The featured telegraph to President Abraham Lincoln from a gas-filled balloon, along with accompanying photographs, can launch a fascinating lesson on the Civil War and nineteenth-century technology. 

One teacher’s experience recording video from the viewer’s perspective in Antarctica provides a creative model for inquiry-oriented activities to engage students in problem-based, real-world exploration.

The use of extended reality opens the way for rich, focused student inquiry into topics like the Holocaust, the civil rights movement, or Greek Art. 

This article was inspired by the first article in the March/April 2021 issue of Social Studies and the Young Learner. NCSS editor Steve Lapham collaborated with teachers Amanda Wilburn and Lori Dodson to obtain a small collection of student-created artwork. The results are presented in “Sharing Myself through Self-Portraits.” One of those pictures is featured on the cover of this issue.

“The Fresh Market: Connecting Content, Children, Families, and the Community,” outlines the “fresh market project” and lays out an argument for a cross-curricular approach to teach social studies in a preschool classroom. The authors outline a process in which teachers met weekly to think of ways to embed content in science, technology, reading, engineering, art, math, and social studies in an effective and engaging manner. Their narrative highlights the power of interdisciplinary work with young children, with an emphasis on social studies as the connecting thread.

An earlier article (by W. Toledo and others) in Social Studies and the Young Learner examined how young students engaged with locally-relevant civics curriculum focused on civic perspective-taking, a process wherein students examine multiple perspectives on public issues and form their own stances on these issues using fact-based reasons with a consideration for the public good. Here, the authors present additional key skills in civic thinking and important strategies for teachers hoping to engage young students in civic perspective-taking.

The authors outline the basic ideas behind the stock market along with its ties to consumer economics and how world events impact us all. They argue that this approach is an engaging way to teach elementary students (in grades 4–6) economic responsibility, and they detail some basic steps needed to get started.

The Smithsonian Learning Lab puts the treasures of the world’s largest museum, education, and research complex within reach of teachers, parents, and students. Philippa Rappoport offers this article as a way to help students think about the past and their own recent experiences during a pandemic using the Learning Lab.