In recent years, increasing amounts of screen time have contributed to a growing sense of disconnection with the physical world—hence, the birth of the “maker movement,” or a return to hands-on creation. Read about how “makerspaces” are attracting people with different interests who all want to create things they can hold on to.
Almost half a millennium ago in the New World, Spanish explorers heard tales of a land filled with gold and treasure. Soon, the myth of El Dorado was born. Read this article to learn the truth behind the myth. Did El Dorado really exist?
In 1969, a few young Native Americans occupied Alcatraz Island to protest the United States government’s poor treatment of all Native Americans. Read about what happened as a result of this daring decision.
Most people would agree that learning another language has benefits. But this article highlights why people who are bilingual are more cognitively advantaged than those who speak just one language.
Even before computers made it easy, people have tampered with photographs. On this web site, you can examine an image from the Civil War and learn how experts determined it was fake.
Check out this infographic which shows how technological advances have hugely changed the social interactions of teens over the last two decades.
From cave paintings to the first written words, human beings have been making themselves “heard” for a very long time. This section of the Museum of Natural History’s website provides a quick tour of how our use of language and symbols has grown over many, many centuries.
In this video clip from the nightly news, a 90-year-old Holocaust survivor takes the stage to share the music he played for fellow concentration camp prisoners.
What motivates us to be greedy? Who is likely to be more greedy: people with more or with less? Read about a study that was designed to answer questions like these.
What role did Native Americans play in the Revolutionary War? Did they generally side with the colonists or the Crown? Read to find out.
Have you ever regarded someone in a certain way at first, but soon realized that you had to shift your thinking? Here’s someone who has revised others’ first impressions again and again. Discover the details of this athlete’s inspiring story.
Think about the time you spend each day looking at TV. How much is too much? Do you think that what you watch could lead to poor eating habits one day? Read an article that makes recommendations for media exposure.
This article profiles Elizabeth Packard, a woman forced into an insane asylum by her husband during the Civil War. After her release, she became a women’s rights activist who argued that the condition of women was similar to slavery.
Amy Guttman’s brief essay describes the tension between the individual and society, detailing the somewhat contradictory American goals of advocating for the individual’s rights while ensuring the common good.
Stories, novels, and movies allow us to consider possibilities beyond our everyday experiences. Some philosophers and nuclear physicists have begun to question whether the science-fiction movie The Matrix might have touched on a scientific reality.
Clemantine Wamariya talks about her memoir, The Girl Who Smiled Beads, in which she writes about her experiences as a refugee fleeing genocide in Rwanda and rebuilding a life in the United States.
Mental health advocates argue that Shakepeare’s play could help start important conversations with teenagers.
This guide from the Girl Scouts explains how to identify injustices and overcome them.
Author and professor Severine Autesserre argues that building peace starts with individual communities.
More and more educators are valuing grit and resilience as keys to success, but how do parents and teachers instill those qualities? Education expert and writer Paul Tough analyzes the issue.
