Students are presented with a long list of alternative names that have been used for the American Civil War. They organise these into suggested categories, compare their ideas with a partner, and then choose what they feel is the best alternative title.

In this activity, students analyse the lyrics (and, if possible, listen to the music) of popular Confederate and Unionist songs from the civil war. They then have to produce their own civil war song to a civil-war era tune of their choice. Their objective is to produce a song which clearly explains the causes of the war. Finally, they look at the legacy of the civil war on American popular music, using examples from The Band, Elvis Presley, Neil Young and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

For this activity, organise the class 5 teams. Display the first event by clicking the button. All the students should copy this information into their worksheet. The first team can play for up to 10 points depending on their confidence. They have to not only identify the mistake in the account, but correct it. If they do so successfully, they gain the amount of points they played for. If they fail, they lose the same amount of points. Proceed to the second event, for the second team, and continue this format until all the slips are used. The winning team is the team with the most points.

This unit is in the form of an ActiveHistory Mystery. Through a roleplay, stimulus images and information slips, students formulate questions, speculate answers, then research for themselves to produce a report which is then peer-assessed against a standard markscheme. The full investigation takes 2 hours of classroom time and at least another hour of individual research time.

If teachers wish to deliver this unit in less time, it is easy to do so. For example:
(a) Simply give each student a complete sheet of information slips from the outset to answer the questions;
(b) Don’t require students to produce a full written essay on the topic – instead, simply choose one of the Extension / Additional Activities listed below.

Discussion points to follow:
a. If you had to divide 100% of blame for the outbreak of the civil war between the slave states and the free states, what percentage would you allocate to each side? Explain your answer.
b. At what point did the civil war become inevitable? Explain your answer.

In this multiplayer interactive simulation, you will take the role of an advisor to either President Davis, or President Lincoln. You will be given a series of military, economic and political problems to deal with. Your first objective is to choose the course of action which you think your President took in real life (his ‘approval rating’ of you will then stay high). Your second objective is to correctly answer the factual questions you are given as the game proceeds (your ‘factual knowledge’ score will then stay high). As you proceed through the simulation, complete the worksheet. At the end of the game there will be follow-up tasks. You can play as a Confederate, a Unionist, or against another player.

Students paste their essay into this interface and get a score based on how many keywords they have included. Excellent for ensuring topic coverage at first-draft phase.