If you teach social studies and you’re looking for a new project to engage your students this year, I have some suggestions for you. All of the following ideas can be modified for use in elementary school, middle school, or high school settings.

Create a News Podcast
Rather than just doing the standard “current events discussion day,” have your students record short podcasts in which they talk with a classmate or two about current events articles they’ve found interesting. Anchor.fm provides an easy way to record and publish podcasts in minutes.

Build Augmented Reality History and Geography Games
Metaverse Studio lets anyone create an augmented reality game. For the last year teachers have been using it to create AR breakout games for a wide range of topics including geography and history. Watch the following video to see how you can create an augmented reality game on Metaverse.

Make a Short Documentary
If we make students watch documentary videos, we should also let them try making their own. Adobe Spark Video is one of the easiest tools for students to use to try their hands at making short documentary videos.

Build Multimedia Timelines

The timeline project is as old as history classes. Today, you can put a modern spin on that project by having students build timelines that include videos, audio recordings, pictures, and interactive maps. Timeline JS is the best tool for doing that. Watch the following video to learn how to use Timeline JS.