THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
External Resources
The Allure of Matter Exhibit at the Smart Museum of Art
This site is home for digital content that builds upon The Allure of Matter: Material Art from China exhibition at the Smart Museum of Art. The exhibit brings together works in which conscious material choice has become a means of the artists’ expression, representing this unique trend throughout recent history.
American Museum of Natural History (New York)
The AMNH Division of Anthropology’s collections database is online and fully searchable.
AsAm News
AsAm News is a community of users interested in reading, learning and commenting on news, events, people & issues in the Asian Americans and Pacific Islander communities. Here you will find a full roundup of headlines and blogs about the Asian American community from both mainstream and ethnic media. Special emphasis is placed on featuring stories about Asian American breaking stereotypes and making contributions in both the mainstream and the Asian American community.
Asian American Racial Justice Toolkit
This toolkit represents the work and thinking of 15 grassroots organizations with Asian American bases living in the most precarious margins of power: low-income tenants, youth, undocumented immigrants, low-wage workers, refugees, women and girls, and queer and trans people. All of the modules are designed to begin with people's lived experiences, and to build structural awareness of why those experiences are happening, and how they are tied to the oppression of others.
Asia for Educators
A resource site for teachers developed by Columbia University's East Asian Curriculum Project (EACP), a national initiative devoted to supporting education on Asia at the secondary and elementary levels. Focusing primarily on China and Japan, the site features teaching units, lesson plans, primary-source readings, resource lists, bibliographies, and more.
Asian Art Museum (San Francisco)
The education department at the Asian Art Museum shares essays, videos and lesson plans.
Asian Pacific Heritage
Put the power of primary sources to work in the classroom. Browse ready-to-use lesson plans, student activities, collection guides and research aids. Includes curated resources from The Library of Congress, National Archives, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, and Smithsonian Institution.
Asia-Pacific Journal - Japan Focus Course Readers
Asia scholars have chosen exemplary articles from the journal for thematic course readers. A general introduction illustrates the themes in each reader, and introductions for individual essays create dialogue among the included articles. These readers are intended as a useful and substantial teaching resource for college professors, undergraduates, and high school teachers. They are available in an electronic format without charge at the Asia-Pacific Journal website.
Asia Society - Education
The Asia Society's online clearinghouse for K-12 Asian and Asian American studies.
Asian Educational Media Service (AEMS)
Offering a searchable database of audio-visual resources on China, Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia, as well as a catalog of selected resources for K-12 education, reviews of new and significant resources, and links to related websites.
British Museum (London)
The Teaching History with 100 Objects project includes extensive ideas about teaching with a few key East Asian artifacts.
Densho
Densho documents the testimonies of Japanese Americans who were unjustly incarcerated during World War II before their memories are extinguished. We offer these irreplaceable firsthand accounts, couples with historical images and teacher resources, to explore principles of democracy, and promote equal justice for all.
Digital Classroom at NARA (National Archives and Records Administration)
Featuring primary-sources documents, classroom activities, and information on professional development for educators. To encourage teachers of students at all levels to use archival documents in the classroom, the Digital Classroom provides materials from the National Archives and methods for teaching with primary sources.
Educator's Reference Desk
A project of the Information Institute of Syracuse. Site features more than 2,000 unique lesson plans written and submitted by teachers from all over the U.S.; a collection of more than 200 responses to popular questions on the practice, theory, and research of education; and links to more than 3,000 resources on a variety of educational issues.
ERIC - Educational Resources Information Center
The U.S. Department of Education’s searchable database of journal and non-journal literature on education. See especially the document Social Studies for the 21st Century: Recommendations of the National Commission on Social Studies in the Schools.
ExEAS - Expanding East Asian Studies
Columbia University’s Expanding East Asian Studies (ExEAS) website features innovative and easy-to-use materials for teaching about East Asia at the undergraduate level. Visit the site to find teaching units, sample syllabi, links and other resources for incorporating East Asia into courses in all subjects in the humanities and social sciences, including world history, world literature, politics, contemporary society, and philosophy.
Facing History and Ourselves: Resource Library
Facing History and Ourselves uses lessons of history to challenge teachers and their students to stand up to bigotry and hate.
Field Museum (Chicago)
Educator Toolkit for the Cyrus Tang Hall of China – This webpage includes links to ten separate activities which accompany the museum’s online Cyrus Tang Hall of China exhibit. All of the activities are based on inquiry, empathy and object-based learning. All of the PDFs are available in English and Spanish on The Field Museum website.
Five College Center for East Asian Studies at Smith College
The FCCEAS’s Resource Center Library offers items on loan to teachers and has an online catalogue. The Resources section of the website is also an excellent resource.
FoundSF
Found SF is a participatory website (based on the same software as wikipedia) inviting historians, writers, activists, and curious San Francisco citizens of all kinds to share their unique stories, images, and videos from past and present.
History Channel
The cable network’s online presence. See the Classroom section for study guides, teaching ideas, and online exhibitions.
The InAsia Podcast
The Asia Foundation is a nonprofit international development organization committed to improving lives across a dynamic and developing Asia. Informed by six decades of experience and deep local expertise, our work across the region addresses five overarching goals - strengthen goverance, empower women, expand economic opportunity, increase environmental resilience, and promote international cooperation.
International Dunhuang Project
IDP offers a variety of online resources for teaching about the Silk Road. The site includes a database of close to 500,000 images, as well as curated lesson plans and activities.
Internet History Sourcebooks Project
Collections of public-domain and copy-permitted historical texts presented without advertising for educational use. Featuring the Internet East Asian History Sourcebook.
Library of Congress
Featuring an Online Exhibitions section and a special Learning Page for K-12 educators.
Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)
In addition to a trove of lesson plans, the Met produces the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, which is a great general timeline resource, as well as a comprehensive overview of East Asian art history. Be sure to scroll down to select a country and time period. After selecting one, scroll down and click “key events.”
National Clearinghouse for US-Japan Studies at SPICE at Stanford University
Offering a variety of services and products to elementary and secondary educators interested in teaching and learning about Japanese culture as well as U.S.-Japan relations. Featuring a U.S.-Japan Database that includes information on print materials, videos, artifact kits, software, and teacher developed materials.
National Consortium for Teaching about Asia (NCTA):
Featured Resources
Class Apps
Explore these short classroom-applicable video presentations available from NCTA. Each "App" focuses on a timely topic or "best practice" presented by an NCTA consulting scholar, seminar leader, teacher alum, or author.
National Museums, Japan (Tokyo)
Browse Japan’s online collection of National Treasures and Important Cultural Properties.
National Palace Museum (Taipei)
NPM’s Anime Carnival website includes several fun videos that bring art to life for students.
OneWorld Classrooms
OneWorld Classrooms is a nonprofit organization that builds bridges of learning between the classrooms of the world. It offers free online travel and a variety of opportunities for K-12 classrooms to interact with overseas partners.
Online East Asia Resource Center at the University of Washington
Includes lesson plans, videos and podcasts, as well as links to other resources such as teacher communities and blogs, and museum materials.
PBS Asian Americans Series
"Asian Americans" is a five-hour film series that delivers a bold, fresh perspective on a history that matters today, more than ever.
PBS News Hour
The website provides a good number of resources on Asian Americans and international coverage in East Asia
Primary Source
Primary Source is a nonprofit professional development center that has educated thousands of K-12 teachers about world history and cultures over the past 21 years. One of its longest and most successful programs is its collection of China studies courses, resources and tours. Educators looking for free resources on teaching about Asia will find many items of interest on the site, including China Source, Primary Source World, teacher-created curriculum units, and resource guides. Primary Source also has online courses on ancient and modern China.
Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center
SmithsonianAPA's Learnin Together page was launched in 2019 to connect the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center's programs, curatorial expertise, and community anniversaries with K12 teachers across the country. This page serves as an online venue for educational content featuring interviews with AAPI community experts and members, links to community-created educational resrouces, book recommendations, classroom discussion ideas, and more.
Smithsonian Education
“Interprets the collective knowledge of the Smithsonian and serves as a gateway to its educational resources.” Featuring Lesson Plans, Field Trips, and Resource Library sections.
Teach Japan
Teach Japan is a new (2016) collaboration between several museums and the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership. It allows you to search multiple collections by grade level and resource type.
Teaching Tolerance: Classroom Resources
From film kits and lesson plans to the building blocks of a customized Learning Plan - texts, students tasks and teaching strategies - our resources will help you bring relevance, rigor and social emotional learning into your classroom - all for FREE.
ASIANetwork
A consortium of more than 150 North American colleges working to strengthen the role of Asian Studies within the framework of liberal arts education.
Asian Studies Development Program (ASDP) at the University of Hawai'i
The ASDP is a joint program of the University of Hawai‘i and the East-West Center. It was initiated in 1991 to enhance teaching about Asia at American two-year and four-year colleges and universities at the undergraduate level. ASDP offers a variety of content-focused faculty and insitutional develoment programs and activities centered around summer residential institutes, field seminars in Asia, workshops on teh U.S. mainland, and an annual academic conference.
The Association for Asian Studies (AAS)
The AAS is the largest society of its kind in the world — a scholarly, non-political, non-profit professional association open to all persons interested in Asia. The AAS website offers information on the organization’s publications, conferences, and meetings, as well as listings of study programs, grants and fellowships, and other Asian studies links and resources.
China Institute
A nonprofit, non-partisan educational and cultural institution that promotes the understanding, appreciation and enjoyment of traditional and contemporary Chinese civilization, culture and heritage, and provides the cultural and historical context for understanding contemporary China.
Center for Global Partnership (CGP)
The Center for Global Partnership (CGP) was established within the Japan Foundation in April 1991 with offices in both Tokyo and New York. To carry out its mission, CGP operates grant programs in three areas — intellectual exchange, grassroots exchange, and education — as well as self-initiated projects and fellowships. CGP supports an array of institutions and individuals, including nonprofit organizations, universities, policymakers, scholars and educators, and believes in the power of broad-based, multi-channel approaches to effect positive change
CIVNET - A Website of Civitas International
An online resource and service for civic education practitioners (teachers, teacher trainers, curriculum designers), as well as scholars, policymakers, civic-minded journalists, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) promoting civic education all over the world.
Facing History and Ourselves: Professional Development
The website offers classroom videos demonstrating teaching strategies in action, webinars, online courses and seminars on adopting their pedagogy techniques.
National Committee on US-China Relations
The National Committee on United States-China Relations promotes understanding and cooperation between the United States and Greater China in the belief that sound and productive Sino-American relations serve vital American and world interests. The National Committee carries out its mission of creating opportunities for informed discussion and reasoned debate about issues of common interest and concern to the U.S., the P.R.C., Hong Kong S.A.R. and Taiwan via conferences and fora, professional exchanges and collaborative projects, public education programs, internships, and publications.
National Council for the Social Studies
Founded in 1921, National Council for the Social Studies has grown to be the largest association in the country devoted solely to social studies education.
Online Museum Resources on Asian Art (OMuRAA)
Asia for Educators at Columbia University compiled OMuRAA, a list of online exhibits and resources. It is an excellent place to start looking for images, artifacts and essays.
Programs in International Educational Resources (PIER) at Yale University
Among the many offerings of PIER’s East Asian Studies division are an intensive summer institute, travel and field study opportunities in East Asia, professional development workshops, on-site training programs, curriculum development and evaluation, online lesson plans, resource services, consulting and clearinghouse services, and language enrichment opportunities for high school students.
Teaching Tolerance: Professional Development
Teaching Tolerance provides a range of materials for educators: learning modules that make you think, presentations you can share and hands-on workshops with our expert trainers.
United States-Japan Foundation
Since 1980, USJF has supported projects that have involved more than 5,000 pre-college teachers in the US and Japan in mutual study and learning on topics related to the US-Japan relationship, including in-depth study of the culture, society and history of both countries. Through these teachers, as well as through a variety of curriculum materials, web-based collaborative activities, and partnerships between US and Japanese schools, tens of thousands of young people in both countries have begun to study and understand their mutual connections and the importance of the friendship and partnership that binds their two nations so closely.