In this lesson, students will learn about Celia Cruz and the use of objects to discuss people. They will understand how artifacts can help us understand people in the past.

In this resource, students will explain the influence of the target culture perspectives on products and practices Additionally, students will learn that Celia Cruz was a Cuban singer who became an influential and legendary musical figure around the world.

In this activity, students listen to a historical narrative and analyze other supporting primary sources in order to answer a series of questions about Louisa Susannah Wells and her experiences.

In this lesson, students work in teams of two, and each team completes two separate experiments demonstrating random genetic drift and natural selection.

Students will learn about Middle Eastern music, its transformations in the United States, and basic forms of belly dance movement. This lesson examines belly dance music, performed by Lebanese-American musician George Abdo, an example of music in Arab American communities during the 1970s.

Working with a teacher, students will recreate some of the electrical experiments originally performed by Benjamin Franklin between 1746 and 1754. These hands-on experiments highlight Franklin's innovative contributions to science and government. Visitors will experience static electricity and may receive an exciting but harmless electric shock.

Students can learn about African-Americans and how they have been represented on stamps over the history of the United States. This is a resource from the Smithsonian Postal Museum and it addresses the culture of the United States.

These porcelains from the collections of the Freer Gallery are part of a 1,500-year-old tradition of making porcelains in Jingdezhen, China. Porcelain production during the Kangxi period (1662–1722) expanded China’s export trade with Europe, sparked the Chinamania craze in the nineteenth century, and bolstered the East-West exchange that endures to this day.

The Smithsonian 3D Program is a small group of technologists working within the Smithsonian Institution's Digitization Program Office. We focus on developing solutions to further the Smithsonian's mission of “the increase and diffusion of knowledge” through the use of three-dimensional scanning technology, analysis tools, and our distribution platform.

This work is already transforming core functions of our museums. Researchers in the field can now come back not only with specimens, but also 3D data documenting entire sites. Curators and educators are using 3D data as the basis for telling stories and sending students on quests of discovery. Conservators are using 3D data to track the condition of a collection item over time using 3D deviation analysis tools, showing exactly what changes have occurred to an object.

Students will be introduced to American Bluegrass music and Appalachian songs through singing,
listening and conversation. A number of songs will be compared leading to a conversation on the
characteristics of Traditional American music.

Students will exercise critical listening, singing, dancing, and playing instruments to traditional music of Bolivia. They will improvise rhythms, compose a song, and draw connections across a wide variety of disciplines.

In this lesson, students use primary sources to answer the essential question: Was the bracero program an exploitation of or an opportunity for Mexican laborers? Students will justify their answer with evidence from the analysis of the primary sources.

In this classroom activity, students will create posters that will help them identify the role of Howard University as an African American cultural center, the emergence of black lawyers as civil rights leaders, the importance of the NAACP and the roles of Charles Hamilton Houston and Thurgood Marshall. This lesson accompanies the online exhibition entitled Separate is Not Equal: Brown v. Board of Education.

In this classroom activity, students will research to gather information in order to create a radio broadcast about the five court cases that made up Brown v. Board of Education, and tell the stories of the African Americans from different walks of like who demanded better educational opportunities for their children. This lesson is part of the online exhibition entitled Separate is Not Equal: Brown v. Board of Education.

In this classroom activity, students will identify the purpose and goals of education in American society and explain why African Americans chose to challenge segregated education in their quest for equality. This lesson is part of the online exhibition entitled Separate is Not Equal: Brown v. Board of Education.

Students will create a model aquatic ecosystem and make regular observations over a period of time. They will also work collaboratively to conduct research on common ocean health issues and summarize their findings in a written report.

Students will attempt to build a sod house by making choices regarding the construction of their house. Too many wrong answers and the house will collapse! This engaging and lighthearted activity will help students understand the challenges settlers faced while trying to survive on the open prairie.

Students will conduct research via a webquest and then write about what it means to be an ocean explorer, both modern and historic.

Students will research and evaluate an environmental issue, considering multiple perspectives and historical precedent. Using the provided list, they will select an issue that is of particular interest to them, research its components, and develop a blog post, podcast, or presentation that aims to educate other students about the issue at hand.

Students will design a robotic arm that could be attached to an underwater ROV to collect deep sea corals. In constructing the robotic arm, students will investigate the structure and range of motion of the human arm and how simple machines can be combined to mimic these movements. The lesson also reviews mechanical advantage. Students will work in collaborative groups and present their designs to the rest of the class.