Best Sites for History Activities and Games
General Sites for History Activities and Games
BBC Schools
The BBC Schools section of their site offers games, animations, virtual tours, and galleries in all subjects, including history and geography A link in the bottom right takes you to their collection of games.
Schools of California Online Resources for Educators (SCORE)
The Schools of California Online Resources for Educators (SCORE) project is a terrific resource for teachers and students alike. You'll find lesson plans and activities -- all rated and arranged by grade level and content area.
Blue Web’n
Blue Web'n is an online library of 1800+ outstanding Internet sites categorized by subject, grade level, and format (lessons, activities, projects, resources, references, & tools). You can search by grade level (Refined Search), broad subject area (Content Areas), or specific sub-categories (Subject Area). Each week 5 new sites are added and you can get a list and description of these additions through their free weekly updates.
http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/bluewebn/
Lesson Plans and Resources for Social Studies Teachers
Dr. Marty Levine, Professor Emeritus of Secondary Education, California State University, Northridge (CSUN),has gathered lesson plans and resources from the Internet which social studies teachers should find very useful. Categories to investigate include Lesson plans and Teaching Strategies, Online Activities, and Teaching Current Events. Check out the Online Activities section for interactive activities involving the Web. Some links are broken
http://www.csun.edu/~hcedu013/
WebQuest Page
A WebQuest is a form of project-based and problem-based learning in which the resources are located on the Web. The WebQuest page features inquiry-oriented educational activities produced by various educators. Some sites are very impressive --- others are less so. I would suggest consulting the Matrix of Examples which now contains approximately 600 pre-selected Web Quests, cataloged by grade and subject level. Check links of any WebQuest you are interested in to make sure they are active.
ThinkQuest
A large internet-based education program that features about 1000 student-created web sites. Includes teacher resources and contests. Quality of individual sites varies, but some are excellent. Go to Libraries to visit sites on Geography and Cultures from students from various countries. Unfortunately some excellent older sites have been taken down.
http://www.thinkquest.org/library/index.html
Digital History – Link to Games
Provides links to games and quizzes on various topics in American history.
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/games/games.cfm
Quia
A highly recommended subscription-based service ($49 U.S.) that enables you to make games and quizzes. Or, you may simply peruse their free database of ready-made materials.
activehistory.co.uk
activehistory.co.uk provides educational games and interactive lessons that can be searched by topic or period. Many deal with topics in European history, especially British history. Some games are student-produced, so check games for possible errors
http://www.activehistory.co.uk
Mr. Neal’s Virtual Classroom
A high school social studies teacher has put together an impressive array of multimedia materials for teaching history. Included are history, geography, economics, and government links, PowerPoint presentations, Internet assignments and other helpful materials.
http://www.virtualclassroom.net/main/main.htm