High

Social Studies (X) - High (X) - Middle (X)

Ray Kroc: Fast Food Millionaire (1998)

Icon: 
DVD icon

U.S. restaurateur, a pioneer of the fast-food industry. He was working as a blender salesman when he discovered a restaurant in San Bernardino, Calif., owned by Maurice and Richard McDonald, who used an assembly-line format to prepare and sell a large volume of hamburgers, french fries, and milk shakes.

Grade Level: 
Middle
High
Length: 
00:50
Ray Kroc: Fast Food Millionaire

Colonel Sanders: America's Chicken King (1998)

Icon: 
DVD icon

Colonel Sanders: America's Chicken King. Here's your chance to know the real Colonel Harlan Sanders. He spent most of his life bouncing from job to job and collected his first Social Security check before becoming a success. He also never made it past private in the Army. But his chicken recipe hit it big after he was 65.

Grade Level: 
Middle
High
Length: 
00:50
Colonel Sanders: America's Chicken King

Calvin Klein: A Stylish Obsession (1997)

Icon: 
DVD icon

His name adorns everything from underwear to perfume. His stylish designs and business acumen built a fashion empire. When Brooke Shields went on national TV and cooed "nothing comes between me and my Calvins," a young designer from New York became a fashion icon. Calvin Klein went from New York's Fashion Institute of Technology to stardom in a few short years.

Grade Level: 
Middle
High
Length: 
00:50
Calvin Klein: A Stylish Obsession

America: The Story of Us (2010)

Icon: 
DVD icon

A riveting adventure of how America was invented, AMERICA The Story of Us focuses on the people, ideas and events that built our nation, covering 400 years of American history in the most extensive and in-depth television series ever produced by HISTORY.

Grade Level: 
Middle
High
Length: 
09:12
America: The Story of Us

DNA: Secret of Photo 51 (2003)

Icon: 
DVD icon

On April 25, 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick published their groundbreaking discovery of the double helix structure of DNA, the molecule essential for passing on our genes and the ''secret of life.'' But their crucial breakthrough depended on the pioneering work of another biologist–Rosalind Franklin.

Grade Level: 
Middle
High
Length: 
00:56
DNA: Secret of Photo 51

The National Parks: America's Best Idea (2009)

Icon: 
DVD icon

THE NATIONAL PARKS: AMERICA'S BEST IDEA is a six-episode series produced by Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan and written by Dayton Duncan.

Grade Level: 
Middle
High
Length: 
12:30
The National Parks: America's Best Idea

The Founding of America (2008)

Icon: 
DVD icon

The inspiring early days of America – the personalities, the battles, the bravery, the losses, and even the romance – spring to life in spellbinding detail in this sweeping 14-DVD set from A&E Home Video.

Grade Level: 
Middle
High
Length: 
27:14
The Founding of America

Frontline World: Stories from a Small Planet (2008)

Icon: 
DVD icon

FRONTLINE/World's special Social Entrepreneurs Series features the stories of people whose ideas and organizations create new and sustainable markets and services that benefit underserved communities across the developing world.Disc 1 contains four featured profiles that show a range of creative solutions and services developed by social entrepreneurs, as well as a classroom guide to support ed

Grade Level: 
Middle
High
Frontline World: Stories from a Small Planet

The Great Debaters

Icon: 
DVD icon

Inspired by real events, the fascinating The Great Debaters reveals one of the seeds of the Civil Rights Movement in its story of Melvin B. Tolson (Denzel Washington in a captivating performance) and his champion 1935 debate club from the all-African-American Wiley College in Texas. Tolson, a Wiley professor, labor organizer, modernist poet, and much else, runs a rigorous debate program at the school, selecting four students as his team in ’35, among them the future founder of the Congress of Racial Equality, James Farmer Jr. (Denzel Whitaker).

Grade Level: 
Middle
High
Length: 
02:04
The Great Debaters

Timeline: Discoveries

Icon: 
game icon

Timeline: Discoveries is a card game played using 109 cards. Each card depicts an discovery on both sides, with the year in which that discovery occurred on only one side. Players take turns placing a card from their hand in a row on the table.

Grade Level: 
Middle
High
Content Area: 
Social Studies
Play Time: 
15 min.
Timeline: Discoveries

Timeline: Historical Events

Icon: 
game icon

Timeline: Events is a card game played using 110 cards. Each card depicts a historical event on both sides, with the year in which that event occurred on only one side. Players take turns placing a card from their hand in a row on the table.

Grade Level: 
Middle
High
Content Area: 
Social Studies
Play Time: 
15 min.
Timeline: Historical Events

The World of American Indian Dance (2003)

Icon: 
DVD icon

The beauty, artistry, athleticism, and competition of Native American dance are illustrated in this documentary. Filmed at the Crow Fair, Crow Agency, Montana, the program highlights the beautiful costumes and many dance styles incorporated into the culture from various Native American tribes and nations.

Grade Level: 
Elementary
Middle
High
Length: 
01:05
The World of American Indian Dance

The War of the World: A New History of the 20th Century (2007)

Icon: 
DVD icon

World War II, we have been told all our lives, was our greatest triumph, the moment when the forces of light—the Western democracies and the U.S.S.R.—prevailed over the forces of darkness—the Nazis and the other Axis powers. It was a conflict that began in Europe in September 1939 and ended with the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan in August 1945. Or did it?

Grade Level: 
Middle
High
Length: 
03:00
The War of  the World: A New History of the 20th Century

The War: 1941-1945 (2006)

Icon: 
DVD icon

THE WAR, a seven-part documentary series directed and produced by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, explores the history and horror of the Second World War from an American perspective by following the fortunes of so-called ordinary men and women who become caught up in one of the greatest cataclysms in human history.

Grade Level: 
Middle
High
Length: 
15:00
The War: 1941-1945

How the States Got Their Shapes (2010)

Icon: 
DVD icon

Every line on the U.S. map tells a story. Every border reflects our history -- our struggles for independence, our internal conflicts over states rights and slavery, our westward expansion, and the mastery of our natural resources. We are so familiar with the map of United States, but do we know why our states look the way they do? Every shape on the map tells a great story about our past.

Grade Level: 
Middle
High
Length: 
01:40
How the States Got Their Shapes

Pages