Examines board games, card games, codes, puzzles, and mazes developed by elementary school social studies classroom teachers to help students become more interested in and learn more about social studies. Claims teacher-made games have advantages over commercial games because they are based on the specific material emphasized in the local schools…

A junior high program to study the local community is described. (KM)

The goals of the Project on Social History (POSH), a secondary school curriculum written by teachers at Carnegie-Mellon University, are discussed and reasons why social history has fared so poorly at the secondary level are examined. (RM)

Presented is a selection from the last chapter of the Project on Social History (POSH) dealing with the changing family. Students are asked to speculate about the direction in which families appear to be moving and to discuss what they would like the families they form to be like. (RM)

A serious academic curriculum must ask students, particularly in high school, to critically analyze and evaluate primary sources of information. How a lesson was developed around conflicting Senate testimony over the 1892 Homestead Steel Strike is described. Teachers can easily produce such lessons. (RM)

Describes a learning activity intended to introduce students in fourth-grade social studies classes to basic business and consumer economics practices. The activity involves forming groups of business partners, deciding on a type of business to set up, deciding how to obtain land and set up a store, creating a money system, advertising, arranging…

Cites ways in which antique toys can contribute to a positive feeling among students toward urban high schools. Evidence is based on a program in which students were directed to bring a favorite childhood toy of theirs or their parents or grandparents to class. Students then researched toy use, manufacture, country of origin, and technology used…

An economics course for senior high school students which relies on cameras and cassette tape recorders in one locally developed project is described. A second is the effort by another high school to indicate a social studies curriculum meaningfully related to the real world. (Author/KM)

A social studies course for high school seniors combines a problems of democracy content with options emphasizing long-term accountability. Each student has a faculty adviser who encourages the student to pursue a specialized social studies topic. (Author/DB)

A teacher-developed moral dilemma that can be used to help elementary students make judgments based on values of civic responsibility is presented. Teachers can use the dilemma as a model for developing other dilemmas relevant to their students and schools. (RM)

Teacher developed U.S. history curriculum materials involve high school students in analyzing rival historical interpretations. Students learn how to deal with arguments through the booklet "A Guide to Critical Thinking" and then analyze and debate interpretations. Appendices include sample materials and a matrix of content with associated…