Participants in this workshop will connect with educators from throughout the state as they choose from lively breakout sessions taught by Minnesota content experts and fellow teachers who use the middle-level Minnesota history Northern Lights curriculum. Attendees will also tour the latest exhibits at the Minnesota History Center.

Many teachers now understand that video games (and other technology) can help encourage high levels of learning. Attendees at this workshop will find out what Steven Johnson, John Beck, Marc Prensky, and James Paul Gee are saying about the use of video games as teaching and learning tools. There are plenty of resources to help educators begin to integrate PlayStation, XBox, GameCube, PC games, and other types of video games into the classroom.

Students often struggle to understand the increasingly complex content and vocabulary presented in social studies. Frustrated teachers often feel that it is easier to just cover the information presented instead of working to help students make meaningful connections. Effective strategies increase students learning and build scores on standardized social studies reading and writing tests. This workshop will share successful strategies that target the unique features and constructions of social studies texts as well as other forms of nonfiction and fiction. Handouts and materials provided can be used immediately to modify social studies instruction.

From the beginning to the expert teacher, using technology as part of social studies instruction in the 21st century is essential. K–12 students use cell phones, the internet, video games, and many other forms of technology. To maintain relevance in the lives of those students, classroom instruction needs to include not only social studies content but 21st-century tools and skills. This workshop will showcase content-specific websites and technology examples that educators can use right away.

Indiana history has been shaped by the presence and dedication of racially, economically, and culturally diverse groups of men and women. This workshop will introduce educators to the state's diverse history and its impact on Indiana's development and architecture. Representatives from schools that have developed and implemented multicultural curricula will discuss ways to use such information in the classroom.

Google Earth lets users see the world around them in brand new ways. Users can travel to the Great Pyramids, analyze live earthquake data, compare before and after images of deforestation, or integrate literature and social studies. But how best can educators use it to improve learning? In this workshop, participants will spend the day learning how to use the Google Earth interface, exploring its capabilities, adapting existing Google Earth tours, and creating a few of their own.

This multi-date residential institute introduces teachers to the intertwined issues of genocide and human rights. In the late spring participants will be sent a series of extensive text, article, and resource readings. Participants will begin the residential sessions by defining the terms and learning about the philosophical and historical antecedents and common characteristics of genocides and human rights violations. The seminar will then turn toward exploring the historical, political, sociological/anthropological, and contemporary dimensions of genocide and human rights by focusing on the causes, courses, and consequences of the events. The case studies include: Armenia, the Holocaust, Ukrainian famine-genocide, Cambodian, Cyprus, El Salvador, Iraq, Bosnia, Rwanda, and Sudan genocidal episodes. Other examples that will be integrated and considered include the Irish famine, the indigenous peoples of the Americas, and the current status of human rights throughout the world.

The institute will also include a series of sessions on how to approach these subjects in the classroom, from the elementary to the high school level. Significant attention will be devoted to the complex methodological issues underlying the presentation of genocide in the classroom including the selection of teaching materials (secondary readings, primary sources, and documentary and entertainment films). Then participants will undertake the sharing of lesson plans developed as a part of the institute's program before concluding with a series of final sessions and considerations on the future prevention of genocide and an activist engagement with the subject.

As an ongoing part of the Institute and its mission, past participants and faculty will continue to function as a cohort after the institute is over by sharing completed lesson plans, developing additional curricular materials, and undertaking educational and public outreach programming.

Teachers of all levels and settings are invited to join Spertus Museum educators to tour the new exhibition "A Force for Change: African American Art and the Julius Rosenwald Fund" and participate in an interactive printmaking workshop with Master Printer Thomas Lucas.