Great Social Studies Apps and Websites

Daily news stories and supplements keep elementary schoolers current

Bottom Line: This highly useful current events platform can be a daily fixture of elementary school classrooms.

Weekly newspaper makes current events accessible to all

Bottom Line: This a pricey tool but it's packed with a school year's worth of content and handy accessibility features.

Bring real-world stories from public radio into the classroom

Bottom Line: A fantastic resource that brings both historical and current event public radio stories into the classroom.

Easy access to news, but most content is available only to subscribers

Bottom Line: Provides an easy-to-use news resource, but only section front pages are accessible without a subscription.

Illuminating, up-close-and-personal visit to the U.S.-Mexico border

Bottom Line: As a truly unique resource that's worth using, teachers will need to create lessons that scaffold students' understanding of the complex issues found within.

Trusty podcast app has quality content but lacks learning supports

Bottom Line: An enticing free option for connecting current events to content through podcasts, but student engagement hinges on how you incorporate it.

Students become foreign policy experts in this real-world simulation

Bottom Line: This impressive program has ready-to-use and expert-vetted content that'll help advanced students engage meaningfully with foreign policy issues and processes.

Dazzling globe-trotting tool has endless classroom applications

Bottom Line: This tool defines engagement and offers a completely open-ended experience perfect for use across the educational spectrum.

Visually stunning 3-D globe piques students' interest in world facts

Bottom Line: Dive right in to world geography with a beautiful, interactive globe full of narratives and photos of different cultures and traditions.

A whole world of facts, maps, and fun waiting to be stacked

Bottom Line: Kids learn about the world through easy-to-use flashcards and exciting stacking games.

Geography trivia game balances facts and fun

Bottom Line: This is a clear go-to if you're looking to help students memorize state locations, shapes, capitals, history, and more.

Explore the world with an incredible new perspective and sense of scale

Bottom Line: An amazing experience that brings the world to life, despite the heavy investment in VR required.

Tap into students' inner archaeologists as they discover Ancient Egypt

Bottom Line: Students can experience some of Egypt's most famous pyramids and tombs while learning more about the life of Ancient Egyptians.

Explore homes -- and cultures -- around the world in exquisite detail

Bottom Line: Offers a delightful and accessible way for kids to learn about the world's cultures.

Thought-provoking classroom resources support diversity education

Bottom Line: It's an invaluable teacher tool to help reduce prejudice and encourage tolerance in schools, as well as within society as a whole.

Kids travel the world, cultivate global curiosity and responsibility

Bottom Line: Kids get a sense of culture and global responsibility via kid-friendly articles and great multimedia.

Give students global perspective with pen pal projects in any subject

Bottom Line: This is a thoughtful, ready-to-go platform that facilitates authentic and safe cross-cultural collaboration.

A wealth of resources explore racism, prejudice, and anti-Semitism

Bottom Line: These valuable materials empower students to understand and address difficult ethical choices -- past and present.

Captivating, cross-curricular stories increase cultural awareness

Bottom Line: Teachers looking to enrich their curriculum with high-quality, thought-provoking videos and photos will find plenty of inspiration, but may need to create or fine-tune some lessons.

Dynamic interactive helps classrooms explore topics of bias, diversity

Bottom Line: A fascinating way to address how communities become segregated due to individual bias.

Powerful stories and media centralize African-American history

Bottom Line: While there aren't ready-to-go curricular materials, this modern, well-curated, and well-contextualized digital collection is sure to inspire compelling lessons.

Extensive humanities resource offers deep well of great content

Bottom Line: The National Endowment for the Humanities has put together an outstanding place for art, history, language, and literature.

Organized digital library features piles of useful primary resources

Bottom Line: DPLA is at the top of the list of high-grade, online primary source collections if teachers make effective use of what's on offer.

Site famous for its Lincoln assassination resources has more to offer

Bottom Line: This site can support meaningful, primary source-driven examination of some of the most important events in U.S. history, but educators will need to dig a little.

In-depth, interdisciplinary lessons crank up the learning

Bottom Line: This site's materials have the potential to supplement, augment, or even replace favorite units of study, once teachers dig into and master what's offered.

Well-curated art and history site inspires curious learning

Bottom Line: A beautifully presented one-stop shop for compellingly curated and contextualized art, history, and culture resources, but it's lacking educator supports.

Explore survivor testimony with lessons, video on teacher-geared site

Bottom Line: IWitness allows students to reflect upon the past, looking toward today’s values and society. Students build knowledge about the past using a dynamic, specific tool.

High-quality resources and activities offer an in-depth study

Bottom Line: Materials and activities support a thorough study of World War II, making this a valuable resource for both teachers and students.

Philosophy podcast makes heady concepts accessible

Bottom Line: These philosophy podcasts and videos offer entertaining introductions to key concepts and thinkers, but require some smart lesson planning for deeper learning.

Browse and use American history artifacts and activities

Bottom Line: This is a handy resource that, with some effort, will uncover resources for kick-starting curious learning.

Access U.S. history with treasure trove of docs, genealogy, and other resources

Bottom Line: NARA's website wasn't designed for kids, but they can definitely use it to research and learn about history, genealogy, and the U.S. population and government.

Civics website makes teaching the Constitution manageable, meaningful

Bottom Line: Go for the videos, stay for the lessons: Annenberg Classroom saves teachers' prep time when teaching the Constitution, current events, or other civics lessons.

Well-designed games, lessons can spice up your civics curriculum

Bottom Line: This game-based curriculum would be an excellent addition to any secondary social studies.

Resources, lessons help teach a more inclusive version of U.S. history

Bottom Line: Free downloadable resources encourage critical thinking and active learning in search of a more accurate picture of American history.

Superb, timely civics lessons focus on social media and student voice

Bottom Line: For teachers looking to make civics relevant to students, there's nothing else out there as extensive or relevant.

A terrific, troll-free zone for structuring student discussion and debate

Bottom Line: A valuable platform for students to learn about social and political issues while practicing digital citizenship and argumentation.

Journalistic history site helps students analyze primary sources

Bottom Line: This is a strong resource for showing the power of journalism and research, and it'll engage most students; others will need teacher support.

LA riot videos shake up dominant narrative

Bottom Line: This artful re-examination of the '92 LA riot can offer new insights and diverse perspectives, if students don't get too lost in the design.

Sifts through daily news content to offer a deep dive on hot topics

Bottom Line: Sift can supplement students' study of a few hot-button topics -- and open up a conversation about media balance -- but it's lacking some learner supports.

Build timelines, embed media with cool storytelling tool

Bottom Line: With a super-simple design and tons of flexible features, this is an appealing and intuitive way for teachers and students to organize and share class content.

Create eye-catching multimedia timelines for any purpose

Bottom Line: Multimedia timelines connect events visually, creating pathways for deeper analysis of any chronological story.

Simple timeline creator could use more features and options

Bottom Line: An easy to use timeline tool for one-off projects, but for sustained use teachers will need to upgrade, and ultimately the features might not be robust enough.