Martin Luther King, Jr., is one of the United States most celebrated civil rights activists. A minister, Dr. King championed causes related to race, class, and human rights. He worked tirelessly to help bring civil rights to minorities and spent the years before his assassination focusing on anti-war and anti-poverty issues. Modern memorials to Dr. King often include a public service component on the day set aside to mark his birth, the third Monday of January.
Science NetLinks and AAAS have developed a number of resources from the social and behavioral sciences that will help you celebrate the work and legacy of Dr. King in your classroom.
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Lessons
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K-2 | Hands-On
In this lesson, students will begin to think about and identify different kinds of groups.
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3-5 | Hands-On
This lesson helps students better recognize and understand how groups influence the behavior of their members through rules and expectations.
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6-8 | Interactive
The goal of this lesson is to have students investigate both genetic and societal consequences of these often-artificial and evolving classifications.
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6-8
In this lesson, students explore how the sun’s intensity at different latitudes has contributed to variations in human skin color.
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6-8
In this lesson, students will confront age-related stereotypes, explore how stereotyping impacts their lives, and discuss how they can make changes to reduce overgeneralizations, unfair assumptions, and uncritical judgments about groups.
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9-12
In this lesson, students will look at group behaviors, dynamics, and purpose.
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9-12 | Interactive
Through this lesson, students will understand the pattern of genetic variation among humans.
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9-12
Visible traits of the human phenotype associated with specific "races" are influenced by a common set of genes all humans share—the genome—and environmental interactions. Culture determines how they are perceived.
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9-12 | Video
In this lesson, students can begin to explore poverty and its implications on society and future generations.
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9-12
In this lesson, students explore the factors that control variation in human skin color and the implications of this information for human society.
Tools
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6-12 | Video
A project of the American Anthropological Association, Race: Are We So Different? looks at human variation and what it means to be a human being.
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9-12 | Website
In this resource, use a computer model to investigate how people tend to cluster into groups of similar people.
Science Updates
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6-12 | Audio
In this Science Update, find out about a stunningly simple intervention that may make a big difference in academic achievement between racial groups.
Collections
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K-12
Science NetLinks and AAAS have developed a number of resources that will help you honor the achievements and scientific work of African Americans.
Other Resources
Africans in America
Grade Band: 6-12
Description: The Africans in America website is a companion to Africans in America, a six-hour public television series. The website chronicles the history of racial slavery in the United States — from the start of the Atlantic slave trade in the 16th century to the end of the American Civil War in 1865 — and explores the central paradox that is at the heart of the American story: a democracy that declared all men equal but enslaved and oppressed one people to provide independence and prosperity to another.
Where Bias Begins: The Truth about Stereotypes
Grade Band: 9-12
Description: This article, from Psychology Today, describes how stereotypes are used all the time, whether people know it or not.
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