Curated OER
Career Choices Are Changing
Third graders use magazine to find pictures of things that their grandparents did not have and make a display listing related careers to each picture. They discuss how the world has changed.
Curated OER
Meteorologists
Fourth graders investigate the work of a meteorologist and then take on the identity of one to make reports on clouds and temperature.
Curated OER
What's Your Style?
Fifth graders explore how different people have different styles of learning and which style of learning best suites them.
Curated OER
My Academic Goals
Middle schoolers investigate academic goals and how they lead to career choices. They conduct interviews and complete worksheets, and discuss the issues.
Unite for Literacy
Unite for Literacy: Community: People at Work
Learn the names of some jobs that people do. Includes audio narration in 10 additional languages with text in English.
Online Learning Haven
Online Learning Haven: Community Helpers
Explains what a community helper is and the types of helpers in a community. Best used by the teacher during discussion with students.
US Department of Labor
Bureau of Labor Statistics: Social Workers
Describes a day in the life of a social worker. Include info on education requirements and expected earnings.
The Newberry Library
Newberry Library: Workers and Reformers in Turn of the Century Chicago
Learning with primary resources examines the plight of workers during the late 18th and early 19th centuries and compares the perspective of sociologists to that of writers like Upton Sinclair.
Royal British Colombia Museum (Canada)
Italians in British Columbia
The Royal British Columbia Museum discusses the role that Italians played in shaping the province. Italian workers were instrumental with the gold rush, with coal mines and with the construction of the railroad. The Italian Community...
Other
Lincoln Bicentennial Teacher Network: Northern Factory Workers [Pdf]
An information page on the rise of factory labor as the Industrial Revolution took hold in the North.
PBS
Art21: Pepon Osorio
Osorio's work stems from his experiences as a social worker in New York City. His large scale sculptures and installations are his way to "return art to the community."
Virtual Museum of Canada
Virtual Museum of Canada: Community Stories: Millertown 1900 Men Horses Oxen Steam
The founding and development of Millertown in central Newfoundland is profiled. One man's vision created this logging town in the wilderness. Archival photographs and documents are included
Read Works
Read Works: Friendly Faces
[Free Registration/Login Required] An informational text about adult helpers in our community including: a police officer, a doctor, a firefighter, a teacher, and a construction worker. A question sheet is available to help students...
Scholastic
Scholastic: Listen and Read: Librarian
Listen to and read about librarians and the roles they fulfill in local communities.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: The Unsung History Makers: Maria Moreno
In this interactive lesson, use primary and secondary sources such as video and audio to unravel the mystery of Maria Moreno, a woman who fought for farm labor rights before Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta formed the United Farm Workers....
PBS
Pbs: Boulder City
Companion page to the documentary on the Boulder City, a planned city in the middle of the desert.
Other
Bringing History Home: The Progressive Era
In this 4th grade unit, students study how citizens and government of the early 20th century sought solutions to problems that accompanied immigration and industrialization. By focusing on child labor, factory working conditions and...
Other
Biz Kids: Break the Bank
In this interactive game, you are a worker at a community bank, helping customers get good loans and save for their future. However, the terrible Mr. Boar and his clerks from a payday loan company have infiltrated your bank! Rally the...
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: A Peep for All Seasons
Support your Economics or History curriculum with this video that introduces students to Just Born, a candy manufacturer in Pennsylvania that is adapting its seasonal business model to changing times. Then, use the accompanying lesson...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: Getting to Know You
The students will go on an in-school scavenger hunt to get to know the many kinds of people that make up an elementary school community. They will work in small groups and use digital cameras to take pictures of the workers they find. By...
PBS
The Sixth Section
Site is a companion piece to a PBS special on a group of Mexican immigrants who live and work in America but send their money back home to Mexico.
Other
Indian Americans Top Census Chart Among Asian Americans
Short article discusses the census findings for the Indian-Americans. "One obvious factor for the growth in the Indian-American community is the importing of hi-tech workers."
Curated OER
Unesco: United Kingdom: Blaenavon Industrial Landscape
The area around Blaenavon is evidence of the pre-eminence of South Wales as the world's major producer of iron and coal in the 19th century. All the necessary elements can still be seen - coal and ore mines, quarries, a primitive railway...
Curated OER
Unesco: United Kingdom: New Lanark
New Lanark is a small 18th- century village set in a sublime Scottish landscape where the philanthropist and Utopian idealist Robert Owen moulded a model industrial community in the early 19th century. The imposing cotton mill buildings,...