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Smithsonian Institute: Digital Resources

  • Learning LabA free, interactive platform for discovering millions of authentic digital resources and creating content with online tools. The Learning Lab has an immense amount of content, and the Getting Started guide is a helpful resource. In addition, the weekly Smithsonian Activities Choice Boards features weekly highlights for various subject areas. Issue One and Issue Two are available now. New issues are released each Monday.
  • Smithsonian Open AccessAllows students to download, share and reuse millions of the Smithsonian’s images without asking permission because they have been released into the public domain.
  • Smithsonian Digital Volunteers ProgramAllows the general public to make things like historical documents and biodiversity data more accessible. Students can join fellow volunteers to add more field notes, diaries, ledgers, logbooks, manuscripts, biodiversity specimen labels and more to the collection.
  • Sidedoor: A podcast for students that enlists the help of biologists, archaeologists, zookeepers and astrophysicists to tell engaging and educational stories. 

SI Museum Teaching Resources: Four different Smithsonian museums (American History, American Indian, Natural History, and American Art) provide additional lesson plans for teachers tied to national standards.

Resources aligned to DCPS CurriculumSI also provides resources that are aligned to DCPS Curriculum Pacing Guides in order to help parents better support their child's learning at home. SI has created Google sheets which are updated periodically. SI has Google sheets for each grade level (K-8), these sheets breakdown resources for parents aligned to subjects. For each resource, SI identifies the subject it covers, the learning objective, and links to the SI resource.

Library of Congress: Digital Resources for Students

  • Student Discovery SetsPuts primary sources in student’s hands by bringing together historical artifacts and documents on a wide range of topics. The Student Discovery Sets are free on iBooks.
  •  Current ExhibitionsThe Library has several current exhibitions available online, including ones on Rosa Parks, the Nineteenth Amendment, comic art and more.
  • Digital CollectionsOver 400 digital collections are available online, featuring content from U.S. Presidents, musicians, inventors, historic newspapers and more.
  • By the PeopleA crowdsourcing initiative that allows anyone to volunteer to improve access to history by transcribing, reviewing and tagging Library of Congress documents.
  • Classic Children’s booksAvailable for free online via the Library website.
  • The Library of Congress’ YouTube ChannelContains a wide range of author programming, as well as content from scholars and musicians.
  • Ask a LibrarianThe tool remains available to the public, with Librarians available to answer questions and provide research assistance.
  • The Library’s National Screening RoomShowcase the Library’s vast moving image collection. It is designed to make otherwise unavailable movies, both copyrighted and in the public domain, freely accessible to viewers worldwide.
  • Presentations and ActivitiesPresentations look across the Library’s online collections to explore events and issues from U.S. history and beyond.

Other Federal Agency Resources: At Home Activities

Google Resources

  • Teach From Home: A central hub of information, tips, training and tools from across Google for Education to help teachers keep teaching, even when they aren’t in the classroom
  • Training Materials: Explore distance learning through resources for schools affected by Covid-19

Additional Resources



Yale's Guide to Coping During COVID-19 for Families with Children with Autism
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