Maryland

Baltimore oriole

OER Project courses are the right fit for Maryland schools in more ways than one.

World History Project (WHP) 1200 to the Present is ideal for students taking Maryland’s modern world history course and aligns with the vast majority of Maryland’s Modern World History Framework. While Maryland’s world history course starts in 1300, the WHP 1200 course provides a bit more context with which to understand the world changes that occurred around 1450.
Big History Project is an excellent fit for Maryland middle-school students, and it supports the rigor and standards of the Maryland Social Studies Standards.

Explore the courses mentioned above at your own pace, and once you’re ready to dive into planning, check out the tailored resources below to get started!

Which best describes you?

I’m new to OER Project and about to start using the courses and materials.
I’m a returning OER Project user in Maryland looking to see what’s new.

New to OER Project checklist

Getting started with WHP 1200 or Big History Project is a piece of cake! We recommend following the onboarding checklists below so that you’re equipped with all the information you need to get started:

	World History Project (1200)	Big History Project
Professional development opportunities	Explore the WHP 1200 course. You can also find our WHP 1200 course guide here. Attend a live WHP 1200 introductory PD session. Register for a session today! Take our free, online PD course, Teaching World History (TWH) 1200.	Explore the Big History Project course. You can also find our BHP course guide here. Attend a live BHP introductory PD session. Register for a session today! Take our free, online PD course, Teaching Big History.
Standards alignment materials	Read our WHP 1200 Maryland standards alignment document. Read our WHP 1200 course plan, generated by a Maryland teacher, which includes a pacing guide.	Read our BHP Maryland standards alignment document. Read our sample BHP year-long and semester-long course plans, which include pacing guides.
Talk to a real person!	Connect with other Maryland teachers in the OER Project Online Teacher Community—ask questions, share stories, and seek support! Still have questions? Email an OER Project outreach coordinator for support! You can either email them or find a time on their calendar for a meeting.

"The remarkable adventure of the Big History Project was the ideal platform for our school to reimagine and refresh its ninth-grade curriculum. The result has garnered universal praise from our community of administrators, teachers, parents, and students. Students are particularly fond of writing Big Questions; claim-testing experts; creating diverse, interdisciplinary teams to solve problems; and using collective learning as a tool to understand our modern lives. People cheered—students loved it!" — Brad, ninth-grade history teacher, Crownsville, MD

Returning to OER Project checklist

So you’ve taught with OER Project materials in Maryland before. Welcome back! We update our courses and materials each year, so let’s catch you up on what’s new. To prepare for a new term or semester, we recommend checking off the following items:

	World History Project (1200)	Big History Project
Professional development opportunities	Attend a live WHP 1200 introductory PD session, or attend an advanced training tailored for veterans. Register for a session today! If you haven’t already, take our free, online PD course, Teaching World History (TWH) 1200.	Attend a live BHP introductory PD session, or attend an advanced training tailored for veterans. Register for a session today! If you haven’t already, take our free, online PD course, Teaching Big History.
Standards alignment materials	Read our WHP 1200 course plan, generated by a Maryland teacher, which includes a pacing guide. We are hard at work creating up-to-date WHP 1200 standards alignment materials for Maryland teachers. In the meantime, you can find *standards alignment resources for Maryland from SY 20-21* here.	Read our BHP Maryland standards alignment document. Read our sample BHP year-long and semester-long course plans, which include pacing guides.
Talk to a real person!	Connect with other Maryland teachers in the OER Project Online Teacher Community—ask questions, share stories, and seek support! Still have questions? Email an OER Project outreach coordinator for support! You can either email them or find a time on their calendar for a meeting.

What Maryland Teachers are Saying

I use resources from the World History Project because they align to my state standards and the county’s Essential Curriculum while engaging students in diverse viewpoints and historical thinking skills. From the lesson on “The Danger of a Single Story,” to the primary source analysis on the Holocaust, WHP resources provided students multiple narratives while offering many opportunities to develop critical skills like comparison, continuity and change over time, and contextualization. With scaffolded activities that lead students towards mastery and transfer of knowledge, these resources are invaluable.

— Dennis, eleventh- and twelfth-grade modern world history teacher, Hagerstown, MD

Cover image: A Baltimore oriole foraging during migration. It is the state bird of Maryland. © Danita Delimont / Gallo Images / Getty Images Plus