This project-based examination of World War II explores the topic through answering major questions that define this period in history. Learners will tackle challenges and questions through an extended process of investigation and contextualization, guided by historical facts and events that help students refine their research and focus their projects. Placing WWII in a real-world context will lend authenticity to their understanding of the war's depth and significance. Students will retain autonomy over their process, reflect on what they've learned, and share their process with peers and teachers. The result of each project is an actual product students will present to their peers.

From spy maps and victory banners to spotter planes and ration cakes, Great World War II Projects You Can Build Yourself brings one of the most defining periods of American and world history to life through hands-on building projects and activities. Detailed step-by-step instructions for creating each project combine with historical facts and anecdotes, biographies, and trivia about the real-life models. Together they give kids a first-hand look at daily life at home and on the front lines during America's war years.

The idea of the Roaring '20s conjures up images of speakeasies, women with short, saucy hairdos, and hot jazz. Readers will learn about the historical events that define this decade, including the devastating war that preceded it. An explanation about project-based learning will help readers understand how it can help them research their topic in unique and interesting ways. Constructive suggestions offer ideas for projects, while encouraging readers to take their studies in new and interesting directions.

Students will gain a deeper understanding of the Cold War by delving into major social studies topics in this project-based examination. The volume presents a series of broad questions touching on major themes in the social studies curriculum. Each question is accompanied by several paragraphs examining that question in the context of the Cold War, as well as a detailed project that prompts readers to think critically and present their findings or opinions in a particular format, such as a poster with side-by-side comparisons, a persuasive essay, or a class presentation.

“A riveting tale told through personal accounts and sketches along the way—ultimately, a story of success against great odds. I enjoyed it enormously.” —Tom Brokaw The first book to tell the full story of how a traveling road show of artists wielding imagination, paint, and bravado saved thousands of American lives—now updated with new material. In the summer of 1944, a handpicked group of young GIs—artists, designers, architects, and sound engineers, including such future luminaries as Bill Blass, Ellsworth Kelly, Arthur Singer, Victor Dowd, Art Kane, and Jack Masey—landed in France to conduct a secret mission. From Normandy to the Rhine, the 1,100 men of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, known as the Ghost Army, conjured up phony convoys, phantom divisions, and make-believe headquarters to fool the enemy about the strength and location of American units. Every move they made was top secret, and their story was hushed up for decades after the war's end. Hundreds of color and black-and-white photographs, along with maps, official memos, and letters, accompany Rick Beyer and Elizabeth Sayles’s meticulous research and interviews with many of the soldiers, weaving a compelling narrative of how an unlikely team carried out amazing battlefield deceptions that saved thousands of American lives and helped open the way for the final drive to Germany. The stunning art created between missions also offers a glimpse of life behind the lines during World War II. This updated edition includes: A new afterword by co-author Rick Beyer Never-before-seen additional images The successful campaign to have the unit awarded a Congressional Gold Medal History and WWII enthusiasts will find The Ghost Army of World War II an essential addition to their library.

Following the stock market crash of 1929, the United States plummeted into the Great Depression and unemployment soared. But when Franklin D. Roosevelt took office the following year, he enacted federal programs, financial regulations, and public works projects to boost the economy and put America back together. In this instructive volume, students will discover fascinating facts and little-known details about this series of reforms, called the New Deal. They'll also be able to choose from a variety of hands-on projects, from map-making to writing and performing a speech to designing and creating a brochure, in order to both broaden and deepen their learning experience and share what they know with their peers.

The varied projects in this volume present readers with more than a dozen lenses through which to learn about the progress and impact of the Industrial Revolution, and the tide of industrialization it unleashed, in the United States. Broad questions prompt readers to engage with major themes in civics, geography, economics, and history. A wealth of background information helps readers understand how these themes play out in the context of the profound shifts in the American economy and society that took place in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.