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WORLD HISTORY-SOCIAL SCIENCE RESOURCES, LESSONS & INTERACTIVE SITES
 

General History/Social Science Sites

United States History Social Science Sites

World History Social Science Sites.

WORLD HISTORY/SOCIAL SCIENCE SITES

<>ACHIEVEMENTS AND CHALLENGES OF GUATEMALA - http://www.worldtrek.org/odyssey/teachers/guatlessons.html
Lessons about Mayan achievements, and life.  Links to great pictures.  Also links to lessons on Mexico (same type), Mali, Zimbabwe, Peru and Egypt.  GREAT!!

AFRICA - http://www.pbs.org/wnet/africa/
This website was created to support the series of PBS shows on Africa. There is something for all levels of students. For younger children, go to Africa for Kids. Learn about the daily life of students in four African nations, play a virtual thumb piano, or figure out how the hero of a Swahili folktale can accomplish his mission. Teacher tools has four wonderful units on Africa. Photography teachers can use the Photoscope area to getstudents talking about the impact of photographs. For those who think they already know it all, take the Africa Challenge.

AFRICA - http://www.geographia.com/indx06.htm
Geographia's survey of the dark continent, looking at history and modern nations in this quickly changing, evolving political climate; great layout - attractive and easy to navigate.

AFRICA GEOGRAPHY WEBQUEST - http://questgarden.com/34/21/5/061014144911/index.htm
This is designed to help students explore African geography.

<>AFRICAN STUDIES -  http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/africa/cuvl/West.html
West Africa by Region and Country - flags of each country and links to everywhere.

AFRICAN VOICES  -http://www.mnh.si.edu/africanvoices/
From the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, this site explores Africa's past and the history of the land and people. Topics presented in themes are about various forms of the wealth, working and living in Africa; more themes will be added. History looks at Mali, the slave trade, colonialism and more. The Learning Center contains an excellent hotlist of African resources. Some sections of the site need browser plug-ins to enhance your experience: Macromedia Flash 4 or Apple Quicktime 4.

<>AFRICAN SOURCE BOOK - http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/africa/africasbook.html
This site is from the people who gave us the Medieval Sourcebook.  This is a great starting point for the study of Africa, including Egypt, Ghana, Mali, Zimbabwe, and others. It includes all of Africa from Egypt and Sudan to West Africa and Zimbabwe.  Try it, you will like it.

ANCIENT INDUS VALLEY - http://www.harappa.com/har/har0.html
Extensive treatment of this rich culture from ancient times, including Around in Indus in 90 slides.

ANCIENT OLYMPICS - http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Olympics/
Wonderful comparison of the ancient Olympics and the Centennial Modern Games in Atlanta with plenty of substance provided from the Perseus Project; this is a first rate treatment of the evolution of the Olympic tradition

ANCIENT STONES OF SCOTLAND  - http://www.stonepages.com/ancient_scotland/
This fascinating site is part of SCRAN, a searchable archive of history and culture. Links lead to pictures of natural and manmade stone outcroppings, with the local lore included. The glossary can pump up your vocabulary a bit, too.

BBC: ROMANS - http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/
Although this is archieved and no longer updated, highlights of this wonderful BBC site include seven printable activity sheets, a quiz about Roman technology such as aqueducts and arches, a Roman timeline, and a glossary of Roman terms from "amphitheater" to "wreath." Learn the story of how Rome, Italy's capital, got its name from the legend of Romulus and Remus, two orphaned twins raised by a wolf and other things.Also included are links to Ancient Britain.

BRITISH MONARCHY:  FOR KIDS - https://www.dkfindout.com/uk/history/kings-and-queens/
From William I to Elizabeth II, there are pictures and links to history, kings and queens, the Black Death, Celts, Tudors, and more. They will probably add Charles III soon.

<>BUILD A MEDIEVAL CASTLE - http://www.yourchildlearns.com/castle.htm
Play an on-line game of heraldry, build a castle -- this is free software, links to Shields, Knights and Heraldry - http://www.yourchildlearns.com/heraldry.htm and other fun things.

<>BUILD A MEDIEVAL CASTLE - http://www.yourchildlearns.com/castle.htm
Play an on-line game of heraldry, build a castle -- this is free software, links to Shields, Knights and Heraldry - http://www.yourchildlearns.com/heraldry.htm and other fun things.
 
BYZANTIUM 1200 A.D. - http://www.byzantium1200.com
A project aimed at creating computer reconstructions of the Byzantine Monuments located in Istanbul, TURKEY as of year 1200 AD. Click on a part of the map for info on the city of Constantinople.

CASTLE LIFE - http://www.castlesandmanorhouses.com/life.htm
Lots of interesting stuff about the middle ages, including food, drinks, clothing, warfare, and housing.

CAVE ART - https://www.thoughtco.com/cave-art-what-archaeologists-have-learned-170462
Students explore how people in earlier times used art as a way to record stories and communicate ideas.Interesting explanations and pictures.

CAVE OF LASCAUX - http://www.caves.org/committee/education/virtual_cave_tours.htm
From the Ministry of Culture in France, this site lets you take a virtual tour of the Palaeolithic wall paintings of Lascaux. Explore the caves and learn more about the images created by artists 15,000 years ago. Available in English, French, Spanish, and German.

CHESSKIDS ACADEMY  - http://www.chesskids.com/
Students of all ages can access these easy-to-understand lessons that teach the basic strategies of chess. There are online line lessons, offline lessons to download (you need to load a special font on our computer), and free interactive quizzes.

CLEOPATRA: A MULTIMEDIA GUIDE TO THE ANCIENT WORLD - http://www.artic.edu/cleo/index.html
An interactive guide to the Ancient Art Collection of The Art Institute of Chicago, Cleopatra, queen of Egypt from 51 to 30 B.C., embodied the three great cultures of the ancient Mediterranean region: she was Greek by birth, ruled Egypt as its queen, and lost her kingdom to Rome. To see the "Close-up" views of the Ancient Art objects, their "Stories" and listen to the Glossary pronunciations you will need QuickTime. Includes printable lesson plans for grades 4 thru 12 (http://www.artic.edu/cleo/Teachfolder/LPMainSearch.html).

<>COLLAPSE: WHY DO CIVILIZATIONS FALL? - https://redice.tv/news/collapse-why-do-civilizations-fall/ /
Why do great civilizations fall? The history of humankind has been marked by patterns of growth and decline. Some declines have been gradual, occurring over centuries. Others have been rapid, occurring over the course of a few years. What does this mean for modern civilizations? What can we learn from the past?  Explore the collapse of four ancient civilizations. the Maya, Chaco Canyon, Mali and Songhai, and Mesopotamia.  Hands on activities and related sources.

<>CONQUISTADORS - https://www.thoughtco.com/the-conquistadors-2136575
Ten notable Spanish Conquistadors in history, starting with Hernan Cortes. The site includes failed conquerors like Narvaez and Aguirre, and videos. Interesting stuff!.

THE COSTUME PAGE - http://costumepage.org
List of Internet sites dedicated to historical clothing and its history, listed by time period, from ancient to modern times.

DAILY LIFE IN A CASTLE - https://www.grunge.com/291839/what-life-was-really-like-in-a-medieval-castle/
What was life like in a castle.It's not as you thought. See pictures and info.

DAILY LIFE IN ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS - http://www.mrdonn.org/ancienthistory.html
This site is exactly what it says. Learn all about the daily life of many different Ancient Civilizations. - Think of all the ways you could incorporate this into your teaching.  Another great site from Mr. Donn.

DISCOVERING EGYPT - http://discoveringegypt.com
On this site is info about Ancient Egypt, the pharaohs, pyramids, 3D temple reconstructions, Mummification, and the hieroglyphic script. You can write your name in hieroglyphs, use the Hieroglyphic Typewriter, learn about the anciet number system, and readstories of the Egyptians. Also see Egyptian Mathematics site.

EGYPTIAN MATHEMATICS - http://discoveringegypt.com/egyptian-hieroglyphic-writing/egyptian-mathematics-numbers-hieroglyphs/
This page offers basic lessons in the Egyptian number system and then offers several pages full of math problems that require students to work with Egyptian numerals in order to solve them.

EGYPTIAN SYMBOLS - https://egyptian-history.com/blogs/egyptian-symbols/egyptian-symbols
Students identify and represent in their own drawings figures from the Book of the Dead, a funereal text written on papyrus and carved on the walls of tombs to help guide the deceased through the afterlife.

<><>EGYPTOLOGY RESOURCES - http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/er/
This site provides a World WideWeb resource for information on Egypt, but uses COOKIES. So if you want to skip this, do.

ENCHANTED LEARNING: ITALY - http://www.enchantedlearning.com/europe/italy/
Click here for a great introduction to Italy for elementary and middle-schoolers, which has an overview of important country stats, and lots of maps and flags to print and color like the coloring pictures of Italian art masterpieces by Michelangelo, da Vinci and Raphael, and an overview of Italian inventions such as the battery, eyeglasses, parachute and radio. Be sure to look at the printable story books with Italian vocab.

EXPLORERS OF THE WORLD - http://www.fno.org/bio/explore.htm
Another great site by Jamie McKenzie, this sites divides explorers by land, ideas, sky and art and links to biographies, student ideas, etc.

FLORENCE ITALY - http://www.italyguides.it/us/florence/florence_italy.htm
Virtual travel through the Renaissance city of Florence. Free audio guides of Florence for your iPod, iPhone or mp3 players. Check out the interactive map of Florence too.

<>FOOD TIMELINE - http://www.foodtimeline.org/
Ever wonder what the Vikings ate when they set off to explore the new world? How Dolly Madison made her ice cream? What the pioneers cooked along the Oregon Trail? Who invented the potato chip...and why? Food is the fun part of social studies! The tricky part is finding recipes you can make in a modern kitchen, with ingredients bought at your local supermarket and bring into school to share with your class.

GET A CHINESE NAME - http://www.mandarintools.com/chinesename.html
This is a fun way to learn about Chinese Names (like, the fact that there is no one right way to directly translate an English name to a Chinese one) and to get a name that's based on the sounds in your English name and the meaning you choose."

GREEK HEROES -  http://www.mythweb.com/heroes/heroes.html
A way to learn about Greek heroes from a child's point of view.

GREEK MEDICINE (NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF HEALTH) - http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/greek/index.html
An online exhibit, this site covers loss and recovery of Greek medicine, timeline, vocabulary, Olympian healers, Hippocrates, Aristotle, Galen, and other Greek physicians.

HERALDRY GAME - http://www.yourchildlearns.com/heraldrygame/index.html
It is 1273, and you can play a free on-line heraldry game - learn about Shields, Knights and Heraldry. Role-play as a young aristocrat, recognizing friends and enemies.

IBN BATTUTA: A TRAVELER'S LOG - http://www.ibnibnbattuta.com/p/who-was-ibn-battuta.html
"In a era when few had the means, time, or courage to submit to curiosity and venture off the map's edge, Ibn Battuta set out to complete Islam's traditional pilgrimage to Meccam and ultimately spent the better part of his life wandering." Interesting site.

IN OLD POMPEII - https://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plans/old-pompeii
Students take a virtual field trip to the ruins of Pompeii to learn about everyday life in Roman times.

<>INSTITUTE OF EGYPTIAN ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY - http://www.memphis.edu/egypt/
Online exhibit of ancient artifacts plus a virtual tour of a dozen sites along the Nile; brings together Science, Social Studies, Language Arts, Math and Health

ITALY GUIDES: VIRTUAL TRAVEL IN THE CITY OF THE RENAISSANCE: FLORENCE
http://www.italyguides.it/us/florence/florence_italy.htm
Like a mini-vacation, Italy Guides brings you the best of Florence with QuickTime Virtual Realty tours, downloadable audio tours in MP3 format, and a photo gallery. Virtual tours are available for the Duomo (cathedral) of Florence, the Giotto's Bell Tower, the Dome of Brunelleschi, and twelve other sights.

<> LEONARDO DA VINCI - https://www.da-vinci-inventions.com/
Neat inventions are shown. You won't believe some of them!!

LIFE IN A MEDIEVAL CASTLE - http://www.castlewales.com/life.html
Info on The Hall, The Kitchen, Accommodations, Water, and The Chapel, and a link to the call Greensleeves.

<>THE MARINERS MUSEUM - AGE OF EXPLORATION - http://www.mariner.org//educationalad/ageofex/
The age of exploration from the Ancient World of Egypt, Phoenicians, Greece, China, to Arabia and Ibn Buttuta, the Vikings, Portuguese, Spanish and others.  Can be explored by Menu or Timeline.  Great stuff.

MAYA CALENDAR  - http://www.mayacalendar.com/
The Maya Calendar was the center of Maya life and their greatest cultural achievement. The Maya Calendar guided Mayan existence from the moment of birth and little that escaped its influence.

.MEDIEVAL SOURCE BOOK and OTHERS - http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook.html
Do you need primary sources?  This site has links to original sources, projects, legal history, lives of saints, how to cite Internet sources, ancient history and modern history source books, and African History, Indian History, Islamic History, Jewish History, Women's History and Science History source books.

MEDIEVAL TECHNOLOGY PAGES   - https://www.sjsu.edu/people/patricia.backer/history/middle.htm
 From Agricultural Tools to the Wine Press, learn how inventions and adaptations made a difference in how people lived their lives 500-1500 A.D.

MESOAMERICAN BALLGAME FOR KIDS  - https://kids.kiddle.co/Mesoamerican_ball_game
Take me out to the ballgame, as played in Mesoamerica, the subtropical area between present-day countries of Mexico and El Salvador. Learn about the eight major cultures found in this area between 1500 BC and 1519 AD, as well as the effect of the Spanish conquest in this region. Then, explore the architecture of the court, as well as the the balance between sport and religion within the game. Offline activities include creation of masks, clay effigies, headresses and clay ballgame figurines.

<>MIDDLE AGES - WORLD HISTORY LESSON PLANS -  http://medievaleurope.mrdonn.org/index.html
This is my personal favorite after my own of course! Tried and true lesson plans and activities on ancient Mesopotamia, Greece, Egypt, Rome, China, Africa and the Americas, and all other world history from Mr. Donn.

MR. PITONYAK'S PYRAMID PUZZLE  - https://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/2000/r0400-07.shtml
This site features an interdisciplinary Web-based project designed for middle school math students to determine how much it would cost to build an Egyptian pyramid today.

ODYSSEY IN EGYPT - http://carlos.emory.edu/ODYSSEY/EGYPT/homepg.html
Ten week virtual dig in Egypt in which students can follow the excavation of an ancient Egyptian monastery and participate vicariously via QuickTime movies - nice format and lots of information for Middle School on up.

PALENQUE - http://www.mesoweb.com/palenque/
Welcome to Mexico's Palenque. This website, presented by the Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute, Merle Greene Robertson and Mesoweb, hosts the official homepage of a current archaeological dig at this classic Maya site. Check out the update links and reports.

REAL STORY OF THE ANCIENT OLYMPIC GAMES - http://penn.museum/sites/olympics/olympicintro.shtml
From the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, this site takes a popular culture look at the ancient games.  This site may be easier for younger students to understand

ROMAN BALL GAMES - https://https://strictlyrome.com/games-in-ancient-rome/
Much like today, ancient Romans enjoyed a ball game or two – it wasn’t all about gladiator battles (although they definitely did happen). Some of the most popular games in ancient Rome were ball games. Romans played a selection of different ball games, including some resembling field hockey, handball, and even football.

THE ROMAN INQUISITION - http://galileo.rice.edu/
A brief history of Galileo and the Inquisition - timeline, censorship, the process and trial

<>ROMAN TECHNOLOGY - http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/tech_01.shtml
Roman technology, arts and crafts, survival, mines and iron, quarries and stoneworking transportation, construction and civil engineering, war, health, death, medicine, science and gadgets.

<>SILKROAD FOUNDATION - http://www.silk-road.com/toc/index.html
Check oout the links to everything about the silkroad -- China and  Rome, timelines, history, geography.  

SNAITH PRIMARY SCHOOL - http://home.freeuk.net/elloughton13/index.htm
I LOVE THIS SITE! Snaith’s website has  kid links to all kinds of times and places is a great find for any elementary classroom. There are all kinds of excursions into the middle ages, great cities of Europe and Asia, myths, legends and other tales, and even animals, plants and water. Each trip is written expressly for students, and the site is GREAT.

THE TOME - http://www.sirclisto.com/
Sir Clisto Seversword's  Tome of Adventure and Knowledge takes you on a journey through the Middle Ages in the first person using sight and sound to simulate a right medieval experience - very different! There are 75 chapters of information on every aspect of Renaissance life from armor, weapons and castles to architecture, arts and monarchs. Each chapter is a concise collection of links that look at the students.

VIRTUAL TOUR OF EDO - http://www.us-japan.org/edomatsu/
This website is designed to take you exploring in Edo. Hopefully it will offer not only some enjoyment, but also some insights into the source of "traditional Japan". Although modern Tokyo may look  very "Western" on the surface, in its heart the spirit of Edo still lives on!

WHAT IS CURRENCY? A LESSON FROM AFRICA  -http://smithsonianeducation.org/educators/lesson_plans/currency/start.html
In modern society, trade transactions are often hidden in computers behind the doors of banks and mail-order companies. It is possible to buy a house, a ticket, or even a pair of shoes without ever meeting the seller face-to-face or passing money from one hand to another. To understand the meaning of currency and to appreciate why precise weights and measures were once necessary for fair trade, it is useful to examine trade practices in Africa several hundred years ago when trading transactions were quite visible and direct.

<>WOMEN IN WORLD HISTORY - http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/
Full of information and resources  about women's experiences in world history. For teachers, teenagers, parents, and history buffs.  Includes women rulers.

WORLD HISTORY LESSON PLANS - http://www.mrdonn.org/
This is my personal favorite after my own of course!  Tried and true lesson plans and activities for K-12 students and teachers in all facets of of history.

Also see Extra Credit Internet activities and lessons on ROME AND THE SPICE TRADE, AFRICAN COUNTRIES, and RENAISSANCE created by me for my Social Studies Classes. 

Also see Innovative Ways to Teach and other Interesting Lessons
Or   Projects on Line

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Last Updated October, 2022

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