These workshops help high school teachers develop activities and lessons with documents that deal with controversial topics in American history. Topics include Colonial America, the American Revolution, the Lowell System, Emancipation, the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, the Census, Public Health: Typhoid Mary, and Korea and the Cold War.

The workshops have structured activities that can be customized for sessions ranging in duration from 45 minutes to two hours. Group activities are designed for teachers to discuss and critically think about documents. Videos contain visuals that illustrate the compelling narratives told by top scholars. Previously taught lessons using the documents are also included. Additional print and Web resources are provided.

Free registration is required to stream videos and download all workshop materials, including comprehensive facilitator guides. Certificates of Participation to those working in groups are available and may be used for inservice or recertification credit. Colorado State University offers graduate-level semester credits, for a fee, to those who complete the sequence of sessions and the required assignments.

Historian Gary Nash serves as lead advisor for this professional development series that begins with pre-contact Native American history and continues through Reconstruction.

America's History in the Making is designed to enrich middle school and high school teachers' American history knowledge, while introducing teaching methods that will help them develop their own classroom applications. America's History in the Making is composed of 11 units, each containing video and text materials, Web interactives, and hands-on activities built around primary and secondary source materials. The materials can be used as standalone units or as a full four-credit professional development course.

Additional features include:
• Opportunities to develop assessments and assignments for students.
• Web-based interactives that stimulate analytical thinking.
• Videos of expert interviews, reenactments, examples of historical methodology.
• A table that correlates to each state's history/social studies standards.

Free registration is required to stream videos and download all workshop materials, including comprehensive facilitator guides. Certificates of Participation to those working in groups are available and may be used for inservice or recertification credit. Colorado State University offers graduate-level semester credits, for a fee, to those who complete the sequence of sessions and the required assignments.

This online workshop includes video segments from a workshop presented by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in February 2001 in Baltimore, MD. The guidelines and methodological suggestions in these video segments—including suggested lesson plans and 14 points to consider in teaching the Holocaust—are at the core of every teacher workshop and conference presented by the Museum. In addition to video of the actual workshop session, segments include historical and artifact photographs, text, and links to related sites within the Museum's website.

Eighth grade American history educator Eric Langhorst discusses the Smithsonian's use of Web 2.0 tools and applications to connect with public and educators.

Eighth-grade American history educator Eric Langhorst introduces the online Lincoln's Crossroads Game from the National Constitution Center, an interactive way for students to learn about the issues of Lincoln's time and then make their own choices. They will compare their decision-making skills with Lincoln on 13 issues and learn how many times they make the same choice.

Video and audio options are available.

Eighth-grade American history educator Eric Langhorst introduces an online interactive version of the Gettysburg Address offered by the Smithsonian, suggesting it for use in the classroom.

Lee Ann Potter, Director of Education for the National Archives and Records Administration, engages teachers in document analysis activities related to a wide range of contemporary subjects, alerts them to the online resources of the National Archives, and introduces them to service learning projects that involve documents.

Dr. Anne Knowles of Middlebury College answers the question "What could Lee see at Gettysburg?" Dr. Knowles builds two digital terrain models of the battlefield, one from 1996 data derived from aerial photographs, the other based on contour lines extracted from an 1874 map of the battlefield. Using a technique called viewshed analysis, she investigates how lines of sight and real-time geographic information may have influenced commanders' decisions and terrain perceptions. The results suggest that historical maps and evidence from the physical landscape can shed new light on even the most familiar historical subjects.

Dr. Craig Barton of the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia explores different strategies through which to construct the collective memories associated with African American communities and to help tell the stories of people often invisible in traditional historical narratives. A different type of commemorative is required to interpret the depth and complexity of African American culture which interprets the challenges of historical narrative and the agency of contemporary imagination. As instruments of both public and private patronage these landscapes inevitably minimize the contributions of marginalized cultural communities and were (are) all too often mute about the presence of African Americans and other marginalized groups. Traditional monuments often do not speak to the lives of African Americans and others often excluded from discourse of public space.

The story of the infamous Salem witch trials of 1692 has served as a dramatic moral tale in American culture since the late 17th century. Narrated in history textbooks since the early 18th century and fictionalized in later works of literature, the Salem witch trials tragedy has been interpreted in different ways, suited to changing social and cultural circumstances over time.

Dr. Benjamin Ray of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia explores the role of religion in early America through this iconic narrative. This talk focuses on the most recent historical research and indicates the new shape the story is taking. It discusses the changing nature of historical accounts and shows how students can directly engage the primary source documents and develop their own conclusions.