news – Clif Mims

Primary Sources: NewseumED Tools

Your class may not be able to travel all the way to Washington D.C. to visit the Newseum–the museum of news–but you can still take advantage of the Newseum’s archive through NewseumED Tools! NewseumED offers a wealth of tools for teachers, but one thing that sets it apart is its primary source material.

NewseumED’s search engine allows for you to search for materials by state, time period, topic, type of artifact, and more. You can access Life magazine covers from the 1930s; you can have access to international newspapers. Primary sources are easy to access.

NewseumED also has suggestions for how to best incorporate their artifacts into your lesson plans, including media literacy activities. The EDCommunity allows you to communicate with other teachers. EDCollections contains curated groups of artifacts on a variety of potential topics, including the First Amendment, the Civil Rights Movement, and Women’s Suffrage.

Getting Started

Dive into a historiography lesson by exploring how different news outlets from different regions covered the same event
Spice up a foreign language class by accessing real historical documents in their original language
Teach your students the difference between primary and secondary sources–and what can be learned from each

Video Footage from Electric Substation Explosion

An electrical explosion in the Arlington – Lakeland area outside of Memphis.

A fire started around 12:30 AM on July 11, 2016, at the substation on Highway 70 near Saffron Springs Drive. This video was filmed less than a mile from the event.

The Impact of Budget Cuts in Education

The following was released by WNDR News of Kannapolis City Schools. I’ve greatly enjoyed the privilege of consulting with KCS for several years.

“North Carolina as well as the rest of the nation are faced with a struggle in keeping the budget balanced. As educators and parents we have a responsibility to our students to see that they receive a learning experience that will prepare them for the 21st century. With more students entering our doors every year it is imperative that we invest in their future, so that they will have one.”

NASA’s Puffin: Your Personal Aircraft?

“Engineers from the NASA Langley Research Center unveiled plans to build a personal flying machine that would run on a set of electric motors. [Discovery News] reports on the aptly named Puffin, which is still in the early stages of development.” (Source)

Educational Uses

This video could be used to introduce a study on the principles of flight (Example Lesson Plan).

Learners could problem-solve how much impact the design of the Puffin craft would have if it weighd 600 pounds.

Challenge learners to brainstorm ways that the craft might be able to: fly 100 miles on a single charge, carry 2 passengers, and more.