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Handout
Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of Natural History: Ptarmigan

For Students 9th - 10th
This Smithsonian website has a brief, but thorough, article on the Ptarmigan. It also includes pictures and an extensive quote from 19th Century naturalist Edward Nelson.
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Handout
Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of Natural History: Wildlife Portfolio

For Students 9th - 10th
The Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center offers a portfolio of arctic animals. A page dedicated to each animal provides a physical description, personal observations of the animal in the wild, and several pictures.
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Handout
Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of the American Indian: Perspectives on Thanksgiving

For Students 4th - 8th
Excellent resource for educating students on the American Indian perspective on Thanksgiving using the themes of environment, community, encounters, and innovations. Includes images, quotes, classroom activity ideas, and links to related...
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Website
Smithsonian Institution

National Portrait Gallery: The Presidency and the Cold War: Harry Truman

For Students 9th - 10th
The National Portrait Gallery explores presidendtial actions in regard to the Cold War. Click on Harry Truman to see what actions and decisions he made during his term of office. Read about his meeting with Joseph Stalin at Potsdam, the...
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Website
Smithsonian Institution

National Portrait Gallery: The Presidency and the Cold War: John F. Kennedy

For Students 9th - 10th
The National Portait Gallery explores the actions of presidents during the Cold War. Here find President Kennedy's decisions during the Berlin Crisis, the building of the Berlin War, and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Watch a video of...
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Website
Smithsonian Institution

National Portrait Gallery: The Presidency and the Cold War: Richard M. Nixon

For Students 9th - 10th
The National Portrait Gallery explores the actions of presidents in regard to the Cold War. Read about the so-called anti-Communist warrior, Richard M. Nixon, and his opening of relations with Communist China. Watch Nixon's speech about...
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Website
Smithsonian Institution

National Portrait Gallery: George and Martha Washington

For Students 9th - 10th
The National Portrait Gallery provides this opportunity to view 12 portraits of George and Martha Washington from his Presidential years. Information of each portrait is available.
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Website
Smithsonian Institution

National Portrait Gallery: A Brush With History

For Students 9th - 10th
Exhibition of portraits of American heroes, statesmen, writers, artists, scientists, and historical figures draws on the paintings in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery to consider the story of America. View portraits from...
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Graphic
Smithsonian Institution

National Postal Museum: Roberto Clemente, Baseball Legend

For Students 9th - 10th
Great reference tool from the National Postal Museum online exhibits for learning about the life of legendary baseball star, Roberto Clemente, who was honored twice with a postage stamp in his memory. Includes images of memorabilia and...
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Website
Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of American History: Our Story: Life in a Sod House

For Students 3rd - 8th
Imagine moving into a house made out of sod that you and your family had to build in the middle of a prairie! Find great information and activities that will help you understand how it felt to live on the prairie.
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Website
Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of Natural History: Indigenous Saami in Northern Coastal Sweden

For Students 9th - 10th
The Saami people of Sweden are the focus of study for this Smithsonian research team. There are photos of Saami archaeological sites and descriptions of their cultural practices. Links for further research are provided.
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Website
Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of Natural History: Written in Bone: Forensic Files of the 17th Century Chesapeake

For Students 9th - 10th
This very thorough site will fascinate those interested in forensic anthropology. You will learn what you can read from bones, how a face can be reconstructed from a skull, clues you can read from a burial, and about forensic cases both...
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Website
Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian Environmental Research Center: Forces of Change:meet Your Atmosphere

For Students 9th - 10th
This superb site has detailed information about the composition of the atmosphere, how it is always changing, how it protects life on earth, and the destructive impact human activity has on it. There is an atmosphere design lab, as well...
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Handout
Smithsonian Institution

Lemelson Center: Percy Spencer: Microwave Inventor

For Students 9th - 10th
Read about the moment Percy Spencer discovered how microwaves heated objects. This discovery led to the invention of the microwave oven.
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Website
Smithsonian Institution

National Portrait Gallery: Black List Project: Governor Deval Patrick

For Students 9th - 10th
Making history as the first African American governor of Massachusetts, dip into a biography featuring Governor Deval Patrick.
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Website
Smithsonian Institution

Nat'l Portrait Gallery: Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African American Portraits

For Students 9th - 10th
This exhibition by National Portrait Gallery titled "Let Your Motto Be Resistance" presents photographs documenting notable African Americans and their contributions to American culture. The gallery of portraits offers an impressive...
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Website
Smithsonian Institution

Nat'l Portrait Gallery: Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African American Portraits

For Students 9th - 10th
Biographical portraits of African Americans involved in the struggle for civil rights and equality, from the time of Frederick Douglass forward. Learn about the contributions of Edmonia Lewis, Sojourner Truth, Edward Bannister, Octavius...
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Website
Smithsonian Institution

National Portrait Gallery: Inventing Marcel Duchamp:the Dynamics of Portraiture

For Students 9th - 10th
An exhibition delving into the life and works of one of the leading Dada artists, Marcel Duchamp. Includes examples of his alter-ego portraits and videos of interviews with the artist and with experts discussing his art. [Videos are...
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Website
Smithsonian Institution

National Portrait Gallery: Presidents in Waiting

For Students 9th - 10th
Exhibition of portraits of fourteen vice presidents who later became president tells the stories of their careers in pictures and words. Includes videos of taped interviews with four former vice presidents. [Exhibition opening: January...
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Website
Smithsonian Institution

National Portrait Gallery: Zaida Ben Yusuf: New York Portrait Photographer

For Students 9th - 10th
Exhibit documents the life and work of early twentieth-century New York portrait photographer Zaida Ben-Yusuf, who broke with many of the conventions of portraiture and, thereby, attracted the attention of prominent artistic, literary,...
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Website
Smithsonian Institution

National Portrait Gallery: Mathew Brady's Portraits

For Students 9th - 10th
Exhibition of photographic portraits taken by Civil War-era photographer Mathew Brady, who made portraits of many illustrious Americans on both sides of the conflict before, during, and after the war. Includes an animated explanation of...
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Website
Smithsonian Institution

National Portrait Gallery: Ballyhoo! Posters as Portraiture

For Students 9th - 10th
Visit an example-rich exploration of poster art and learn how famous faces have been used to convey meanings and messages across the decades. An excellent resource for discovering how art can be a window into a particular time, Ballyhoo!...
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Website
Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of Natural History: Paleobiology: The Burgess Shale

For Students 9th - 10th
This terrific site from the National Museum of Natural History gives general information about the Burgess Shale and the fossils found within. Use the links to go the Burgess Shale specimens page where there are drawings of many of the...
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Lesson Plan
Smithsonian Institution

Environmental Research Center: Forces of Change: Listening to the Prairie

For Teachers Pre-K - 1st
A large collection of lessons on prairie agriculture for Pre-K to Grade 12, organized into grade level groups. They cover such topics as foods that come from agriculture, animal farming, soils, and environmental issues. These lessons on...