<p>MindSparks is for-profit and provides curriculum sets for grades 4-5, 5-8, and 8-12. </p>

<p>Curriculum sets consist of primary source documents, worksheets, overheads, DBQs, maps, posters, and teacher’s booklets. Teacher’s booklets contain discussion questions, follow-up activities, points to make with students, and suggestions for additional activities.</p>

<p>All periods of American History are covered by the MindSparks series. Series available are: Debating the Documents – reproducible booklets, approximately 20 pages in length, consisting of pairs of conflicting primary source documents, worksheets, overheads of the documents, and a final DBQ on the documents; Editorial Cartoons – sets of six political cartoons featured on posters, a teacher’s guide with further background material, questions and follow-up activities; Excursions in History – timelines, maps, games, posters, and reproductions of documents; History Unfolding – sets of 10 student workbooks, one teacher’s manual, and a binder of 14 MindSparks sets, organized by era; and, The Way We Saw It – a 20-page booklet with transparencies of photos, poster art, cartoons, and historical prints, and a teacher’s booklet with discussion questions, reproducible lessons with background information and individual or small group follow-up activities. </p>

<p>Samples are available online and titles may be ordered through the MindSparks website.</p>

<p>NCHS is non-profit, funded by grants from both the public sector and private foundations, and produces teaching units for grades 5-12.</p>

<p>Each reproducible unit is rated for grade-level appropriateness and accompanied by background readings, primary source documents, discussion questions, lesson activities, and evaluation activities. Units are between 50 and 150 pages in length. </p>

<p>American history titles are available for Pre-Colonial history; Colonization and Settlement; Revolution and the New Nation; Constitutional Issues; Women in American History; Culture and the Arts in American History Native Americans; Slavery and Civil Rights; Immigration; and, Conflicts and Foreign Policy. </p>

<p>Previews of units are available in pdf form online and titles may be ordered online through Social Studies School Services at <a href="http://www.socialstudies.com">http://www.socialstudies.com</a&gt;, which also offers many NCHS titles for immediate download as e-books. </p>

<p>The Choices Program is non-profit and develops curriculum units for use at the secondary level. </p>

<p>Each Choices unit is built around a framework of alternative policy options that challenges students to think critically about the issue at hand. The unit includes extensive background readings, primary sources, study guides, a role-play or simulation exercise, and an individual assignment in which students are asked to articulate their positions on a policy issue.</p>

<p>Selected American history topics include A Forgotten History: The Slave Trade and Slavery in New England; Beyond Manifest Destiny: America Enters the Age of Imperialism; To End All Wars: World War I and the League of Nations Debate; Between World Wars: FDR and the Age of Isolationism; Ending the War Against Japan: Science, Morality, and the Atomic Bomb; The Cuban Missile Crisis: Considering its Place in Cold War History; U.S. Immigration Policy in an Unsettled World; Responding to Terrorism: Challenges for Democracy; and, The U.S. Role in a Changing World. </p>

<p>Samples are not available online, though titles can be ordered through the Choices website.</p>