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Website review by Polly Conway, Common Sense Education | Updated December 2020
Smithsonian's History Explorer
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Smithsonian's History Explorer

Lessons, activities, artifacts, artfully presented by the Smithsonian

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Learning rating
Updated review coming soon Editorial review by Common Sense Education
Community rating
Based on 1 review
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Grades
Pre-K–12
Subjects & Skills
English Language Arts, Social Studies, Critical Thinking
Great for
Instructional Design, Lesson Planning, Media Literacy, Evaluating Media
Price:  Free
Platforms:  Website
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Smithsonian's History Explorer offers up many ways to discover history-based educational materials.
Searches can be filtered by grade, resource type, era, and cross-curricular connections.
Clicking through to resources gives national standards, related resources and artifacts, and more.
Clicking "Get Resource" takes visitors to the hosting page, often off of the History Explorer site.
Themed resources have been grouped together for ease of discovery.
Each theme includes plenty of lessons, activities, videos, primary sources, and artifacts.
Interactives & Media provide engaging, information-filled activities for students.
Some resources attempt to duplicate the experience of visiting a museum, complete with educator's guide.
Books for all reading levels are included in search results, with easy search options.
The site includes some quick tutorials, archived webinars, and plenty of teaching guides for educators.

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Featured review by
Keith S. , Classroom teacher
Classroom teacher
Bedminster Township School
Bedminster, United States
Fantastic Primary Sources and Artifacts
I chose more than 15 minutes for set-up as this site is so full of resources! Whereas there are sections and resources designed for student interaction, teachers should preview the site to plan their students' use of its images, articles, and artifacts. In addition to a wonderful series of learning modules called OurStory which feature key moments and movements in American history, the site is now beta testing a 3D section (works best in Chrome) which allows students to view mammoth skeletons, Native Am ...
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