Social Studies
December 11 - December 17, 2013

Find the latest educational resources from Iowa Public Television.

Luis von Ahn: Computer Scientist
Grade Range: 6-12

In this video segment adapted from NOVA scienceNOW, meet Luis von Ahn, a computer scientist and a professor at Carnegie Mellon who is already at the top of his field at age thirty. Learn about one of his most successful ideas-CAPTCHA-a test that humans can pass but computers cannot, which has been used to improve the security of Internet sites. Explore how he comes up with his innovative ideas, and how CAPTCHAs have been reinvented to help digitize old books.

Remembering Nelson Mandela

Grade Range: 7-13+

This lesson plan, created by PBS NewsHour Extra on December 6th, 2013 remembers the life and legacy Nelson Mandela. It was created by Suzanne Vogt, Trevor Browne High School and repurposed by Syd Golston, M.A., M. Ed

Create your own Zeitgeist for the year 2013

Grade Range: 9-12

From the tsunami in the Philippines to Edward Snowden's revelations about the NSA, Malala Yousafzai's speech to the U.N. to the death of Nelson Mandela, the events of 2013 have made an indelible mark on the world and every person who lives in it. To look back at every triumph, tragedy and trend, Google creates an annual Zeitgeist, a summary of the biggest events of the year as seen through the eyes of the search engine. This year, NewsHour Extra partnered with Google to offer you, the student, the opportunity to create your own Zeitgeist by compiling the events that have made the biggest impact on your own life using the storytelling tool Meograph.

Aiming For the Basketball Hall of Fame
Grade Range: 5-8

In this video segment from TV411, two professional basketball players plan a trip from Atlanta, Georgia to the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts. Using a road map of the United States and a ruler, they figure out the distance they must travel. To calculate how long the trip will take, they focus on the map's legend and their predicted driving speed.

The Invasion of the Modern World
Grade Range: 4-12

Logging has become an invader to the Baka people who live in the rainforest in southeast Cameroon. In this video segment, a man rises in the morning to the sound of a buzz saw cutting down another tree. The Baka can only stand by and watch silently as loggers rob them of their trees. The rainforests of West Africa have almost disappeared. What happens in Cameroon will affect what happens to the rest of the Congo Basin, one of the oldest living ecosystems in the world. Learn more about the lives of the Baka in "Who are the Baka?" and "Taking a Stand," part of a sequence of three video segments from the series Africa.

Segregated Schooling in South Carolina

Grade Range: 3-12

In 1950, a group of black parents in Clarendon County, South Carolina filed a lawsuit to equalize education for their children. Encouraged by the NAACP and a local minister, the Reverend Joseph Armstrong De Laine, the case became part of the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling. In this video segment, the Reverend De Laine's children, Joseph De Laine Jr. and Ophelia De Laine Gona, recall conditions in their segregated school.

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