The American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) has updated its site to include interdisciplinary classroom activities that highlight a diverse set of topics relating to both World War I and World War II. ABMC manages permanent U.S. military cemeteries, memorials, and monuments within the United States and abroad. The lesson plans are geared for grades 6-12 and offer different levels of challenge, adaptations, and methods for extension.

“Horace Pippin: The Artist of No Man’s Land” introduces students to the experience of an African American soldier in World War I and how he used writing and painting to explain what he saw. “Tweeting the Air War Against the Nazis” employs technology to help students understand the role the Allied Air Forces played in the Normandy invasion.

Additionally, the user can search for lessons by grade level and subject: grades 6-8 or 9-12, Art, Art History, ELL, Journalism, Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, and Special Education. The lesson plans provide teachers with detailed teacher tips including links to interactive maps, primary sources, timelines, and videos.

One of the new features is “Teacher Voice” pieces on some activities. These provide a teacher’s feedback on their experience with teaching the activity in their classroom and include suggestions for adapting the activity according to time restraints or specific classroom needs. There is also a backpack feature that allows the user to bookmark items.

Fallen Hero profiles detail the experiences of individual service members during World War II. Teachers and students can view eulogy videos and primary sources on each individual’s profile page. Teachers can use collections of primary sources provided onsite to help their students visualize the war and the lives of their servicemen.

For Us the Living is a resource for teachers that engages high school students through online primary-source based learning modules. Produced for the National Cemetery Administration's Veterans Legacy Program, this site tells stories of men and women buried in Alexandria National Cemetery, and helps students connect these stories to larger themes in American history. Primary sources used include photographs, maps, legislation, diaries, letters, and video interviews with scholars.

The site offers five modules for teachers to choose from, the first of which serves as an introduction to the cemetery's history. The other four cover topics such as: African American soldiers and a Civil War era protest for equal rights, the manhunt for John Wilkes Booth after Lincoln’s assassination, commemoration of Confederates during Reconstruction, and recognition of women for their military service. Most of the modules focus on the cemetery’s early history (founded in 1862) although two modules reach into the post-war era. Each module is presented as a mystery to solve, a question to answer, or a puzzle to unravel. Students must use historical and critical thinking skills to  uncover each story. Each module ends with two optional digital activities, a historical inquiry assignment and a service-learning project, related to the module theme.

Teachers should first visit the “Teach” section which allows them to preview each module (including its primary sources, questions and activities), learn how to get started, and see how the site’s modules connect with curriculum standards. In order to access the modules for classroom use, teachers do have to create their own account, but the sign up process is fast, easy, and best of all, free! The account allows teachers to set up multiple classes, choose specific module(s) for each class, assign due dates, and view student submissions.