Reformation and Word

All the 7th Grade Social Studies students used the publishing layout in Word to create a newspaper report of some of the historical events that took place during the Reformation. The lesson took four class periods to complete.

Parthenon and Google Sketchup

All the 6th Grade Social Studies students created a 3D model of the Parthenon, which they later animated and exported as a short movie. This lesson took three class periods to complete.

The Greeks and Webquests

All the 6th Grade Social Studies students accessed a variety of webquests, which helped them explore different aspects of the ancient Greek civilization. The lessons took two class periods to complete.

World Explorers and iMovie

All the 8th Grade Social Studies students worked in groups and wrote scripts about specific historical events related to their unit on World Explorers. These scripts were written in Google Docs. Later the students acted out the scripts and filmed the scenes. Their video was captured with iMovie and then edited according to the teacher's specifications. In each group, some students recorded separate audio tracks in Garage Band that were later imported into iMovie. This project took 8 classes to complete.

Globalization and Word

Some of the 8th Grade Social Studies students searched for images that they used to create a collage that explained concepts about globalization, which they are currently studying. This lesson took three class periods to complete.

Five Pillars and Powerpoint

The 7th Grade Social Studies students used a webquest to research about the Five Pillars of the Muslim religion. Once they gathered the information, they created a Powerpoint which summarized their learning. This lesson took four class periods to finish.

Ancient India and Photoshop

Some of the 6th Grade Social Studies students used Photoshop to create a poster that detailed different aspects of the ancient Indian society. This project took three class periods to complete.

Chilean Independence and Google Docs

Some of the 8th Grade Social Studies students reviewed concepts about Chilean Independence that they later uploaded into Google Docs to share with their teacher. This assignment took three class periods to complete.

Medieval Fair, Google Docs and Photoshop

The 7th Grade Social Studies students began this project by spending five days in the lab doing research that answered questions to a webquest. Students used Google Docs to share documents with their team members and then proceeded to complete the research.

Once they finished, students used Photoshop to create graphics that would serve two purposes: decorate their booth, and explain to visitors how their medieval group lived during that time. This part of the project took four days.

Egypt, Fireworks and Dreamweaver

The 6th Grade Social Studies students studied the culture of Ancient Egypt and focused on the Egyptians' view of the afterlife. The students had to imagine how it would be to leave their individual legacies in a pyramid to be viewed by future generations, and, with that idea in mind, they wrote an essay on how their lives might be. Later, they chose different hieroglyphics that described aspects of those lives. Finally the students used Dreamweaver and Fireworks to create a five page website that was built around these different hieroglyphics related to their personality. The tech aspect of the project took five class periods to complete.

Egyptian Webquest

The 6th Grade Social Studies students accessed a webquest that was made available to them via their teacher's shared folder, and they researched the questions on the internet. Later, the students dropped the completed document into their teacher's drop box. One of the classes shared the webquest via Google Docs. The lesson took two class periods to complete.

Constantinople, Google Docs, Fireworks and Dreamweaver

The 7th Grade Social Studies students did research on the ancient city of Constantinople and kept their notes in their Google Docs account. These notes became the text for the different pages in their website. Later they created graphics in Fireworks, which they added to the website that they constructed in Dreamweaver. The students also used Google Earth to capture views of the area from different altitudes. The lesson took four class periods to complete.

Click on the image below to see an example of the web site that the students had to build.



Click on the play button below to see a high speed version of the last tutorial movie for this lesson.

Sumerian Cities and Sketchup

The 6th Grade Social Studies students used Google Earth and Google Sketchup to create a model of an ancient Sumerian city. They included crop fields, irrigation canals, fortifications, housing and a ziggurat. The students needed to use navigation tools like zoom, orbit and pan in order to construct all the different features of their model. This lesson took approximately four days to complete.

Black Death Journal and Google Docs and Word

The 7th Grade Social Studies students did research on conditions in Europe during the Bubonic Plague. They recorded their notes in a document created and saved in their Google Docs account. From there, the students created a Word document that they formatted like a medieval journal or diary. Drawing from their notes in Google Docs, the students wrote about the plague from the point of view of a person living during that time period. This lesson took four days to complete.

Absolutism, Fireworks and Dreamweaver

The 8th grade Social Studies students created a four page website titled, Understanding Absolutism. The students had to create several graphics in Fireworks, which they later exported to Dreamweaver. Inside of Dreamweaver, the students constructed the pages with text, graphics and links. The lesson took seven class periods to complete.

Absolutism and Word

The 8th grade Social Studies students used a teacher made study guide to do research on absolute rulers in Europe. The students had to answer questions and find graphics, with which they made collages that explained certain concepts that were popular during this time period. The lesson took five class periods to finish.

Core Democratic Values and Powerpoint

While working in groups of two, the 8th grade Social Studies students used Google Docs to gather research about the core democratic value that they had to explore. Once they had enough information, they created a Powerpoint to accompany their oral presentation. This lesson took five class periods to complete.

Innovation in the Age of Discovery

The 8th grade Social Studies students created an iMovie commercial that explained why a certain invention was better than what had existed before. The students had to promote either a galleon over a caravel or a musket over an arquebus. First, the students created an Inspiration diagram to outline the characteristics of the items that they were comparing. Next, they created a storyboard for their commercial in Google Docs. Finally, the students used their storyboards to create the iMovie, which had to be approximately 70 seconds long and contain two audio tracks. This lesson took nine class periods to complete.

The Ancient Greeks, GarageBand and iMovie

Some of the 6th grade Social Studies students made a movie of a TV panel show about famous Greek leaders that they acted out and filmed in their classroom. The teacher used two cameras to film the presentation, so the students had to compare the footage from "Camera 1" and "Camera 2" in the Clip Browser and then select the best clip for the situation. Later the students added text and voice overs to clarify any points that weren't clear from the audio. Finally, they imported mp3's of the intros and outros that they composed in Garage Band. The project took five days to complete.

Google Docs, Word and the Reformation

The 7th grade Social Studies students did research about some key figures of the Reformation and saved their notes in their Google Docs account. From there, they used Word to create a newspaper article that reported on the accomplishments of these people. Students used floating text boxes, styles, and word art to complete their article. This assignment took four class periods.