A webcast features a paleobotanist who has studied the climate record through fossilized leaves and other remnants of history. [29:15]
Excellent resource for educating students on the American Indian perspective on Thanksgiving using the themes of environment, community, encounters, and innovations. Includes images, quotes, classroom activity ideas, and links to related resources. Requires Adobe Reader. [PDF]
Learn the basics of philately (the study and collection of postage stamps). You can view slideshows of American and international stamps that have special value for collectors and sample the imagery used over the decades in the design of commemorative and other special-use stamps.
The National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution provides an online exhibit of portrait photographer Philippe Halsman who photographed famous people from Presidents to entertainers.
A lesson unit on pollination. Includes background information, lessons and activity pages. One handout is in Spanish.
Smithsonian Education presents a series of three lesson plans whose focus is plants and animals in their role as partners in pollination. Each lesson comes complete with clear learning objectives, materials list, subjects covered, detailed procedures, and downloadable accompanying activity sheets. A list of additional resources is also provided.
A past exhibition that offers a fascinating look at the African tradition of mask-making and masquerades. Includes colorful photos and information, to spark children's creativity.
A wonderful resource on the lives and work of American authors, Louisa May Alcott and Samuel Clemens. You will get a unique look at them through the study of their portrait and their writing. Includes two great lesson plans.
This collection looks at an image and phrase used widely in abolitionist materials, and at how that symbol was adopted and adapted by Sojourner Truth and/or other women's rights activists. Students will examine an abolitionist medallion and then learn about Sojourner Truth through a short reading, image analysis, and video. They can then review two versions of Sojourner Truth's speech and consider why the second version, as reported by another suffragette, Frances Gage, is markedly different. This collection is designed to be used as a short stand-alone lesson on the topic of the abolition movement and its intersection with the women's movement in the United States.
As part of the Amazonia exhibit at the National Zoo, this site highlights various facts and interesting information on the Prehensile-tailed Porcupine. In addition to several pictures, the site provides a description and information on habitat, diet, reproduction, and more.
Introduce students to environmental issues by studying a time of rapid global warming that occurred 50 million years ago. Lessons, video segments and interactive activities will engage students as they learn about average annual temperatures during that time. They will use their mathematical skills to calculate percentages as they explore the interactive activity.
In a lesson in this issue of Smithsonian in Your Classroom, students do the work of a team of paleontologists studying a time of rising carbon dioxide and rapid global warming during the Eocene epoch. By examining fossils of tree leaves, and then incorporating the findings into a mathematical formula, they are able to tell average annual temperatures 55 million years ago. Really!
Through interactive and engaging learning site, students become the scientists and learn how to determine earth's temporal past.
View videos, photograph, and renderings of American presidents and their foreign counterparts in this image-rich examination of the post-World War II environment and the cold war that followed it. Includes a review of key foreign-policy decisions of each president and opportunities for you to think through the decisions for yourself.
Exhibition of portraits of fourteen vice presidents who later became president tells the stories of their careers in pictures and words. Includes videos of taped interviews with four former vice presidents. [Exhibition opening: January 20, 2009]
As part of the Amazonia exhibit at the National Zoo, this site highlights various facts and interesting information on the Prevost's Squirrel. In addition to several pictures, the site provides a description and information on habitat, diet, reproduction, and more.
View comprehensive sets of artifacts that tell the story of America's wartime past and present. Artifacts from every major American military conflict, beginning with the American Revolution, can be closely examined. Full curatorial notes accompany each object and background movies introduce each of thirteen chapters in America's military history.
View how American citizens helped to keep World War II in the home front through these posters on exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum of American History.
The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, in a section titled "North American Mammals," offers a general overview of the red wolf. Content includes a focus on this animal's conservation status, habitat and range, and other key facts.
As part of the Asia Trail exhibit at the National Zoo, this site highlights various facts and interesting information on the Red pandas. In addition to several pictures, the site provides a description and information on habitat, diet, reproduction, and more.