Education Blog
New resources and ideas are added monthly
Find videos, activities and lesson plans to nurture curiosity and spark the discovery of history! This content can be used in the classroom or at home to keep students engaged and active. You can conveniently browse them by topic and/or grade level.
Ohio Village Virtual Field Trip is an interactive online experience that explores life during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Through this virtual field trip students help different Ohio Village characters achieve their mission. Characters in the experience represent people of different backgrounds and lived experiences of the time.
Learn more about dermestid, or flesh-eating beetles, from our curator Dave, and see how these insects help clean animal bones for display or study.
Join archaeologist Krista to learn about Ohio’s historic cemeteries and gravestones! Learn how to read a gravestone for information about the person buried there, and find out where you can visit a historic cemetery near you. Interested in checking out a cemetery near you? Pay close attention to Krista’s instructions on using the “mirror effect” to read the carvings on a worn or weathered stone. Then find an historic cemetery near you to investigate some headstones!
Learn about the history and chemistry of Soda Bread!
Ohio has a rich history stretching back thousands of years, and it is all in your backyard! Pick an Ohio Historical Marker about a historical person, place or event in your county and be ready to learn more about what makes Ohio so historic!
Learn about the variety of ways museums tell stories through exhibits. Discover the different tools exhibit designers use to tell stories as you visit a few exhibits at the Ohio History Center. Then check out the activity Using Dioramas to Tell Stories to guide you as you make your own diorama.
Chronicling America is an amazing tool for bringing history to life in the classroom and at home, helping students and families explore primary sources and connect with the past in a meaningful, engaging way. Check this video to learn how to use this great free online resource from the Library of Congress.
Join Dave, a natural history curator, and learn all about the giant animals that roamed Ohio during the Ice Age. Discover how these animals lived, and hear about a few ways our natural history curators learn information about these extinct animals, like from the fossils they left behind!
This crossword is all about John Glenn’s space travels. Once you complete it, check the Answer Key.
Learn the captivating story of John Parker. Parker, a former enslaved person, bought his freedom and settled in Ripley, Ohio, where he was a business owner, as well as a conductor on the Underground Railroad. Join Mr. Parker as he shares stories of his time in slavery as well as his clandestine adventures.
LGBTQ+ history is a key part of Ohio’s story but is often underrepresented in scholarship and research. Ohio History Day and the Ohio History Connection are committed to sharing the colorful histories, viewpoints, and stories of the LGBTQ+ community. We invite you to join us in elevating the stories and history of the LBGTQ+ community in Ohio and beyond.
New resources and ideas are added monthly
This year, we’re continuing our tradition of posting resources you can use to bring Latino and Hispanic stories to your classroom. First, just a reminder because definitions are important. Hispanic generally refers to people, cultures, or languages related to Spain or Spanish-speaking countries. Latino refers to people with origins in Latin America, which includes countries in […]
Welcome back to school, fellow history educators! As you're stocking up on hand sanitizer and wondering if this is the year you'll finally remember all your students' names by October, you face that perennial challenge of transforming a collection of disparate young minds into a community of engaged learners. But that’s not new. In fact, […]
Thirty middle schoolers are huddled in groups, passionately debating whether their new island nation should have a unicameral or bicameral legislature. One student jumps up—"But wait! If we only have one house, what happens when they all agree on something terrible?" Another counters, "That's why we need the judges to serve for life!" A third […]
Picture this: It's Monday morning. In Classroom 101, students mechanically complete worksheet problems about biology, occasionally glancing at the clock in boredom. In Classroom 102, those same math problems have been transformed into a quest to save an endangered species, complete with points, badges, and a compelling narrative. The content is identical, but the learning […]
Special thanks to our guest contributor Mason Farr at the National Veterans Memorial and Museum for bringing the expertise of NVMM to this month's blog. In 1999, the late-senator and U.S. Navy Veteran, John McCain, spearheaded legislation to establish May as National Military Appreciation Month. Since then, the entire month of May has become a […]
Special thanks to intern Jessie Tudor-Tangeman for writing this month's blog. Did you know that Ohio was once the home of the first female doctor in the United States? Or that Toledo, Ohio was the location for one of the first female African American owned pharmacies in the nation? Would it surprise you to know […]