Social+Studies


 * ===**Tool**=== || ===**Project Title**=== || ===**Description**=== ||
 * Photostory 3 for Windows || American History Idol || Paying tribute to one of our most popular pop culture television programs, our eighth graders voted on their own "American Idol" using famous figures throughout history. After the completion of the project, students were able to watch and vote for their favorite American History Idol.

media type="file" key="elanorroosevelt.wmv" width="300" height="300" || media type="custom" key="8456274" ||
 * Voki || Westward Expansion || Voki is a free, online program that allows students to create avatars of themselves or famous people throughout history and then record information in the program. In this particular project, students choose a particular aspect of American Western Expansion and presented them in first person.
 * Timetoast || Civil War Timelines || Time Toast is a free, online program that allows students create timelines. Students can track important events throughout history or in their personal lives. In this example, students create a timeline to pinpoint all the major events in the Civil War. This same tool could be used to plot any significant event in history.

[]

media type="custom" key="8527438" ||
 * Wobook || Resistance of Slavery || Wobook is an easy way to create an online book or journal. For this project our eighth graders were studying the civil war and slavery. They took on the persona of a slave and a slave owner and kept a daily journal from that perspective.

media type="custom" key="8468940" ||
 * Domo GoAnimate || The First 10 Amendments || Students had to prove that they understood the freedoms and liberties granted to us through the first ten amendments to the constitution. Students created skits on GoAnimate that demonstrated a knowledge of the ten amendments and the ability to apply them to everyday life. Some students were very creative in their in presentation of the rights granted to us in the constitution.

media type="custom" key="8468944" ||
 * Google Earth || Exploring Southeast Asia || Using the awesome power of Google Earth, students were able to "visit" famous landmarks throughout Southeast Asia and report on their visit in the chart below. Students then used the information in the chart to create a travel brochure for that country. Travel brochures were created using Microsoft Publisher. Actually "visiting" each landmark gave the students a better understanding of the area surrounding the landmark then a thousand pictures could have provided.

||
 * VoiceThread || Colonial Times Journal

Culture and Customs of Panama || In 8th grade Social Studies while the students were learning about the Colonial Times in North Carolina history, the students were required to read an outside book set in this time period. While reading their books, students kept a journal from the main character's perspective both summarizing each chapter of the book and providing commentary on the time period.

[]

media type="custom" key="8477916"

In 6th grade Social Studies students used voice thread to conduct a discussion based on Panama cultural and customs.

media type="custom" key="8516450" ||
 * Wikispaces || Virtual Museum: Central America

African Webpages || Students in 6th grade created virtual museums using research about Central American cities and countries. As part of the virtual museum, students created a Mapwing, Voki, PowerPoint (SlideShare), Bubbl Us, Flixtime, and a Voice thread. Students used a Wiki to house all of their different tools and create the total virtual museum.

Students used this chart to help guide them through their virtual museum experience. http://shepardproject.wikispaces.com/

Students in 7th grade created a wiki based on an African country they had studied in class. Students were responsible for researching animals, geography, climate, and basic facts and statistics. Handouts given to students to guide their wiki. http://dynamicafrica.wikispaces.com/ ||
 * [|Bubbl Us] || Culture of Panama || As part of the 6th grade virtual museum, students used Bubbl Us to create a web to describe the culture of the cities and countries they were studying.

[] ||
 * Flixtime || Tourist Attractions in Panama || As part of the 6th grade virtual museum, students used Flixtime to display the tourist attractions in Panama using a combination of pictures and words.

media type="custom" key="8516210" ||
 * Pixlr || Tourist Attractions || Students looked up information on famous landmarks and tourist attractions from countries they were studying. Next, they used Pixlr to create drawings of those famous tourist attractions. Pixlr is a good alternative to Paint because students can work on their illustrations from any computer. After creating the pictures, students then embedded the pictures into a word document with a paragraph describing the tourist attraction.

||
 * Animoto || Highlights of Paris, France || Using Animoto students created short presentations on a major city they were studying in class.

media type="custom" key="8528018" media type="custom" key="8527996" || Mapwing Virtual Tour of Atlanta: Mapwing is an free, online site that could be used to create virtual field trips in any subject. When our eighth grade class went on a trip to Atlanta, the students who stayed behind created a virtual trip of the same places visited by their classmates. This tool could also be used to create a virtual museum to any city being studied in social studies or any setting being studied in language arts. media type="custom" key="8455858"