Missouri Council of the Social Studies Annual Conference

Inquiry-based activities and primary sources, necessary for social studies standards but also a teacher favorite! Join us for a fun way to challenge your students in the classroom with a primary source crime scene mystery! The activity shared in this session will build the foundation for primary source analysis throughout the year. Students commonly misunderstand the nuanced nature of primary source documents, images, and artifacts. They want a group of primary sources to fit together perfectly, like a jigsaw puzzle, to tell a single, “true” account. Students want primary sources to be true or false, right or wrong, but historical research is never that easy.

https://dredscottlives.org/
Free teaching materials

Teaching traumatic history, like the Holocaust, can be tough. This presentation will show educators how to use AI, like ChatGPT and other AI models, to help. We’ll talk about strategies for using AI to make lessons engaging and how to navigate the ethical challenges of using this technology.

The techniques shown during this presentation are directly applicable to assisting educators in complying with the State of Missouri's Holocaust education mandate. This presentation will show how the guidelines produced by the Missouri Holocaust and Education Awareness Commission can be used to inform AI models to assist educators in the classroom.

Learn how simulations that involve physical movement, creativity, and problem-solving enhance student engagement, recall, and learning. This session will explore the science behind simulations and provide practical strategies for designing and implementing them in social studies classrooms. Avoid common pitfalls and discover how simulations can connect cultures, ideas, and histories to create dynamic, real-world learning experiences that foster critical thinking and deeper understanding.

The Armenian Genocide was committed by the Ottoman Turks during the midst of World War I from 1915 to 1917. Not only did the genocide include the murders, the remaining people were enslaved, abandoned in the desert, “reeducated,” or became refugees in other countries. The genocide continues as Turkey still has not acknowledged the event even occurred and is assisting Azerbaijan to systematically wipe Armenia from the map. Although this is a historical topic on the surface, it impacts our world today despite the lack of media coverage.

Join us for a screening of the first installment of Holocaust Composer Stories, a free, digital education program from the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. Holocaust Composer Stories offers middle and high school social studies and music teachers a new entry point for teaching about the Holocaust. Each story in this series features a composer with a different experience of the Holocaust. Students will listen to their music, hear their stories, and deepen their own understanding of historical events.
Created in partnership with the St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum.