Written by educators for educators, the OER Project blog holds a treasure trove of teaching materials, classroom insights, teaching strategies and the latest research to strengthen your practice.
  • Lesson Plan: Ancient Societies

    What Did the Ancients Give Us? Many students are unaware of how much our modern world owes to the ancients. But the innovations of ancient societies gave us things such as concrete, the structure of government, makeup, calendars, geometry, and so muc...
  • You can thank the ancients

    By Bridgette Byrd O’Connor The legacy of the ancient world is very much alive in the minds of people everywhere. We offer as proof the number of people who visit ancient ruins each year: The ancient Maya ruins of Chichén Itzá in ...
  • Lesson Plan: Global Reform Movements

    Comparison: Women's Suffrage Around the World The experiences of women throughout history differ across regions and time periods. But in comparing these narratives we can understand how common social expectations and challenges were similar regar...
  • Noxious Reform: How London’s Big Stink drove progress

    By Bridgette Byrd O’Connor When students are thinking at the large scales of Big History and world history, they can easily conclude that human history is a story of constant progress. But progress isn’t a straight line; there can be obst...
  • Cultivating climate champions: A 3-D approach to teaching climate change

    By James Damico, PhD I'm excited to share some key insights and a practical instructional strategy for creating climate champions in your classroom. Key Insights The 3-D approach – viewing students as detectives, delegates, and doers - provide...
  • All the stars are closer

    By Bridgette Byrd O’Connor We owe a great deal of our modern knowledge about stars to a group of late-nineteenth-century computers. You may be thinking that the use of multiple computers that long ago would be impossible, since the first comput...
  • Lesson Plan: Starstruck

    Humans have looked up at the stars for hundreds of thousands of years. We’ve grouped them together, categorized them, created stories about them, used them for navigation, and looked to them for inspiration. Our star, the Sun, has fueled our pl...
  • Lesson Plan: Maps

    Humans have been making maps for thousands of years. In general, maps have gotten more detailed, more complex, and more precise over time. Today, you can find all sorts of maps, from maps depicting the effects of climate change to a map of a theme pa...
  • Here be dragons: Teaching world history in maps

    By Bennett Sherry, OER Project Team “A map is the greatest of all epic poems. Its lines and colors show the realization of great dreams.” ...
  • Feedback during writing: Prioritize and focus!

    By Annette O’Boyce As you sit down to grade a stack of essays, ever wish you had a few rubber stamps with certain handy phrases on them? “Add more evidence”; “that’s not a complete sentence”; or “cite your so...
  • The value of writing

    By Trevor Getz, OER Project Team It’s inevitable: The world changes. One generation follows another, each with its own technologies and modes of communication. Right now, many of us are thinking about artificial intelligence (AI), and the trans...
  • Lesson Plan: Writing

    The conversation about using AI in the classroom is evolving. Recognizing that AI has already become commonplace in many classrooms, teachers are exploring ways they can use the technology to help students think critically and creatively. In this les...
  • Lesson Plan: Claim Testing

    Students interact with a variety of claims every day, from claims their parents and teachers make to claims that they see on social media, in movies, or in the news. And since history is all about making assertions—backed by evidence, of course...
  • TikTok claim testing—why not!

    By Bridgette Byrd O’Connor, OER Project Team If you happen to have a TikTok account to keep tabs on your kids (I can’t be the only one, right?) or maybe to spend some time zoning out after grading essays, then you may have stumbled upon c...
  • How can we help students identify disinformation? Teach them claim testing and sourcing skills.

    By Bridgette Byrd O’Connor
    Louisiana, USA

    Our students are continuously bombarded with information from a variety of sources that can be contradictory and thus confusing. In addition, they’re exposed to an alarming amount of misinformation and disinformation. How do we help students make sense of it all so that they can make informed decisions about some very serious—and potentially life-changing—issues?…

  • Scale switching, frames, origin stories: Where do I start?

    By Bridgette Byrd O’Connor It’s that time of year again: the countdown to the final day of school. Maybe you're reading this while helping students wrap up final projects, proctoring exams, or tackling the grading that stands between you ...
  • Taking a lesson from climate history

    Trevor Getz, OER Project Team Picture this: You’re a Viking, struggling to eke out a living on the shores of Greenland as a glacier slips closer to your house each year. You’re an Italian musician, and you’re holding one of the fin...
  • Exciting new updates

    Fellow educators, Having been a part of the OER Project as both a teacher and staff member, I know firsthand how powerful the collaboration between classroom educators and OER Project materials can be for student learning. When I took the helm as dir...
  • Climate Project: A new path forward in climate education

    By the OER Project Team Climate change will affect every part of our lives, from health care and food systems to business and governance. An understanding of climate change and how we can respond to it is critical knowledge for the next generation of...
  • Five takeaways from Climate Project teachers

    By Molly Sinnott When you’re looking for a new coffee maker, you look to see what other consumers have said about the product, right? Is it intuitive to use? Is it built to last? And perhaps most importantly, does it make good coffee?  So ...
  • Teaching climate change? Parents and communities support you!

    By Dr. Deb L. Morrison  Do you want to teach about climate change but worry about how parents may react?  You’re not alone.  Research tells us that approximately 30% of all teachers are concerned that parents may complain if thei...
  • How can we help students translate climate change data and evidence into action?

    By Bridgette Byrd O’Connor  We live in a world that bombards us with data. News organizations include charts and graphs as evidence to support their arguments. Politicians haul out poster-size charts when they debate bills. You can even si...
  • Students can build community while fighting climate change

    By Trevor Getz My favorite teacher in high school wasn’t actually my teacher. That is to say, when it came time for me to take AP® US history, I was assigned the boring instructor whose students always passed the test, rather than the guita...
  • Preparing students for climate-focused careers!

    By Jodi Pincus and Trevor Getz I don’t remember learning much about different occupations in high school. I also don’t remember learning career-readiness skills like résumé writing, job-hunting, or interview techniques. Mayb...
  • Climate optimism: A key to confronting climate change?

    By Trevor Getz, OER Project TeamSan Francisco, USA We’re publishing this blog as part of an exciting announcement: a fully remodeled Climate Project is coming your way this April! We’re previewing the launch with a sneak peek at some of o...