another place in a homogenous American landscape?

Discipline: Social Studies and History
Audience: Student

Interactive Map: The Transportation Revolution

What generalizations can you make about the timing and nature of developments in transportation? See the rapid expansion of roads, canals and railroads from 1830-1860.

Discipline: Social Studies and History
Audience: Student

Interactive Timeline: 1876-1999

Revisit the events of 1876 to 1999. See how the history of Native Americans, women, African Americans and labor continues to be part of the American story.

Discipline: Social Studies and History
Audience: Student

Interactive Timeline: Colonial Settlement

What else was happening during the settlement of the thirteen colonies? See how other European nations, along with the British, colonized America and how events in Europe impacted colonization.

Discipline: Social Studies and History
Audience: Student

Interactive Timeline: Inventions, 1868-1898

Inventions in the late nineteenth century marked the beginning of rapid changes communications, transportation, and in the way Americans lived and worked. How did technological innovation affect the United States after the Civil War?

Discipline: Social Studies and History
Audience: Student