So many what-if scenarios come to light: What if the Soviets' moon program had worked? What if Buran had not been canceled? If the USSR hadn't disintegrated, would the race still be going?

Thank you so much for the activities- although I wish I could print the Who am I game. Thank you for the teacher's manual and the interesting way you have put the info together! Awesome!

An incredible wealth of information and additional resources is available at George Washington, A National Treasure. This site includes background information, primary source material, interactive portraits, time lines, games, reenactments, and lesson ideas for multiple grade levels. This resource is the next best thing to a time machine.

The diary entries added a new dimension to our studies of flight. Will definitely be using this site again.

This is an excellent and valuable resource! I have enjoyed sharing these authentic and original sources with my children when learning about and discussing important events that have occurred in history. I much prefer that they have the opportunity to view an authentic primary source and am thankful that the Smithsonian has made this possible.

I have used the unit resources as part of a civil rights elective, and they are fabulous. You can pick and choose what you use, and the documents and questions can be scaled for use with different age groups. I highly recommend downloading the teacher resource guide!

I would like to use this lesson plan as a guide in my art education class at Coastal Carolina University, All materials will be cited in my presentation. Thank you.

Throughout the museum, American Indians kept mentioning that they were happy to have survived. American Indian culture is one we will never fully be able to recover, but with the foresight of people like Jim Schoppert we are able to enjoy and learn from some of the things that survive. I love this museum as a whole and really encourage people to visit. One video mentions that in creating the museum, they become a history like every other history...respect it...argue with it. That helped me to be aware of the significance of what I was experiencing. Excellent.

I need information for my students.

The aircraft featured are different, not the typical fare. Students and teachers will find this useful and interesting. I would use it every time I visit!

This resource is excellent for teaching women's American history by offering photographs of significant American women. The photographs are powerful and tell much about each of the subjects they reflect. I used this as part of a women's history project with my students. I recommend it highly!

I will be teaching this this year as part of my American History class and I loved this resource. Sometimes it is hard to find a large collection of information, this not only has a large collection, but it's all so easily accessible. Thank you!

The civil war was an important time in America. This Smithsonian book captures that time period well in a user friendly version. It provides real accounts and useful resources for those interested in learning more.

This is like heaven to a civil war researcher/teacher. It has everything you need to teach and research the War Between the States.

This is a great resource filled with primary source documents!

Very adaptable to different authors if you choose not to do these two. Good resources within the resource :) User-friendly...will definitely use!

I thought this lesson would be a fun way to introduce two wonderful authors to students. It also incorporates art and writing and has great extension activities. Easy to use and very informative.

This easy to view exhibit includes artistic photos that tell a story of optimistic people - culture, customs, traditions, myths and rituals. The written descriptions communicate respect and appreciation for the beauty and power of the land and its people.

The combination of photographic art, vocabulary and storytelling lends an understanding for communicating thought in many forms.

The sepia pictures show a realistic view of both the beauty and hardship of Mexico. The legends as well as pictures express far more than words alone can to explain the history of this area. I especially enjoyed the information about the rituals and festivals, especially "The Path of the Alligator".

After working with Mixtec migrant workers and their families, I finally understand them a little better. I love the photography along with the history of the cultures that live there and practice their spiritual beliefs in this area. I love that the Smithsonian keeps exhibits such as this online. I feel that all ages can appreciate this resource.

Great online introduction for students to use on learning about GPS technology, could be a great resource to utilize on a internet scavenger hunt or a web quest.

GPS: A New Constellation provides a very good introduction to the GPS system. It does a good job of explaining the need for GPS, a basic explanation of how the system works and its applications. The language is non-technical and this would make it easier for the general population to understand.

Looks like a great resource for Presidential profile projects and for covering the Early Republic period.

This is a great resource. I will use this information as a resource for my students to use. The goal of the assignment is to recognize the presidents and better understand their personalities in order to better understand the decisions they made concerning foreign policy.

Teaches you about our Presidents in an informative, wonderful way.

As a homeschooling parent, I am always on the lookout for additional resources for educating my children. Our focus for this year is early American History. I have found this website to be an excellent 'first stop' in my search. When I followed the links, I found wonderful curriculum and resources to use with my children.

Never has there been a more important time than now to represent women in American history. Women have changed the course of time and their achievements are highlighted in this book. The book is easy to read and understand and provides a celebratory look at the change of history in the hands of women.

I am a home-schooled student (13 years old) and I think this resource is a wonderful introduction to famous women. It really gives a great overview of the lives of many amazing women and the "click and see" format is more fun than just plain text. A "scavenger hunt" at the museum to find some of the paintings viewed online is a good way to continue the learning. It would also be great for Girl Scouts because many of the badges and awards encourage learning about good women role models.

I homeschool my 7th grade daughter, and she enjoyed the scavenger hunt style of this worksheet. It is a great celebration of women during National Women's month. Also, we plan to visit the National Portrait Gallery next week so that she can see the works of art live and in person.

I can't wait to use these when we get back into Space again! The pics pop! The colors will hold the kids attention and the info is so much better than just a plain old text book! Thank you!

I am going to use this resource to give my students a better understanding of the goals and challenges of the Apollo missions to the Moon. This will be used in our celebration of the 50th anniversary of NASA.

I found this site to add something to our study of space. It was interesting to look at after seeing the movie "Fly Me to the Moon" and "Apollo 13."

I am anxious to do this again with my students. With budget restraints and being several hundred miles away this was a awesome way of taking my student there without the cost or headache.

This is such a great opportunity! Imagine your students being able to have a tour of this wonderful museum, right from their classroom.

I was able to visit this museum as a child and it made a lasting impression on me.

What an amazing tool to use when teaching about space and planets. My kids loved and I mean LOVED all of the great pictures. It was amazing to see them “ooohh” and “aahhh” and say “come look, you have to see this one” to get them so enthusiastic about learning is such a wonderful thing. Thank you Smithsonian for all of the wonderful resources you’ve made available to us! It allows us to teach our kids in such a way that brings the subject alive and it makes learning fun. Thank you. In case you couldn’t tell I highly recommend this to enhance their learning of planets and space.

This resource is great! I have taken my class to the Air and Space Museum and we participated in this tour and he kids LOVED it! I have used some of the related resources with my 6th graders before we went on the field trip and they are really helpful. These resources are particularly good because you can modify them to match what you are doing with your class (no matter the grade).

This sight is great if you love WW 1&2 and/or American Indian history. The site is full of information with pictures, maps, and diagrams to accompany the text. There are many places in the site to read or hear some examples of "code talking" or other words in Comanche & Navajo. There are also easy-to-use lesson plans if you want to use the site in a class room. As a student, I'll definitely look at the site more than once!

To fully appreciate the role of the Indians in military services one must understand the unique contributions they have made through language. The strength of the very core of the Indian culture is edified in this work. This strength was a major contribution to the wars as well as preservation of their own culture. This is a great work that is important for students from Middle grades to College level studies. I hope you will consider this work for your classes as well as for your personal enjoyment and appreciation of the strength and beauty of the Native American peoples.

My daughter thoroughly enjoyed this lesson on Ben Franklin and is waiting for the next storm to move through. lol. But in all honesty, this not only explains his beliefs and ideas but him as a person. It makes children and/or adults realize that he was just a person too. To quote Mr. Franklin "One day Mr. Franklin was asked why he failed 2000 tries to make a light bulb? He told this gentleman that he hadn't failed, he had just learned 2000 ways not to make a light bulb." Ben Franklin is a very important and a highlight of American History and should be discussed more in a classroom setting to give him the character that he deserves.

I am always looking for ways to provide cross curricular activities, and this is one that provides great activities! I love the static electricity one, very simply to do with easy to find materials.

I have always been fascinated by Ben Franklin. This lesson illustrates the depth and breadth of his interests and accomplishments. I liked the lesson with the portraits of Franklin's friends. I would love to have the students draw a portrait of themselves and include objects that emphasize their interests. The lesson about static electricity is very effective, and I found it very effective to set up different stations in the room to show how electricity can be created. This is a lesson which I will continue to incorporate into my thematic unit on Franklin for many years.

I really liked this resource as a way to introduce students to a part of history where there were a lot of changes going on. I am a language arts teacher and find all of the Smithsonian (not art to zoo) to have great handouts that can go straight to students. Usually, with Art to Zoo publications I have to make some changes b/c it is all written for a teachers resource. That is what is so great about the Smithsonian in you Classroom resources there is always a place to fit them into a discussion b/c you have the handout.

An excellent resource; using a 'familiar' face to encourage students to learn about and consider changes in Lincoln and the nation as a whole. Idea of image of president - as branding - very good; students can consider this tool as it's used even today. Well laid out; plenty of background; should be interesting to all.

Thank you.

My students used this resource in conjunction with social studies and science. They loved the hands on experience that this project allowed and made something boring to them fun.

I will be also teaching this as a 4H lesson. Thank you for putting all of this together in one place. I will be coupling this lesson with the book Dust Bowl. Thanks!!

Excellent resource, fast and easy to demonstrate, clear results. As a further extension (if time permits), also demonstrate using another box with grass (live grass, not clippings) since many farmers now plant certain grasses or clovers while the ground "rests."

This nifty website presents novel, expansive material on a more obscure historical topic. Expansive in breadth, but not so detailed that the student's eyes gloss over. However, more than enough detail and activities to form a solid basis for further research.
I withhold one star because the website turned out to be a tad confusing to navigate solo.
I often tutor students in the 3rd grade to high school range in creative writing and critical reading. One of my biggest challenges has always been simply sparking these kids' desire to read, think, imagine and write! This website is another tool that has been carefully bookmarked.

Although not attending the Smithsonian this worksheet gave me terrific ideas of activities to do with children in the lead up to our museum excursion that is also based on cultural diversity and anthropology.

This packet is wonderful for all ages to not only reflect on who they are but to build cultural understanding among groups. The lessons are short and are not reliant on higher level reading. Easy to implement yet potentially very powerful. Great tool for teachers to learn a lot about the students.

Comprehensive and fun to explore, this site has information that even got a second grader naturally memorizing advanced space science vocabulary and concepts. I love the depth here and that it goes for all grade levels by drawing the student in. I do wish that the interactive games in the activities section would work though.

I liked the way in which the website separates all major topics into different pages and supplements the facts with images to make learning and understanding easy. The comparison of planets has been done in a way that a student can understand the subtle differences between the planets which make them different from the earth we live in.

This is a very educational site, very impressive. I believe it is very important for everyone no matter what their age to know about the planet we live on as well as those that surround us, There is a lot we can learn from them.

The Mask of Lincoln is a wonderful resource to be used in the classroom as a supplement or as its own lesson. Through the use of the posters and provided educational information your students will learn whom the 16th president really was. It is amazing to view President Lincoln in his many roles and to understand his mental psyche when engaged in war, redrawing the United States, and much more. My students enjoyed the pictures in this resource as it brought to life a very important figure every American is familiar with but does not know more than the basics. It is wonderful to be able to feel closer to a great man whom helped shape the future we are living in today.

This online resource seems to be filled with very well thought out and insightful information regarding Lincoln the man, his administration and other interesting facts as well.

The guide was very organized, simple to understand and follow. It not only gave a good look into the Wolastoqewiyik culture in Canada, but also helps the student understand common ground between them and other cultures. Very well rounded unit.

Love this site.

Though this poster is designed to go along with a visit to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, it has activities that can be used in the classroom to teach the laws of flight. All of the activities only use simple and cheap materials that you have in the classroom. Can be easily incorporated into a unit on motion into a one or two day investigation on flight.

As an educator who spends a lot of time trying to blend hands on with teaching core classes, this was an awesome book to use and have as a resource.

The National Postal Museum's Postal Pack for Students is a great resource that I have used for the first time this year with my small group Language Arts class. We were learning about friendly letter writing and were able to talk about the postal process during our unit thanks to the great resource provided to me by the Postal Museum. The kids loved having a packet of their own to complete as we learned about the mail system!

Loved this program for our students. We had a range in age groups from K - 6th grade, and our group was divided and give an age-appropriate tour that was interesting, interactive and kept a great pace. Jeff Meade is wonderful, and his staff very accommodating to our requests for specific targeted topics, too (e.g. relevant to American Girl Kirsten and her story.) Field trip home run with students and teachers alike.

As a homeschool educator for over 20 years now, I have always catered each of my children's educations to their specific interests. When I found this site, it was like finding gold! I clicked on http://folkways.si.edu/magazine/index.aspx and from there, went to the link here http://folklife.si.edu/ What a wonderful resource!!! We are interested in learning more about WW2, so I clicked on the link there. I had no idea of the wide variety of songs popular during that time...songs that rallied the troops, encouraged patriotism, and songs that show us the heritage of that era. I can't wait to share this with my music-loving high school senior!

I am part Chinese and my Chinese grandparents died when I was too young to ask questions. This will help me.

This site had so much information to use so. I picked Discovering Our Delta about the Mississippi Delta (Mississippi and Louisiana) This resource had so many tools for all age groups. I would use this for 4th grade through college students learning about cultural history and art. There were so many ideas to better understand a culture and be able to appreciate that and your own.Cooking Methods of the Delta and Folk art were very interesting. So much can be applied to a learning environment. These ideas can be used in Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts too.

This article provides a clear and concise history of the Mayan civilization and its decedents. I work in a school that uses the Student Enrichment Model (SEM), where students chose a grade appropriate history topic and extend their learning and understanding of that topic. Essentially, the students drive their instruction but the teacher helps facilitate their learning. In my SEM group, that focuses on Latin American Civilizations, I would use this resource as a research tool for my students. Based on questions they have developed, they would research this publication and answer their questions. This "webquest" will guide them in the culminating project (an essay, a research paper, an art base project, etc.) This publication also provides an integral link between the past and the present by providing information about the current decedents of the Mayans, a topic which is rarely discussed in elementary history books.

This article was very informative. It talked about the past and the present. It follows the Sna Jtz'ibajom production company in their strive for equality for their people, the Mayans. While the text was a little jumpy at times the over all effect was very good. I especially liked the plays that were added in, that showcase the point in modern times.

A wonderful treasure trove of information at the click of a mouse. A very user friendly site. A great starting point for any first time visitor.

It was so easy to navigate from the Visitor Information and Associates Reception Center ! In searching for material for teaching, as well as Zoos near us that participate in FONZ, I was surprised and glad to find many zoos in our circumference network that do participate, making joining the FONZ program even better. With the web sites listed for each Zoo, we can plan ahead, making our next trip to the zoo informed and in essence, better planned. All pointing to a better educational experience !

This resource really demonstrates the power of the post. Uses will understand how the postal service in America has been woven throughout our history. The quality of the material is excellent. Well organized.