Browse Interactives

Human Genome: Transcription

Observe the process of transcription at the level of the nucleus. See how the information in a segment of DNA (gene) is copied into another type of genetic material called messenger RNA.

Discipline: Science
Audience: Student

Hummingbirds

Observe hummingbirds and report their sightings online. Share and review the sightings with other students/classrooms to track hemispheric migratory patterns.

Discipline: Science
Audience: Student

Discover a fourth spatial dimension by using analogies (point, line and plane) from lower dimensions. Model objects of lower dimensions to gain understanding of a hypercube, which exists in the fourth dimension.

Discipline: Mathematics
Audience: Student

I Took a Trip on a Train

You took four snapshots of some geometric shapes that you saw on your train trip around a circular track. You dropped the pictures and got them mixed up, and now you must imagine your trip to put them back in order.

Discipline: Mathematics
Audience: Student

Identify Rock Types

Identify the three major kinds of rocks. Learn some of the key characteristics that help you tell them apart.

Discipline: Science
Audience: Student

Identify the Tribe

Read the names of three Indian tribes and pick out the tribe that was not considered part of the same area as the others. You have 15 seconds to answer each question.

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

Inscribed Angles

Study inscribed angles in semicircles and quarter-circles. What conjectures can you make about the measure of an inscribed angle in semi- or quarter-circles?

Discipline: Mathematics
Audience: Student

Interactive Forum

Read two poems and follow the prompts to interpret them using four approaches: reader response, inquiry, cultural studies and critical pedagogy. Use the prompts to guide personal reflection, launch a lesson with students or join an online discussion.

Discipline: Literature
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