Washington State passed legislation in 2021 to send a statue of activist and humanitarian Billy Frank Jr. to National Statuary Hall in Washington, D.C.Billy Frank Jr. dedicated his life advocating for equality, justice, and environmental protections. He fought to protect tribal treaty rights, native cultures and traditions, and the natural resources they are based upon. This resource links to information regarding the creation of the statue and associated educational materials provided by the Washington State Arts Commission (Arts WA) and the Nisqually Indian Tribe.

BlackPast.org provides free access to documents, transcripts, timelines, videos, and lesson suggestions. With over 6,000 pages of information, BlackPast.org is the single largest free and unrestricted resource on African American and African history on the Internet today. Through this knowledge, the site aims to promote greater understanding to generate constructive change in our society.This resource highlights teacher-developed lessons for using BlackPast.org in the classroom and links to different sections of the BlackPast.org website.

The COVID-19 Pandemic is a clear example of how science and society are connected. This unit explores how different communities are differentially impacted by the virus through the lens of historical inequities in society. In the context of decisions their families make, students explore the basics of how the virus affects people, and design investigations to explore how it spreads from person to person, and what we can do to prevent that spread.

This unit is designed to support students in understanding the COVID-19 pandemic, transmission of the COVID-19 virus, and the impacts of the pandemic on communities, especially communities of color. Specific learning targets are listed at the beginning of each lesson and highlight a core idea for the lesson, the science and engineering practice students will engage in, and the crosscutting concept students will use in the lesson. i

Jennifer Connell was called the “Worst Aunt Ever” on Twitter after she sued her cousin’s son over a broken wrist. The story, full of misinformation and inaccuracies, went viral. This video and accompanying lesson plan helps students learn how to fact-check a sensational story using a technique called lateral reading.

This lesson is not under an open license; however it is provided free for educational services.

Capitol stories: taking you inside the capitol! Choose by historical era, themes, or specific stories.

This 3-room video tour of the U.S. Capitol, featuring the Crypt, Rotunda, and National Statuary Hall.

In this activity students will analyze documents that span the course of American history to see examples of "checks and balances" between the legislative, executive, and judicial branches in action. Students will then match the documents they have examined with an appropriate description of the branches of government involved in the action.

Japanese American Memorial Pilgrimages has developed lessons, supplemental resources, and educational documentary videos to accompany the memoir Child Prisoner in American Concentration Camps by Mako Nakagawa.

The Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction has teamed with the Civic Learning Council and the National Constitution Center to provide this professional development opportunity on resources and tools for helping students engage in discussions of controversial issues.

Download the video file here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jefvmk5tv6t0zoa/OSPI_CLC_CIVICS-BridgeTheDivide-FINAL.mp4?dl=0

In Washington, a stand-alone high school civics course is required by a new state law.

A statewide sub-committee of OSPI's Social Studies Cadre and Walter Parker, Professor of Social Studies Education, University of Washington, drafted this list of resources in hopes that it will be useful to schools needing to create such a course or update an existing course. It is a work-in-progress.

This 10-minute video shows students why the U.S. Supreme Court authorized the use of cross-town busing to accelerate school desegregation, and how that decision affected communities and students in the American South. The video is useful for any lesson exploring the implementation phase of the civil rights movement. It clarifies why landmark decisions like Brown v. Board of Education often required additional efforts to achieve integration. The video also brings the topic of busing into modern times by showing how the integration achieved through busing has recently unraveled, and how the rise of racially homogenous schools poses new challenges for policy makers.

This lesson is not under an open license; however it is provided free for educational services.

**The resource is published by Common Sense EducationCommon Sense Education has created the Deep Fakes and Democracy lesson plan to educate students on how misinformation influences the Democratic process. Common Sense also has a broader section on Hoaxes and Fakes in its Digital Citizenship Curriculum: https://www.commonsense.org/education/digital-citizenship/lesson/hoaxes-and-fakes

How does Washington’s state constitution compare and contrast with the U.S. Constitution? In this lesson, students will find out! Guide your class through some basic similarities and differences as well as side-by-side text analysis with this lesson’s integrated reading/activity format.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Determine how the Washington State Constitution complements the federal structure of government in the United States
Compare the state government established by the Washington Constitution with the federal government defined in the U.S. Constitution
Compare and contrast rights protected by the Washington and U.S. Constitutions
Compare and contrast methods for amending the Washington and U.S. Constitutions

View this activity online or register with iCivics (free) to download materials. Materials may be copied or transmitted for noncommercial purposes with proper attribution.

This activity is designed to help students understand the debates at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 that shaped America’s legislative branch of government. The primary goal of this activity is for students to discover how a compromise balanced the needs of large states and small states and how this led to the creation of the current House of Representatives and Senate.

In these short TED-style talks, Washington social studies educators share their thinking and experiences with colleagues in Washington state and around the world.

These 10-15 minute videos from the 2022 Conference for Social Studies provide inspiration and practical ideas for improving teaching practice. Talks are organized into the following tracks:
* Assessing Historical Thinking
* Bringing Context to World Events
* Crafting Inquiry
* Literacy
* Taking Informed Action

These videos are free for online viewing.

This unit is designed to build inquiry about and interest in the themes and topics woven throughout Educurious’s multi-unit Washington State History course. To start off, students discover and share how they are connected to their classmates by participating in a “Web of Connectedness” activity. Throughout the unit, students engage in mapping, data visualization, and cost-benefit analyses in order to unpack the theme of connectedness and answer the unit driving question: How are people in Washington connected to each other and the rest of the world? As students learn about resources, economies, innovations, people, and places in Washington, they draft a series of six interactive community boards that educate others about the ways in which people are connected. For the culminating product of this unit, student teams finalize one of their six draft community boards to help students in their school make connections between themselves, Washington, and the world.

The nation’s founders believed Congress to be the fundamental institution of the federal government, since it is the body that most closely represents the people. The framers of the United States Constitution began by creating Congress. Then they established the other two branches of government—the executive branch and the judicial branches.The Constitution gives each branch distinct powers, but it makes sure that the three are in competition. Each branch has its own ways to check and balance the powers of the other two. The separation and balance of powers has contributed to the government’s enduring vitality, providing order and stability while allowing flexibility for adaptation and change.

An integrated language arts and social studies unit designed to develop student’s literacy skills while giving them an understanding of the general purpose of government, the structure and processes of Washington’s state government, and the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. The unit culminates with an optional mock legislature simulation that has students write and argue for a bill.