A World of Current
Events Activities

Clear and comprehensive methods to build geography and critical thinking skills while immersing your classroom in modern history

Maps are just the beginning

The newest edition of the Nystrom Desk Atlas enables students to visualize the world’s lands and peoples, compare continents, and understand environmental, economic, and cultural issues.

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Activities to Build Student Skills

Both our Current Events and Mapping the News activities inform students about trending topics and give them a sense of being part of history as it happens.

Each individual activity has a combination of components that build a variety of important skills including:

  • Critical thinking
  • Primary source analysis
  • Group collaboration
  • Compare and contrast
  • Mapping skills
  • Close reading
  • Writing
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Available in Digital and Print

The Current Events and Mapping the News series are exclusive to our digital platforms, Active Classroom and Nystrom World. 

Available to access digitally, teachers can have students complete the activities on one of our digital platforms or print the activities for a blended classroom experience.

Mapping the News

A new series on our Active Classroom and Nystrom World digital platforms, Mapping the News is an interactive series of activities that take an in-depth look at current global issues and makes them tangible by contextualizing them in geography. Students use different sources of information to digitally map trends.

Series Topics:

  • United States Military Alliances
  • Supply Chains in the United States
  • The Global Water Crisis
  • Biodiversity and Ecosystem Loss: Where Are the Hotspots
  • The United States and Iran
  • American Indian Lands

Current Events

Aligned to meet state and national social studies standards, our digital Current Events series helps students examine trending topics in the United States and around the globe. Students explore asking and answering essential questions about topics that impact their world view.

 

Series Topics: 
  • The Space Race: Who Are the Main Players
  • Voting Rights Around the World: What Do Other Democracies Look Like
  • Environmental Activism: What Are People Doing to Protect the Planet
  • China and the United States: Competitors or Adversaries
  • Domestic Terrorism
  • Globalization
  • Native Americans and the U.S. Government
  • Presidential Primaries
  • The Postal Service
  • The Press in America
  • The U.S. Census

Click here to download a sample of a Current Events activity

Image of a quotation mark
“Now more than ever, students need the intellectual power to recognize societal problems, ask good questions and develop robust investigations into them, consider possible solutions and consequences, separate evidence-based claims from parochial opinions, and communicate and act upon what they learn.”
C3 Framework
for Social Studies School Standards

Request a trial for free access.

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Elementary

  • Maps: Primary: ELS
  • Maps: Primary: Readiness
  • Maps: Primary: Outline World Map
  • Maps: Intermediate: Physical
  • Maps: Intermediate: Political
  • Maps: Intermediate: Continents and Oceans Thematic
  • Maps: Intermediate: Wealth of Countries Thematic
  • Maps: Intermediate: Precipitation Thematic
  • Maps: Intermediate: Temperature Thematic
  • Maps: Intermediate: Time Zones Thematic
  • Maps: Intermediate: Land Use Thematic
  • Maps: Intermediate: Population Thematic
  • Maps: Intermediate: Outline World Map
  • U.S. History:1 Native Americans
  • U.S. History:2 Spanish Explorers
  • U.S. History:3 Explorers
  • U.S. History:4 The Great Exchange
  • U.S. History:5 European Settlements
  • U.S. History:6 Thirteen Britishi Colonies
  • U.S. History:7 Slevery In the Americas
  • U.S. History:8 Revolutionary War
  • State Map

Secondary

  • Maps: Intermediate: Physical
  • Maps: Intermediate: Political
  • Maps: Intermediate: Continents and Oceans Thematic
  • Maps: Intermediate: Wealth of Countries Thematic
  • Maps: Intermediate: Precipitation Thematic
  • Maps: Intermediate: Temperature Thematic
  • Maps: Intermediate: Time Zones Thematic
  • Maps: Intermediate: Land Use Thematic
  • Maps: Intermediate: Population Thematic
  • Maps: Intermediate: Outline World Map
  • Maps: Secondary: Land Use Thematic
  • Maps: Secondary: Population Thematic
  • Maps: Secondary: Political Relief
  • Maps: Secondary: Land Cover
  • Maps: Secondary: Scupltural Relief
  • Maps: Secondary: Growing Seasons Thematic
  • Maps: Secondary: Climate Thematic
  • Maps: Secondary: Tectonic Plates Thematic
  • Maps: Secondary: Precipitation Thematic
  • Maps: Secondary: Outline World Map
  • State Map

U.S. History

  • Native Americans
  • Spanish Explorers
  • Explorers
  • The Great Exchange
  • European Settlements
  • Thirteen British Colonies
  • Slavery in the Americas
  • Revolutionary War
  • American Expansion
  • Explorations of the West
  • Trails West
  • War with Mexico
  • Slavery Divides the Nation
  • Slavery and the Economy
  • Union and Confederacy
  • Civil War
  • Conflicts with Indians
  • Railroads Tansform the West
  • Industrial United States
  • Immigrants 1895–1929
  • World War I in Europe
  • Great Depression and Dust Bowl
  • World War II in Europe 1939–1942
  • World War II in the Pacific 1941–1945
  • Great Migration 1940–1970
  • Korean War
  • Cold War
  • Vietnam War
  • Persian Gulf War
  • A Shifting Population
  • Immigrants Sinve 1970

World History

  • New Babylonian Empire
  • Ancient Egypt
  • Chinese Dynasties
  • Ancient India
  • Athens and Sparta
  • Alexander’s Empire
  • Roman Empire
  • Barbarians and the Roman Empire
  • Silk Road and Eurasian Trade
  • Byzantine Empire
  • Charlemagne’s Frankish Empire and the Holy Roman Empire
  • Spread of Islam
  • World of the Crusades
  • China in the Middle Ages
  • Mongol Conquest
  • Rise and Fall of Shogun Japan
  • Exploration
  • Maya, Aztec, and Inca
  • European Exploration and Land Claims
  • African Empires and States
  • Rise of Ottoman Empire
  • Reformation and Counter Reformation
  • European Trading Empires
  • Rise and Fall of Mughal Empires
  • Independence in the Americas
  • Napoleon’s Europe
  • Europe After the Congress of Vienna
  • Africa Under Foreign Rule
  • World War I
  • World War II
  • Cold War
  • World Conflicts Since 1991

Texas

  • Spanish Explorers
  • Western Explorations
  • Trails West
  • War with Mexico
  • Indian Wars
  • Railroads & The West
  • Great Migration
  • population Loss and Growth
  • Native Americans in TX
  • Spanish Settlements
  • Republic of Texas
  • Energy Resources of TX
  • Texas Readiness Map
  • Texas Desk Map
  • Texas State Map