NEH Online Content Resource for K-12 Humanities Teachers Achieves Goal of Linking Together 100 Best Humanities Websites
EDSITEment celebrates third year by adding 30 websites and new lesson plans for elementary and middle school levels
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) today announced the linking of 30 more top-quality humanities websites to EDSITEment, the agency's online collection of the web's best humanities content and curriculum materials for use by K-12 humanities teachers. The new links mark the achievement of the project's original goal, established three years ago, of gathering in one place the Internet's 100 best humanities websites. The websites, which now total exactly 102, cover the fields of social studies, history, literature, foreign languages, and art and culture. EDSITEment's URL is http://edsitement.neh.gov.
In addition to achieving the goal of identifying and gathering the Internet's 100 best humanities websites at one portal site, EDSITEment has expanded its collection of online lesson plans--which bring together learning activities from the various websites by topic and developmental level--to include the elementary and middle school levels.
Newly added K-2 lesson plans are about First Families, Alice in Wonderland and the symbolic use of masks in various cultures. Grades 3-5 lesson plans explore Christopher Columbus, Jamestown, the Oregon Trail and Martin Luther King, Jr. Grades 6-8 lesson plans include evaluating eyewitness reports, nonviolence, Socrates and the law, historic maps, Pompeii, the First Ladies, blues music, women's and civil rights, and haiku. Grades 9-12 lesson plans include the American legislative process, intercultural perspectives, French and Spanish language study, background to the American Civil War and African American spirituals. The full roster of lesson plans is available by clicking on "Lesson Plans" at the EDSITEment URL. The direct link is http://edsitement.neh.gov/lessonplans.html.
"Today we have reached a milestone in NEH's mission to foster excellence in K-12 education through the use of information technology," said NEH Chairman William Ferris. "When NEH launched EDSITEment three years ago, the goal was to build it into a collection of the Internet's 100 best websites in the humanities, providing a certified guide to accurate content and excellent lesson plans for the nation's K-12 humanities teachers. Today we have reached that goal, but EDSITEment is a work in progress and we are looking to expand EDSITEment even further."
"The teaching resources that EDSITEment makes available are rich, accurate, well presented and designed for ease of use in the classroom," Dr. Ferris said. "I invite all of the nation's humanities teachers--and all lifelong learners as well--to log on to EDSITEment and explore the knowledge gathered there. EDSITEment is a national treasure, encyclopedic in its range and depth, but most important, it uses the benefits of information technology to help our teachers engage young people in what the humanities are all about--the joys of discovery and learning."
Hosted on NEH's website, EDSITEment (http://edsitement.neh.gov) is administered by NEH in partnership with WorldCom Foundation, the Council of the Great City Schools and the National Trust for the Humanities. EDSITEment is part of WorldCom Foundations's MarcoPolo program, which provides no-cost, standards-based Internet content for the K-12 teacher and classroom. NEH is one of seven educational organizations comprising the MarcoPolo partnership. Launched in October 1997 with links to 20 top humanities websites, EDSITEment grew to 49 vetted sites in 1998 and to 72 in 1999. The 30 sites added today brings the total to 102.
All humanities websites nominated for inclusion on EDSITEment go through a process of review by teachers and other humanities professionals. Selections are made on the basis of excellence in content, site design and ease of use by teachers. Nominations of sites for inclusion on EDSITEment can be submitted online by clicking on "Talk To Us" on the EDSITEment webpage at http://edsitement.neh.gov/lounge_talktous.html.
Following is a list of the 30 websites linked today to EDSITEment:
African Voices
(National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution)
--essays, timelines, images and games exploring African art, history and political and social themes.
http://www.mnh.si.edu/africanvoices
American Presidents
(Public Broadcasting Service)
--information about all 41 American presidents and an archive of essays on the November 2000 election.
http://www.americanpresident.org
Art Safari
(Museum of Modern Art, New York)
--materials for young children about viewing and creating art.
http://artsafari.moma.org
Asia Source
(Asia Society, New York, N.Y.)
--covers all aspects of Asian culture, including current affairs and pronunciation guides for Asian languages. Includes activities for elementary grade students.
http://www.asiasource.org
Center for Liberal Arts
(University of Virginia, Charlottesville)
--humanities resources for K-12 teachers.
http://www.virginia.edu/~libarts/home.html
Conversations with History
(University of California, Berkeley)
--interviews with a broad range of historical figures from the latter half of the 20th century.
http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/conversations
End of Europe’s Middle Ages
(University of Calgary, Canada)
--an overview of medieval European history, focusing on the economic, political, intellectual and artistic environment at the end of Europe's Middle Ages.
http://www.ucalgary.ca/HIST/tutor/endmiddle
Exploring Ancient World Cultures
(University of Evansville, Ind.)
--essays, images and primary and secondary sources focusing on a range of ancient cultures.
http://eawc.evansville.edu/index.htm
Forest of Rhetoric
(Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah)
--a guide to the terms of classical and Renaissance rhetoric.
http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/silva.htm
Gold Rush! California’s Untold Stories
(Oakland Museum of California)
--a comprehensive look at the 19th-century California gold rush.
http://www.museumca.org/goldrush
Great American Speeches
(Public Broadcasting Service)
--an extensive archive of the complete texts of many notable American speeches, many of which are accompanied by audio and/or video clips.
http://www.pbs.org/greatspeeches
Gulliver's Travels
(Lee Jaffe, independent scholar)
--comprehensive resources for the study of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels.
http://www.jaffebros.com/lee/gulliver
Harlem 1900-1940: An African-American Community
(University of Michigan, Ann Arbor)
--an overview of the culture, community and organizations of the Harlem Renaissance.
http://www.si.umich.edu/CHICO/Harlem
Hemingway Adventure
(Public Broadcasting Service)
--provides younger students with an overview of Ernest Hemingway's life.
http://www.pbs.org/hemingwayadventure/
Île en Île
(City University of New York)
--a French-language site focusing on the history, society and literature of the world's French islands.
http://www.lehman.cuny.edu/ile.en.ile
Internet Public Library
(University of Michigan, Ann Arbor)
--a vast collection of online texts including full novels, newspapers, magazines and tutorials for students of all ages.
http://www.ipl.org
Latin Literature
(Kentucky Educational Television)
--an online Latin course and resources on Roman culture.
http://www.dl.ket.org/latinlit/index.htm
Learning from London Town
(Key School, Annapolis, Md.; Maryland State Archives)
--an archeological study of the 18th-century seaport of London, Maryland.
http://www.keyschool.pvt.k12.md.us/londontown/Pages/Pages/learnflt.html
Metropolitan Museum of Art's Explore and Learn
(New York, N.Y.)
--elementary school-level materials on the many styles and techniques of fine art.
http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/index.asp
The New Americans
(Public Broadcasting Service)
--addresses both historical and contemporary immigration issues in the United States.
http://pbs.org/newamericans
NYPL Digital Schomburg Images of 19th-Century African Americans
(New York Public Library)
--an extensive primary source archive of photographs, woodcuts and other images of 19th-century African Americans.
http://digital.nypl.org/schomburg/images_aa19
Odyssey Online
(Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University, Atlanta, Ga.;
Memorial Art Gallery at the University of Rochester, N.Y.)
--elementary and middle school-level materials for study of ancient near Eastern, Egyptian, Greek, Roman and sub-Saharan cultures.
http://www.emory.edu/CARLOS/ODYSSEY
Poets.org
(Academy of American Poets, New York, N.Y.)
--poets' biographies and texts of hundreds of poems with images, sound files and online resources.
http://www.poets.org/index.cfm
Project Whistlestop
(Harry S. Truman Library, Independence, Mo.)
--K-6 materials about the life and contributions of President Harry S. Truman.
http://www.whistlestop.org
Pyramids
(Public Broadcasting Service)
--an overview of Egyptology and of the continuing archaeological excavation of the Giza pyramids for elementary and middle school students.
http: www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/pyramid
Teaching Shakespeare
(Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C.)
--a guide to teaching Shakespeare from kindergarten through grade 12.
http://www.folger.edu/education
Treasures @ Sea
(Franklin Institute Science Museum, Philadelphia, Pa.)
--elementary school-level humanities and scientific materials on the ocean and marine life.
http://www.fi.edu/fellows/fellow8/dec98/main.html
VRoma: A Virtual Community
(Latin teachers and professors)
--a virtual trip through Rome, circa 150 B.C.
http://www.vroma.org
We Shall Overcome: Historic Places of the Civil Rights Movement
(National Park Service)
--a virtual tour of the historic places of the civil rights movement.
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/civilrights
Women of the West Museum
(Boulder, Colo.)
--online exhibits about the experiences of women in the American west.
http://www.wowmuseum.org