Pilgrimage and Buddhist Art
The Asia Society's website has an exhibit that explores the art that has derived or been inspired by Buddhist pilgrimage in Asia. Visitors unfamiliar with Buddha and Buddhism might want to watch the "Curator's Introduction", in the right hand corner of the homepage. The art objects in the exhibit are divided into three main parts, "The Buddha and the Sacred Site", "The Journey", and "Memory, Memento and Sacred Bond". Each part has several paragraphs explaining the significance of the art, and visitors can click on each image to see it in greater detail and to learn what it's about. There are also short films that accompany each part that are about a specific event in Buddha's life, such as his enlightenment, his first sermon, and his death. The "For Educators" link, near the top of the page, offers many resources from the Asia Society website, and a "Teacher Resource" specifically for the Pilgrimage and Buddhist Art exhibit.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: Propaganda
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. has created an online exhibition to complement the one at their headquarters about the role of propaganda in World War II. The exhibition and accompanying Features explore how the Nazi Party used modern techniques as well as new technologies and carefully crafted messages to sway millions with its vision for a new Germany. Visitors will find that the exhibit goes beyond just images of propaganda posters, giving detailed explanations of the history and uses of propaganda.
Five College Center for East Asian Studies (FCCEAS)
We work to improve the quality, quantity, and distribution of resources for teaching about East Asia at the college and precollege levels and to offer opportunities for precollege educators to experience East Asian cultures firsthand. The Center maintains a Resource Library, publishes a newsletter three times a year, and conducts seminars, institutes, conferences, and workshops for college and precollege educators.
Ancient Architects of the Mississippi
Several thousands of years ago in the lower Mississippi River Delta, Native Americans began constructing mounds to bury the dead. For the next fifteen centuries, these various groups would build what may be called the first dense urban settlements in what would later become the United States. Today some of these former settlements and earthworks are overseen by the National Park Service, which has seen fit to create this website to provide information to the general public. Visitors can review information about these settlements, view a timeline of related events, and learn about the complex nature of trade within and among these communities.
No job for a woman: The effects of war on women's lives during the 20th and 21st century
Throughout the 20th and 21st century, women have played a variety of roles during various miliary conflicts, both on the homefront and on the front lines of battle. This online exhibit from the Imperial War Museum in Britain explores some of the complexities faced by women during these conflicts. Within each of four primary sections, visitors can look at some of the activities that draw on the extensive visual documentation offered within. Activities here include "War babes: Stereotypes, Pin-ups and Prejudice" and "A woman's place is in the home."
Online Geography Quizzes
Try your geography sense on these fun quizzes. This is a great resource for students who need practice. Check it out.
NOVA: World in the Balance
Taking as its focus the deceptively simple questions, How has the world's population changed over time? and How will it change in the future?, this engaging website (designed as a companion to the television program) developed by NOVA explores both of these queries through a set of interviews, interactive features, and additional resources, such as weblinks and guides for teachers. The interviews are enlightening, and feature transcripts of conversations with Ding Yihui on climate change in China, Geeta Rao Gupta on the status of women in India, and Lester Brown on population growth. The section on population control campaigns and family planning are particular nice, as they profile, through brief essays and posters, the attempts of India, China, and Kenya to promote these policies. As mentioned, the interactive features are very well-though out, and allow visitors to examine the growth of the human population from the year zero to 2050 and to take a quiz on population trends and environmental challenges.
CBC: Anatomy of a Refugee Camp [Macromedia Flash Reader]
The Canadian Broadcasting Company has developed a first-class reputation for creating well-thought out web presentations, and this engrossing bird's-eye guide to a typical refugee camp is another such project of note. Visitors to the site are presented with a small compass in the lower left-hand corner of the site that allows them to maneuver through the overhead view of the refugee camp. Along with using the compass, visitors can also move directly to locations of interest through an interactive location map also available on the site. Some of the elements of a refugee camp that are profiled here include the food distribution point, the vehicle entrance, the water point, the market, and the shelters. Clicking on each question mark on various locations reveals a brief overview of the significance of each place within the greater hierarchy of the camp's operations. The site also includes a good selection of relevant external links, such as those that lead to Doctors Without Borders, the Red Cross, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Searching for Asian America [QuickTime, Macromedia Flash Reader]
It is essentially impossible to describe the experience of a "typical" Asian-American person in the United States. Designed to complement a PBS documentary on the Asian-American experience, this nice website lets visitors learn more about the program and the various Asian-American individuals profiled on the show. The profiles and material here include information on Gary Locke, the Chinese-American governor of Washington and profiles of Martin Bautista and Jeffrey Lim, who are both Filipino immigrant doctors living in the small town of Guymon, Oklahoma. One of the most compelling persons profiled here is Lela Lee, who is the creator of the underground comic Angry Little Girls, which features as its main protagonist an Asian-American woman with attitude and big dreams. The site is rounded out with the inclusion of a quiz, clips from the television documentary, and a transcript of a conversation with the series producer, Donald Young.
Mughal India [Macromedia Flash Reader]
As you enter a large room filled with various items, including a well-worn globe, a medium-sized file cabinet, and a wall of books, you wonder to yourself, Where am I?. It turns out that you have stumbled across the British Museum's fine interactive website on Mughal India. Designed for young people, the site is set up as an office where visitors may click on various items (such as a globe or a model of the Taj Mahal) in order to entire Flash-enabled learning environments that address various aspects of this most grand and productive period in India's history. While visitors will want to spend a good deal of time exploring the site, one particular representative area of the site is the coin cabinet. Clicking on the coin cabinet opens up a small chest that holds various pieces of currencies from the Mughal Empire. Visiting the different drawers in the chest allows users to learn what each type of coin can tell contemporary observers about the Empire's religious traditions, emperors, and politics. Thoroughly engaging and dynamic in its layout and content, this is a site that is worth a close look.
HISTORY AT THE SMITHSONIAN
As you might expect, the Smithsonian Institution website is a vast resource, with materials of interest to teachers in just about every academic area. We've selected this particular URL link for history and social studies teachers who are looking for fresh ways to engage students in historical topics. Each topic includes lesson plans for grades 6-8 -- some are guided, self-teaching activities.
Web de Anza
is a growing, evolving, collaborative web site. It is designed to provide teachers, students, and scholars with primary source materials concerning Juan Bautista de Anza and his two historic 18th century expeditions from northern Sonora to northern California, leading to the colonization of San Francisco. This site contains primary source diaries and letters in both English and Spanish written by the soldiers, colonists, and friars who traveled on the two 18th century expeditions led by Captain Juan Bautista de Anza from New Spain to northern California leading to the colonization of San Francisco. It also offers a wide array of secondary resources such as maps, chronologies, pictures and articles linked strategically to the diaries to facilitate historical research.
Ancient world Mapping Center
Cooperating with faculty at UNC, and with the scholars who commission custom maps from the AWMC for their publications, we are developing a collection of free digital maps for educational use. This effort will give teachers and students an expanding set of small-scale reference maps for classroom and personal use.
Near East.net
The ancient Near East has been the birthplace of some of civilization's most important advances, among them written language, the impulse to urbanism, and crop cultivation. Created and maintained by Paul James Cowie (a doctoral student at Australia's Macquarie University), the site is a fine resource for both scholars and the general public. Scholars will want to make sure and take a look at the conference diary section, which lists upcoming conferences and various calls for papers and other submissions. The announcements section is of additional interest, as it gives advance notice regarding related activities, including international symposia. For the general public, a host of sections (such as museums and galleries) offer comprehensive listings of Web-based resources ranging from Egyptology links to those dealing with cuneiform. The Web site also contains a listing of links to museums that specialize in the antiquities and archaeology of the Near East located around the world.
The Pantheon
The Greek world of gods and goddesses is extremely intricate, and The Pantheon Web site provides an effective way to begin learning about this world, both for beginners and for those looking to brush up on their knowledge of their exploits and times. Beginners will want to start by reading the essay on the creation of the world out of chaos, which then leads into the piece on the creation of mankind. One helpful feature of these essays is the many interactive hyperlinks that visitors can use to access a brief synopsis about each god or goddess. A section on the principal Greek gods contains an interactive family tree, beginning with the union of Uranus and Gaea, and concluding with their great-grand children -- Apollo, Artemis, and several others. The site is rounded out with a selection of relevant links to other sites dealing with mythology and a list of suggested readings
AncientMexico.com [Flash]
Maintained by Patrick Olivares, AncientMexico.com offers a number of thematic exhibits, primary documents, and images that will provide a good overview of the groups that have lived in this region. The first place to begin is the detailed clickable map where users can click on close to twenty different cities of pre-Columbian Mexico. Some of the city Web pages are "under excavation," but many of them contain schematic representations of their urban form and photographs of the numerous structures (such as ballcourts and temples), along with explanations of their place within the culture. The Gods of Ancient Mexico area features images of gods central to the religious practices of the Maya people, including the Rabbit Scribe and the Water Lily Jaguar. Particularly helpful for educational purposes are the primary documents, which include Hernando Cortes's recollection of his meeting with Montezuma and a poem by Nezahualcoyotl (Hungry-Coyote), the poet and king of the Aztec city of Texcoco.
Muslims
A two-hour program originally shown on PBS's Frontline in May aims to dispel ignorance. It travels to six nations and delves into such topics as Islamic scholarship, the re-emergence of its fundamentalist values, the effect of Islamic laws on such issues as murder, divorce and drinking a beer, the treatment of men and women, the religion's relation to politics, and tensions between Muslims and others in the United States. The project includes teachers' guides and background for some 15,000 U.S. high schools.
About Education
Cambodia: The Odyssey of the Khmer People
Bruce Sharp, in collaboration with a host of colleagues, has developed this Web site dealing with the history and culture of Cambodia. Paying close attention to the Khmer Rouge period of the country's history, the site contains a wealth of general information and statistics about Cambodia that will help visitors seeking a basic overview of the country's current status. The site is divided into numerous sections, several that will be of particular interest to visitors. The Oral Histories section contains a dozen narratives from Cambodian men and women who lived in Cambodia during the reign of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. A photo gallery hosts several photo essays by Mr. Sharp, including some dramatic shots of Angkor Wat. Finally, the site also has a search engine and a What's New section that lists new material that is periodically added to the site.
Afghanistan: Land in Crisis- National Geographic [RealPlayer]
This new special feature from National Geographic collects information on Afghanistan, including articles, maps, lesson plans, current news, and more. Some of the site's notable features include an archived Webcast of an October 22 screening of "National Geographic Explores a Changing World" and panel discussion on the Middle East and Afghanistan; a bibliography of National Geographic's print resources related to the topic; and a regularly updated interactive map of Afghanistan displaying cities and attacks, ethnic groups, drought and vegetation, and more. Teachers will want to check out the four lesson plans, which are geared to various age groups K-12.
