What do personal possessions tell us about a person? This teaching collection includes: 1) artifacts that belonged to President Lincoln, 2) a handout to guide analyzing artifacts as primary sources, 3) a video of Harry Rubenstein, a historian at the National Museum of American History, telling about the objects, and 4) two videos of Harry Rubenstein describing how he verifies the history of objects.

Diary entries from Mary Henry during the Civil War.

This teaching collection and student interactive are about applying cutting-edge technology to inform our understanding of what happened at the Civil War Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. Ask students to watch the video, read the article and use the interactive to see the impact of geography on the final outcome of the Battle.

These videos use the best artworks, by some of the greatest American artists, to reveal what life was like during the Civil War. The artists explore the emotional meaning of these events. Eleanor Jones Harvey, the chief curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, produced five, short (2-3 minute) videos, each one examining a different artwork from this period. In addition, this teaching collection includes images of the artworks and artists, recommended discussion questions, writing prompts, and detailed lesson plans in The Civil War and American Art: Teachers' Guide, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2012.

Astronauts need food and good nutrition to stay healthy in space. This collection looks at the challenges in preparing, packaging, transporting, and storing food in space. What innovations were required? What problems needed to be solved? How did the problems change over time? This collection uses the "See Think Wonder" visible thinking routine developed by Project Zero at Harvard University. This strategy encourages students to make careful observations and thoughtful interpretations. It helps stimulate curiosity and sets the stage for inquiry. First, Watch the Apollo 11 TV broadcast of July 22, 1969 of an astronaut eating in space (22 seconds). Use the "See Think Wonder" routine to stimulate interest among students about the problems encountered by astronauts when trying to eat. Ask, "What do you see? What do you think about that? What does it make you wonder?" Next look at the second image in the collection, "Space Food, Meal Package, Day 11, Meal C, Apollo 11 (white)". Repeat the questions examining both the food and the label. Next, ask students to search the collection for "space food" and assemble one meal -- breakfast, lunch or dinner. Compare the different meals created by students using the see, think, wonder routine. For example, what kinds of foods do they see (or not see)? How are the foods packaged and how does it change over time? How are the more recent foods different from the first meals? The purpose of this discussion is to help students see how engineering problems and solutions evolve over time. Ask students, what impact would longer missions have on packing meals for space? Watch the video, "Three Types of Food," and compare the information in the video with student ideas. Then ask students to propose solutions for the current question -- "How can we grow food in space?"

Clovis points were an American invention, perhaps the first. More than 10,000 Clovis points have been discovered scattered in 1,500 locations throughout North America, dating back 13,000 years. This teaching collection includes: 1) a 3-D scan of a Clovis point; 2) a video of Smithsonian anthropologist Dr. Dennis Stanford explaining what they tell us about early America, 3) a video demonstration of how stone tools were made; and 4) three Smithsonian magazine articles about Clovis points and stone tools.

Examine these different portraits of Martin Luther King Jr.

Sometimes innovations are about something completely new and sometimes innovations are about small refinements in design. What can we learn about innovation from looking at something as ordinary as a coffee cup lid? Read the article about coffee cup lids and write a description for one of the lids, capturing its unique qualities. How do changes in coffee cup lids reflect larger changes in our society? Predict what will be the next innovation .