Free resources for teachers and students
Classroom units, teacher notes and games built on the primary sources in Hearth Library, from the history of literature, science and medicine. All free to use in class.
Written for high school and college classes, in plain English that middle school students and English learners can read too.
National History Day 2027
Innovation in History
The 2027 theme is “Innovation in History: Impact, Influence, Change.” These units follow new ideas through the people who tried them, sold them or fought them.
- Unit 1 From inoculation to vaccineHow did a new way to prevent smallpox spread, and why did people resist it?
- Unit 2 Counting and mapping diseaseHow did gathering evidence change what people did about disease?
- Unit 3 Imagining space travelHow did ideas about space travel move from stories to a national program?
- Unit 4 New ways to travel, eat and shopWho gained from new ways of serving travelers, diners and shoppers, and what changed for them?
- Unit 5 Fixing the calendarWhy did the Romans need to reform their calendar, and how did the reform last?
Classroom units
Each unit asks one big question and draws on two or more sources, with discussion questions, key terms and a printable worksheet for each source. You can download any unit for your LMS.
History
Innovation in History, Unit 1
From inoculation to vaccine
How did a new way to prevent smallpox spread, and why did people resist it?
5Moderate, ChallengingChecked
Innovation in History, Unit 2
Counting and mapping disease
How did gathering evidence change what people did about disease?
2Accessible, ModerateChecked
Innovation in History, Unit 3
Imagining space travel
How did ideas about space travel move from stories to a national program?
5ModerateChecked
Innovation in History, Unit 4
New ways to travel, eat and shop
Who gained from new ways of serving travelers, diners and shoppers, and what changed for them?
5ModerateChecked
Innovation in History, Unit 5
Fixing the calendar
Why did the Romans need to reform their calendar, and how did the reform last?
2ModerateChecked
Early Americas, Unit 1
First encounters
Whose account of first contact can we trust, and why?
24Moderate, ChallengingEarly version
Early Americas, Unit 2
Food, farming, and Native knowledge
What did Europeans learn from Native farmers, cooks, and healers, and how did they describe it?
13Moderate, ChallengingEarly version
Early Americas, Unit 3
Violence, disease, and blame
Whom did writers blame for the suffering that followed contact?
14Moderate, ChallengingEarly version
Great War Propaganda, Unit 1
How does a poster persuade?
What did wartime posters ask people to do, and how did they make their case?
3AccessibleChecked
Keeping Time, Unit 1
Naming the months
Why are the months and days called what they are, and who decided?
2ModerateChecked
Keeping Time, Unit 2
Fixing the year
How did people make the calendar keep in step with the seasons?
2ModerateChecked
Keeping Time, Unit 3
Living by the calendar
How did the calendar shape people's work and daily lives?
2ModerateChecked
Checking In, Unit 1
Being a guest
How were travelers and guests treated, and what did hosts owe them?
8Accessible, ModerateEarly version
Checking In, Unit 2
Selling comfort
How did inns, hotels, restaurants, cruises and stores sell comfort and pleasure?
6ModerateEarly version
History of science and medicine
Once in a Lifetime, Unit 1
Who gets blamed?
Why do epidemics produce scapegoats?
2Accessible, ModerateChecked
Once in a Lifetime, Unit 2
The healer's burden
What does an epidemic ask of those who care for the sick?
4ModerateChecked
Once in a Lifetime, Unit 3
Governments, quarantine, and consent
When may authorities restrict people to stop a disease?
3ModerateChecked
Once in a Lifetime, Unit 4
Explaining disease before germs
How did people make sense of what they couldn't see?
7Accessible, ModerateChecked
Once in a Lifetime, Unit 5
Faith and catastrophe
How did religious believers respond, and did responses differ?
7Moderate, ChallengingChecked
Once in a Lifetime, Unit 6
After the plague
Did epidemics change societies, or did people go back to normal?
3ModerateChecked
Once in a Lifetime, Unit 7
Case study: smallpox
How did a terrifying disease become the only one ever eradicated?
6Moderate, ChallengingChecked
Once in a Lifetime, Unit 8
Reading sources critically
How do we decide whom to believe?
7Accessible, ModerateChecked
Reaching Space, Unit 1
Imagining life off the Earth
How did people picture traveling and living in space before anyone went?
3ModerateChecked
Reaching Space, Unit 2
Why go to space?
What reasons did leaders give for going to space, and whom were they trying to persuade?
2ModerateChecked
Language and literature
The Story of English, Unit 1
How English changed
How did English change between King Alfred's time and Shakespeare's?
3ModerateChecked
The Story of English, Unit 2
Everyday writing
What can ordinary texts, such as yearly records, recipes, farm verses and travelers' reports, tell us about daily life?
4ModerateChecked
Kitchen, Farm and Fable, Unit 1
Running a home and a farm
What did ancient writers think a well-run home or farm needed, and who did the work?
3Accessible, ModerateChecked
Kitchen, Farm and Fable, Unit 2
Learning and good conduct
How did ancient teachers say people should learn and treat one another?
2ModerateChecked
Innovation in History
Early Americas
Great War Propaganda
Keeping Time
Checking In
Once in a Lifetime
Reaching Space
The Story of English
Kitchen, Farm and Fable
No units match all of these filters.
More for class
- Sources for class
Every source in the library, with filters for difficulty, teacher notes, page images and Spanish versions.
- Working with primary sources
How students read, question and cite a source, step by step.
- How to teach with a source page
What each tab on a source page is for, and what Draft and Checked mean.
- Printable source worksheet
One page that prints blank, or filled in for any source.
- Encyclopedia
Short articles on the people, places, ideas and inventions behind our sources and games.
Games for class
Guides to our PC games, and free web games on Hearth Games built from the same sources.
- Teaching with Lost Settlement
The real history and science behind it, what it simplifies, and what to read alongside it.
- Teaching with Space Hotel Ltd
The real history and science behind it, what it simplifies, and what to read alongside it.
- History of the English Language
Daily word games about where English words came from and how their meanings changed.
- Living Scripts
Learn to read Hindi, Arabic, Malayalam and Russian from scratch, a few letters at a time.
- Word for Word
Read the original beside its English: Latin, Greek, Russian, Classical Chinese and more.
- Ancient Numbers
How people wrote and counted numbers before ours: khipus, Roman and Maya numerals, the abacus and old money.