Welcome to "Conquistadors," an Online Learning Adventure from PBS. This innovative educational resource has been created for middle and high school classrooms to learn about the Spanish Conquistadors in the New World and the legacy of their contact with Native Americans. There are extensive lesson plans for teachers and in-depth online content for students available in both English and Spanish. *Four units of study can be found on site--each relating to a different aspect of the Spanish Conquistadors in the New World. 1. Cortes and the Aztecs 2. Pizarro and the Incas 3.Orellana and the Amazon 4. Cabeza de Vaca

Students will use primary text and visual sources to recognize gender as a social construction and understand that those social constructions change over time. Students will write an essay summarizing the lesson.

Explore the geographic similarities and differences of the locations of the early river valley civilizations.

This resource provides facts, arguments, photos, video footage, etc. about the pros and cons of the Cuba Embargo; useful for teacher planning or student-friendly enough to use as a source for research.

The past is often neatly partitioned in time periods and eras with generalized names meant to characterize what life was like during that time. In this multi-day lesson, students question the validity of using ?Dark Ages? to describe Europe from the fall of the Roman Empire to the Renaissance. In the process, students examine a variety of primary and secondary sources highlighting different social, political, economic, cultural, and environmental facets of life in Europe during this period.

This article traces the history of government in Athens from the earliest kings to democracy. The article cites primary sources and explains the role of both Draco and Solon in the development of Athenian democracy.

Students will identify and explain factors that contributed to ethnic tensions and conflicts in Sri Lanka. They will watch a video clip related to the conflict in Sri Lanka and critically analyze texts to determine the characteristics of the author. Students will also use a Venn diagram to compare and contrast the war in Sri Lanka with another conflict previously studied.

In this lesson students will understand: 1.the social and political consequences of European expansion upon indigenous populations during the early modern period. 2. the development of a new economic system -- mercantilism -- and its impact upon the European and worldwide economy. 3. the cultural and political importance of establishing an empire for European monarchs. Would a monarch's authority be considered absolute without an empire?

In this Teaching with the News lesson students review an interactive timeline of events in Egypt over the past three years and identify core themes of recent Egyptian protest movements.

In this lesson, students will learn about seven of Egypt's most famous pharaohs. They will discuss leadership styles and draw conclusions about the success of each of these pharaohs. After learning about the personality and life of each pharaoh, students will break into groups to create in-depth projects about one of the seven pharaohs they have learned about and will teach others in the class about this leader. *This lesson is #4 in Egypt's Golden Empire.

The ability to express yourself well through writing and speaking are important skills that you will use throughout your life. We will be conducting historical inquiry and research while we develop these skills together. This way we will not simply be passive participants in absorbing information, but active participants in cooperatively learning how to process complex information to develop conclusions. We will typically do four projects involving short essays and one Topical Presentation project each nine weeks grading period. These will contain both individual and group components.

This guide provides commentary and discussion questions to be used in conjunction wtih a viewing of the 1982 film.

This article examines European exploration of the Pacific. Much of the European exploration of this region was inspired by two obsessions, the search for the fastest routes to the spice-rich islands of the Moluccas as well as the theory that somewhere in the South Pacific lay a vast undiscovered southern continent, possibly also rich in gold, spices, and other trade goods.

This resource is designed to assist students in understanding of the Eruopean explorers, who they were, what they did, and what impact they have on the modern world.  Students will watch brief biographgical videos from Bio.com and History.com about each explorer to complete the questions on the graphic organizer.

This article explains the period of discovery from the latter half of the fifteenth through the sixteenth centuries which is generally referred to as the Age of Exploration. It discusses important explorers and innovations during this historical period.

This article explains how European presence in the Islamic world was largely based on trade during the 1600s-1800s.

Allows students to use interactive maps to trace the development and spread of Islamic Empires.