The Kalamazoo Valley Museum describes itself as a "participatory museum of history, science, and technology." History-related permanent exhibits emphasize local history.

The museum offers planetarium shows (including "Sky Legends of the Three Fires"), film screenings, self-guided tours, and 20-min. walk-in history demonstrations, as well as hands-on, in-museum workshops. As of April 22, 2010, social-studies-relevant workshops included "Secrets in the Sky, Secrets on the Ground: The Story of the Underground Railroad in Michigan," "Three Fires Native Americans," "Geography," and "Pioneer Life."

The Southeast branch of the National Archives offers the opportunity to research documents—texts, photos, maps, and architectural drawings—made between 1716 and the 1980s, which pertain to the history of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi, North Carolina, Alabama, and Kentucky.

This online exhibit includes a selection of the types of documents you can find in the archives—early records, Atlanta Federal Penitentiary documents, draft registration cards, Tennessee Valley Authority and Tuskegee photographs, and court and genealogical documents, among others. Give the finding aids a chance to see what the archives may hold in areas of interest to you.

If you are teaching on slavery, particularly in South Carolina, you may find the list of slave manifests useful. For 20th-century history, the archives' website includes a collection of scanned draft registration cards with names that you know. How much more attentive will your students be if the draft card they are analyzing belonged to Houdini? Babe Ruth?

In addition to research opportunities, the archives offers public programs, such as lectures and workshops. Check early and often to find new programs, and register for events that require you to do so.

Download a PowerPoint presentation of letters written to Wehrner von Braun, space program pioneer, director of NASA's Marshal Space Flight Center, and chief architect of the Saturn V rocket. Teachers are invited to submit their ideas for using these documents in the classroom.

Perhaps your students are on the younger side? Consider looking at essay contest entries for inspiration to create your own oral history and essay assignment.

The Southwest branch of the National Archives provides access to documents—such as letters, photographs, architectural drawings, and maps—which originated from federal agencies and courts. Documents on the premises date from the 1800s to late 1900s; and were created in Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana.

Areas of collection emphasis include Native American removal, westward expansion, Chinese exclusion, segregation, repatriation, the World Wars, economic history, oil, the Civil War, slavery, and the U.S. space program.

Groups and classes are welcome to visit—with advance notice—for activities such as research, tours, internships, exhibit viewing, lectures, learning to teach history with primary sources, and genealogy workshops.

Educators may be interested in available professional development workshops on archival holdings and using primary sources. If the workshop does not take place at the archives, travel expenses may require payment.

You may also want to check the main page for links to the latest annual K-12 education newsletters.

If you are looking for a way to bring the archives into your classroom, rather than taking your class to Fort Worth, several digital options are available. For one, you could make use of student activities, such as an examination of historical U.S. census documents. You can also explore lesson plans on the domestic slave trade or illegal Chinese immigration, created by teachers; or you can even submit you own, inspired by the archives' sources. Finally, you might consider scheduling a roughly hour-long distance learning program. Available topics vary, but all programs are document-based and provided free of charge.

Interested in art? Looking for more lesson plans? Consider taking some time to explore Art and Archives, a collaboration between the Southwest branch of the National Archives and the Sid Richardson Museum. The website defines primary and secondary sources, offers art and archival vocabulary lists, and contains a collection of lesson plans which utilize art to think about history. Topics include Lewis and Clark, westward expansion, the Louisiana Purchase, cowboys, Wounded Knee, and black soldiers in the Civil War. These lesson plans are generally for middle and high school students. However, a version of the Louisiana Purchase lesson plan is listed for grade five.

The Central Plains regional branch of the National Archives holds federal and court records from Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Iowa. Collections include Leavenworth Penitentiary mugshots and files, World War II draft cards, naturalization records, federal land records, and records from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, among other topics.

On site, you can conduct research, take in exhibits, make rubbings of well-known signatures, and watch an 11-minute film. Prior to visiting you can arrange a facility tour (for adults or for children) and/or children's activities. Take a look at this handy .PDF file for an overview of the archives and descriptions of source types. The archives even provides a list of local restaurants to make visiting easy. Additional visit preparation resources include online finding guides for looking through a portion of the available records and a current exhibit listing.

In addition, the archives offers a calendar of free public events. Reservations are required.

The Central Plains archive branch emphasizes hands-on activities for students, which can be customized to meet your current curricula needs and meet either at the archives or your school. Other visit options include guided or self-guided exhibit tours, complete with pre-visit curriculum packets and information on how the exhibits related to state standards, and professional development workshops

In addition to on-site opportunities, you students can also participate in one of five interactive distance learning programs. Topics include using documents, the Civil War, history online, westward expansion, and National Archives online resources. You can also request a free annual primary source CD with documents, information on their relationship to national standards, teacher notes, suggested activities, and analysis worksheets. While you're waiting for the CD to arrive or if you are interested in looking at a sample of its contents, try teaching suggestions on industrialization and/or the Civil War or Constitution Day lesson plans.

The National Watch and Clock Museum, according to its website, houses "the largest and most comprehensive horological collection in North America," with over 12,000 artifacts. The museum's holdings focus on 19th-century American clocks and watches, but the exhibits proceed chronologically through the development of timekeeping devices worldwide.

The museum offers exhibits, self-guided and guided tours for school groups, hands-on programs for school groups, youth activity kits and traveling trunks, research library access, workshops, and other recreational and educational events. It also offers a free museum pass for educators.

The Heritage Center preserves and presents the history of the Cherokee County region, displaying artifacts from pre-contact, the Civil War, World War II, and the timber industry, as well as other times and subjects.

The museum offers exhibits.

The Amon Carter Museum houses paintings and sculpture by Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell, artists who focused on the American West. It also presents exhibits of artwork by other American artists, on subjects ranging far from the original collection's American West focus.

The museum offers exhibits, self-guided and guided tours for student groups (including custom tours and tours for AP students), professional development opportunities for educators, videoconference outreach programs, teaching materials borrowable by Texas educators, research library access, and other recreational and educational events.

The Black Hills Mining Museum preserves and presents the history of the mining industry in the Black Hills region, from its earliest days to the present.

The museum offers exhibits, guided tours of a simulated mine, and gold panning.

The Ellis County Museum, housed in an 1889 structure, presents and preserves the history of Ellis County, TX.

The museum offers exhibits and occasional recreational and educational events.

The South Carolina State Museum, housed in the 1893 Columbia Mill textile building, allows visitors to explore art, cultural and natural history, and science and technology.

The museum offers exhibits, state-curriculum-aligned self-guided and guided tours for school groups (box lunches and on-site space for lunch available), outreach presentations (including presentations with a portable Starlab planetarium), programs for homeschoolers, professional development for educators, summer camps, and other recreational and educational events.