Farmers in the years before World War I faced thoroughly modern economic …
Farmers in the years before World War I faced thoroughly modern economic stresses and labor conflicts as the scale of their enterprises increased. By World War I, Midwestern and Great Plains farmers had come to rely on large pools of seasonal migrant labor, mostly unemployed urban workers from Chicago and other Midwestern cities, to harvest wheat or corn. Workers faced long hours and low wages, isolated in temporary camps without permanent homes or meeting places. The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) union attempted to organize these "harvest stiffs." The radical "Wobblies" argued that wheat farmers were businessmen in a protected industry who, thanks to wartime government price supports, reaped large profits and returned none of that wealth to those who actually harvested their crop. E. F. Doree, an IWW organizer, described in detail the difficult conditions migrants faced and mocked the idea of rural work as wholesome and benevolent with the famous joke that in the wheat states, the "eight-hour work day" prevailed--"eight hours in the forenoon, eight hours in the afternoon."
Working people agitated for several decades, beginning most actively in the 1880s, …
Working people agitated for several decades, beginning most actively in the 1880s, for laws that would limit the standard work day to eight hours. This eight-hour day" movement achieved a major victory when Congress passed the Adamson Act in 1916. The Adamson Act specified an eight-hour workday (with additional pay for overtime labor) for railroad workers
This course covers the role of physics and physicists during the 20th …
This course covers the role of physics and physicists during the 20th century, focusing on Einstein, Oppenheimer, and Feynman. Beyond just covering the scientific developments, institutional, cultural, and political contexts will also be examined.
This educator endured hardships and injustice to lift up Native and non-Native …
This educator endured hardships and injustice to lift up Native and non-Native people through her generosity and guidance.
Resources available for exploring this story include: - A short animated video with captions and transcripts in English and Spanish - A short biography book accessible as a slide deck, with per-page audio for listening along, and maps of key locations in the story - Questions that can be used for conversation, reflection, and connection with the story - A historical image gallery full of primary and secondary sources to explore - A guide for activating the media with learners that includes story stats, extension activity ideas, and standards supported
This story is part of Wisconsin Biographies, a collection of educational media resources for grades 3-6. Explore the full collection at pbswisconsineducation.org/biographies.
Voting for the right person to represent us in government to make …
Voting for the right person to represent us in government to make policies we feel are the right ones is an important decision! In this lesson, students will consider important qualities when choosing a representative. Using a variety of sources, students will evaluate strengths of supporting evidence to answer the question, "What qualities are important in an elected representative?"
Be it suspicion of voter fraud, fear of hackers or the general …
Be it suspicion of voter fraud, fear of hackers or the general belief that something is amiss, legislators across the country have passed election laws designed to make our elections more secure. Those very same laws are widely criticized for making voting less accessible, especially to certain voting groups. So how insecure are our elections? What do election security laws really do? What is the best way to feel better about the state of elections in this country?
Our guests are Jessica Huseman, Editorial Director of Votebeat and Justin Levitt, constitutional law professor and newly appointed White House Senior Policy Advisor for Democracy and Voting Rights.
This collection uses primary sources to explore the introduction of electric power …
This collection uses primary sources to explore the introduction of electric power to the United States. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.
Description: Introduction to the science of Earth's climate system, the consequences of …
Description: Introduction to the science of Earth's climate system, the consequences of future climate on Earth, strategies for how to minimize the effects of and adapt to a changing climate.
A learning activity for the "Do You Know That Clouds Have Names?" …
A learning activity for the "Do You Know That Clouds Have Names?" book in the Elementary GLOBE series. Students will explore the difference between the three types of contrails, make observations of contrails outside, and record their observations. Fifteen minutes later they will make follow-up observations to see how the contrails they observed have changed. The purpose of the activity is to help students identify contrails and learn to distinguish between the three types of contrails and to understand that contrails are human-made and some contrails become clouds in the sky. Students will be able to (1) identify the three types of contrails; (2) understand that contrails are created by jet airplanes; and (3) understand that some contrails become clouds.
The goal of this lesson developed by Pacer's National Bullying Prevention Center …
The goal of this lesson developed by Pacer's National Bullying Prevention Center is to help elementary-age students understand what bullying is and the role they can plan in stopping it. It includes a detailed lesson plan as well as links to video segments which may be useful. It also includes scenarios that students could role play as they consider how they might act in stopping bullying.
This style guide is an introductory wikibook for beginners who want to …
This style guide is an introductory wikibook for beginners who want to produce political messages in various media formats. It is not a rule book; rather, it is a set of guidelines to facilitate effective political communication. Its purpose is to bridge the gap between two distinct styles to create pragmatic, clear, and useful information to establish a consistent tone, style, and format between all of the messages you or your organization produces.
It is meant as a practical guide for anyone, regardless of political affiliation, and it is organized in such a way that a person new to political communication can learn to create convincing and thought-provoking op-eds, letters to the editor, press releases, social media posts, website content, and spoken messages.
This site provides facsimile reproductions of the handwritten patent application and its …
This site provides facsimile reproductions of the handwritten patent application and its accompanying drawing, together with explanatory text and lesson plans. This lesson correlates to the National History Standards and the National Standards for Civics and Social Sciences
The words this strong and determined pioneer put to paper about her …
The words this strong and determined pioneer put to paper about her life in what would become Wisconsin opened a window into the past.
Resources available for exploring this story include: - A short animated video with captions and transcripts in English and Spanish - A short biography book accessible as a slide deck, with per-page audio for listening along, and maps of key locations in the story - Questions that can be used for conversation, reflection, and connection with the story - A historical image gallery full of primary and secondary sources to explore - A guide for activating the media with learners that includes story stats, extension activity ideas, and standards supported
This story is part of Wisconsin Biographies, a collection of educational media resources for grades 3-6. Explore the full collection at pbswisconsineducation.org/biographies.
Through a range of political, social, and organizational venues, African-American women struggled …
Through a range of political, social, and organizational venues, African-American women struggled to participate in the racial awareness and pride that characterized the "New Negro" movement of the 1920s. Alain Locke's important 1925 compilation of Harlem Renaissance writings, The New Negro, included an essay by Elise Johnson McDougald, a prominent black educator, social investigator, and journalist. McDougald's essay, originally published in the Survey, employed socioeconomic analysis to explore the particular problems, as well as contributions to society, of four groups of black women, from wealthy to working-class. Seeking to repudiate the monolithic way in which black women were perceived and represented by white America, McDougald not only focused on economics but also challenged stereotypical representations of blacks in the arts and advertising, as well as those surrounding black women's sexuality.
In 1849, New York's chief of police, George W. Matsell, chose to …
In 1849, New York's chief of police, George W. Matsell, chose to devote most of his semi-annual report to the problem of vagrant and delinquent children. By mid-century New York was crowded with immigrants from Ireland and Germany. Adult immigrants took jobs once occupied by child apprentices and, despite Matsell's reference to the city's public schools, schooling was not compulsory in New York State until 1874. The result was an excess of poor children on the streets earning money however they could, sometimes, Matsell suggests, in unsavory occupations. Matsell's anxiety about the city's street children cut two ways: he was concerned about the harm these children were doing to themselves, but he also worried that they would grow up to join a "dangerous class" of criminals that would terrorize the city. In these sentiments he was joined by Charles Loring Brace. In 1853 Brace formed the Children's Aid Society that initiated the "orphan trains." These trains transported poor children out of the city to farms in the west.
Survey of the social, cultural, and political development of western Europe between …
Survey of the social, cultural, and political development of western Europe between 500 and 1300. Topics include: the Germanic conquest of the ancient Mediterranean world; the Carolingian Renaissance; feudalism and the breakdown of political order; the crusades; the quality of religious life; the experience of women; and the emergence of a revitalized economy and culture in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
The climate of repression established in the name of wartime security during …
The climate of repression established in the name of wartime security during World War I continued after the war as the U.S. government focused on communists, Bolsheviks, and "reds." The Red Scare reached its height in the years between 1919 and 1921. Encouraged by Congress, which had refused to seat the duly elected Wisconsin trade unionist and socialist Victor Berger, Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer began a series of showy and well-publicized raids against radicals and leftists. Striking without warning and without warrants, Palmer's men smashed union offices and the headquarters of Communist and Socialist organizations. Writing in the Nation in March 1919, noted humorist Benchley described the climate of surveillance and sheeplike compliance that made the "Red Scare possible" and mocked the public's hunger for enemies.
This course is an investigation of the Roman empire of Augustus, the …
This course is an investigation of the Roman empire of Augustus, the Frankish empire of Charlemagne, and the English empire in the age of the Hundred Years War. Students examine different types of evidence, read across a variety of disciplines, and develop skills to identify continuities and changes in ancient and medieval societies. Each term this course is different, looking at different materials from a variety of domains to explore ancient and mideveal studies. This version is a capture of the course as it was taught in 2012, and does not reflect how it is taught currently.
A brief history of conflicting ideas about mankind's relation to the natural …
A brief history of conflicting ideas about mankind's relation to the natural environment as exemplified in works of poetry, fiction, and discursive argument from ancient times to the present. What is the overall character of the natural world? Is mankind's relation to it one of stewardship and care, or of hostility and exploitation? Readings include Aristotle, The Book of Genesis, Shakespeare, Descartes, Robinson Crusoe, Swift, Rousseau, Wordsworth, Darwin, Thoreau, Faulkner, and Lovelock's Gaia. This subject offers a broad survey of texts (both literary and philosophical) drawn from the Western tradition and selected to trace the growth of ideas about nature and the natural environment of mankind. The term nature in this context has to do with the varying ways in which the physical world has been conceived as the habitation of mankind, a source of imperatives for the collective organization and conduct of human life. In this sense, nature is less the object of complex scientific investigation than the object of individual experience and direct observation. Using the term "nature" in this sense, we can say that modern reference to "the environment" owes much to three ideas about the relation of mankind to nature. In the first of these, which harks back to ancient medical theories and notions about weather, geographical nature was seen as a neutral agency affecting or transforming agent of mankind's character and institutions. In the second, which derives from religious and classical sources in the Western tradition, the earth was designed as a fit environment for mankind or, at the least, as adequately suited for its abode, and civic or political life was taken to be consonant with the natural world. In the third, which also makes its appearance in the ancient world but becomes important only much later, nature and mankind are regarded as antagonists, and one must conquer the other or be subjugated by it.
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