2026—27 / classroom field desk

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the desk.

scrollytelling lessons

storyhubs.

a full class period told as one story you scroll through, built from real sources and original artwork.

47 published · more arriving through the year

what a storyhub is

Not a slideshow and not a worksheet. You scroll, the story moves, and the evidence shows up where the argument needs it. Every figure and date on the screen traces back to a source listed at the bottom of the page, and every photograph of a real person is a real photograph.

A breaker spinning on one hand inside a crowded street cypher in Seoul
beyond the scoreboard· bytesize / olympics, judging and the internet· 1973–2026ready to teachbytesize no. 6

zero points in paris

how did an athlete with zero votes become the most famous competitor of paris 2024?

Raygun and breaking’s only Olympics so far, in seven short sections: the battle footage, how nine judges vote, every one of the 54 votes she lost, how she legally qualified, and the petition claims checked against the record.

  • Watch Raygun’s first battle at Place de la Concorde.
  • Reveal all six rounds and see where every judge’s vote went.
  • Learn how a continental quota sent the Oceania champion to Paris.
  • Check four viral petition claims against the Olympic committee’s record.
open the story →
  • olympics
  • breaking
  • judged sports
  • qualification
  • misinformation
  • online harassment
Manti Te’o on the Notre Dame sideline in 2010
beyond the scoreboard· bytesize / media and the athlete story· 2011–2022ready to teachbytesize no. 5

the girlfriend who never existed

how did a girlfriend who never existed become one of the biggest sports stories of 2012?

Manti Te’o’s 2012 season in seven short sections: the late night phone calls, two interceptions on funeral day, the outlets that repeated it all, the four records checks that ended it, and the people on the other end of the line.

  • Follow one week in September 2012 when a real death and an invented one landed a day apart.
  • Watch the Michigan game that turned Te’o into a national story.
  • Run Deadspin’s four background checks and see what came back.
  • Hear from the person who created Lennay and the woman whose photos were used.
open the story →
  • catfishing
  • sports media
  • verification
  • notre dame football
  • heisman trophy
  • documentary
A walleye photographed against a black background by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
beyond the scoreboard· bytesize / cheating and the rules· 2021–2024ready to teachbytesize no. 4

weights in the fish

how did two anglers rig a lake erie championship, and was it worth it?

The 2022 Lake Erie walleye scandal in six short sections: the 33.91 pound bag, the director’s knife, the crowd video playing right on the page, a scale where you pull the lead out yourself, and the road from the boat ramp to jail.

  • See how a team that never finished above 13th started winning 9 of 19 events.
  • Watch the weigh in where Jason Fischer cut open the winning walleye.
  • Pull ten lead sinkers off the scale and see the honest bag fall below the leader.
  • Follow the seizure, the guilty pleas, the sentence and the boat auction.
open the story →
  • cheating
  • fishing tournaments
  • lake erie
  • evidence
  • criminal law
  • viral video
Original documentary illustration of the Nuremberg tribunal courtroom, not an archival photograph
hidden history· nuremberg / justice and evidence· 1945–1950ready to teachbytesize no. 3

the hangman of nuremberg

were the nuremberg executions botched, and what can the evidence actually prove?

A seven-byte case file on John C. Woods: decide why Nazi leaders were tried, check a hangman’s exaggerated résumé, question an eyewitness account, classify six contested claims, and reach an evidence-based verdict.

  • Decide how leaders accused of war crimes should be tried, then discover the 1946 verdicts.
  • Compare Woods’s claims about 347 executions with archival research and examine contemporary reporting.
  • Test what witnesses could actually observe and classify six assertions by strength of evidence.
  • Defend a verdict with two cited pieces of evidence, then submit through the shared PIN-based Turn In system.
open the story →
  • nuremberg trials
  • john c. woods
  • holocaust
  • war crimes
  • eyewitness testimony
  • historical evidence
Charles Lees’s 1847 painting The Golfers, showing a match and its gathered spectators
beyond the scoreboard· golf / access, labor and institutions· 1457–2023ready to teachspecial edition · 5th hour BTS

golf: who gets to play?

which barriers shaped who could participate in golf, and how did they change?

An extended 18-chapter investigation made for 5th hour BTS: real archival images, four recorded field labs, a source hearing and a 100-point test-grade assessment. PIN recovery supports work across sessions.

  • Follow golf from early Scottish records through professional institutions and global competition.
  • Study Shippen, Grant, Ouimet, Jones, Zaharias, Sifford, Palmer, Elder, Woods and Pak.
  • Record and explain equipment, strategy, opportunity-budget and water-management investigations.
  • Complete an evidence notebook, image analysis, source corrections and a revised final argument.
  • Save as you work, recover with a PIN on another device, and submit through shared Turn In.
open the story →
  • golf history
  • civil rights
  • women’s sport
  • labor
  • media
  • public land
Gorgeous George standing in a wrestling ring in a long robe in 1949, Library of Congress photograph
beyond the scoreboard· the money game / wrestling, media and national fear· 1947–2014ready to teach

america’s most hated

who were americans told to boo, and why then?

The complete heels project: fifteen wrestling villains, historical video and news context, plus a five-round research lab with source checks, a chronology tool, draft progress, a presentation planner and a transparent writing-process receipt.

  • Watch the Mr. McMahon trailer and learn heel, face, kayfabe and territory before episode 1.
  • Pick a headline and see how many days it took wrestling to answer it, from 2 days to 1,513.
  • Switch Sgt. Slaughter, Nikolai Volkoff and Jack Swagger between heel and face as the news changed.
  • Claim one of fifteen heels, learn the five questions and the rubric, then prove a connection with dates.
  • Ten official videos from Netflix, the National Archives, WWE and British Pathé, loaded only on press.
  • Draft your original argument, trace evidence, check sources and dates, and present with a two-to-three-minute practice timer.
  • Paste guard, source citations, research checkpoints, optional accessibility exception, and secure PIN-based Turn In.
open the story →
  • professional wrestling
  • cold war
  • iran hostage crisis
  • gulf war
  • stereotypes
  • media and promotion
Fritz Von Erich applying the Iron Claw in a 1977 wrestling program photograph
beyond the scoreboard· the money game / wrestling, media and national fear· 1945–1966ready to teach

fritz von erich: the exemplar

what does a full credit heel presentation look like?

A finished model presentation for America’s Most Hated: three slides and a spoken script on Fritz Von Erich, the Nazi villain who was really from Texas. Turn on the red pencil to see where every rubric point comes from.

  • Each slide shown as the class would see it, with the presenter’s script beneath it.
  • Grading marks in red pencil and a scorecard that jumps to the evidence for each point.
  • A 1953 letter in Adkisson’s own words, a chart of war deaths and a timeline of when the act began and ended.
  • A speaking time check computed from the script, plus what to copy and what not to.
open the story →
  • fritz von erich
  • world war ii memory
  • primary sources
  • presentation model
Mark Wahlberg as Micky Ward and Christian Bale as Dicky Eklund in a film still from The Fighter
beyond the scoreboard· sports, identity, labor and the media· 1978–2003ready to teach

the fighter: who calls the shots?

micky takes the punches. who calls the shots?

A photo-led companion to The Fighter (2010): explore Lowell, examine three film scenes, check the real record, and defend who should control Micky Ward’s career.

  • Explore real Lowell photography and meet the actual brothers behind the film.
  • Analyze the replacement fight, documentary broadcast and training-team conflict.
  • After viewing, compare the film’s documentary and compressed timeline with historical records.
  • Use two scenes and a counterargument to make your call, then use the shared Turn In panel.
open the story →
  • micky ward
  • dicky eklund
  • lowell
  • boxing
  • film and historical evidence
Original cinematic illustration of a 1990s student surrounded by a computer, reference books and warm lamplight
hidden history· history is still happening / modern america· 1969–2026ready to teach

before the web

what did an ordinary afternoon look like before every answer, purchase, and person was one click away?

Step into the world before the public Web. Compare homework and communication across eras, connect through a simulated modem, meet the people who built and experienced the change, and imagine a different 2026.

  • A before-the-Web assignment and a simulated dial-up connection with period technology.
  • A source-grounded timeline from early networks and CERN to an increasingly connected public.
  • Students, families, workers and business owners encounter unequal opportunities and new challenges.
  • Then-versus-now comparisons, a counterfactual laboratory, a comprehension check and Turn In.
open the story →
  • internet history
  • world wide web
  • dial-up
  • everyday life
  • historical counterfactuals
Original digital artwork of a teenager facing a glowing smartphone portal between analog and connected worlds
hidden history· history is still happening / modern america· 2004–2026ready to teach

the device in your pocket

the phone made your world bigger. who gets to decide what fills the screen?

From flip phones to algorithmic feeds: a day-in-the-life comparison, everyday experiences, a feed-ranking experiment and a rumor-spread model expose both the benefits and hidden costs of carrying a connected world.

  • Contrast a teenager’s day in 2003 with the routines of 2026.
  • Adjust an illustrative feed algorithm and see how different ranking incentives change what appears.
  • Trace a rumor, weigh privacy permissions and consider whose voices became easier to hear.
  • Six everyday perspectives, alternate futures, a comprehension check and Turn In.
open the story →
  • smartphones
  • social media
  • algorithms
  • privacy
  • attention
  • misinformation
Original cinematic illustration of an empty Michigan-style school corridor at sunset after the pandemic shutdown
hidden history· history is still happening / modern america· 2019–2026ready to teach

when the hallways went quiet

when school closed in march 2020, why did staying home mean such different things to different americans?

A Michigan-centered March 2020 time capsule follows the pandemic from a crowded school corridor to an empty one, then into hospitals, grocery stores, family kitchens and a series of difficult choices.

  • Slide between school before and after the March 2020 shutdown and explore a dated timeline.
  • Follow a student, nurse, grocery worker, parent and small-business owner through different risks.
  • Use an illustrative transmission model and investigate ordinary pandemic objects.
  • Evaluate alternative choices, historical evidence, an exit ticket and Turn In.
open the story →
  • covid-19
  • pandemic
  • michigan schools
  • essential workers
  • public health
  • counterfactual history
Stylized portrait of Theodore Roosevelt above a snowy mountain wilderness scene
us history 9· the progressive era· 1858–1919ready to teach

theodore roosevelt

how did a boy who struggled to breathe become a man determined to prove his strength—and what did that drive cost?

An archival film opens a cinematic exhibit tracing Roosevelt from childhood asthma to the Rough Riders, the presidency and the River of Doubt, with a conservation epilogue.

  • A thirty-second opening film using authentic 1912 footage, an archival childhood portrait and an attributed memoir quotation.
  • Eleven scenes with sticky archival images, restrained effects and primary-source citations.
  • The cavalry without most of its horses, the human cost of the charge and the expedition that nearly killed him.
  • A dated conservation epilogue distinguishing parks, monuments, forests and the later National Park Service.
open the story →
  • theodore roosevelt
  • rough riders
  • spanish-american war
  • teddy bear
  • river of doubt
  • conservation
Colorized portraits of James A. Garfield and Chester A. Arthur side by side
us history 9· bytesize / presidents 20 and 21· 1881–1885ready to teachbytesize no. 2

the dark horse and the gentleman boss

a job seeker shot the president, and his doctors made it worse. then a party boss nobody trusted took over. what changed?

James A. Garfield and Chester A. Arthur in seven short bytes: a canal boy who proved the Pythagorean theorem, the office seeker at the train station, the pulse card the country followed, the bullet nobody found and the boss who signed civil service reform.

  • Two trading cards to flip, then seven bytes from a canal towpath in 1848 to Arthur burning his papers in 1886.
  • Work Garfield's own proof of the Pythagorean theorem and slide through the real 1881 pulse card, day by day.
  • Sweep Alexander Graham Bell's metal detector over the president, then see where the autopsy found the bullet.
  • Predict four of Arthur's choices, make eight real or fake calls, answer three short questions and write the back of a trading card.
open the story →
  • james a. garfield
  • chester a. arthur
  • charles guiteau
  • pendleton act
  • chinese exclusion act
  • presidents
Colorized portraits of Ulysses S. Grant and Rutherford B. Hayes side by side
us history 9· bytesize / presidents 18 and 19· 1869–1881ready to teachbytesize no. 1

the general and his fraudulency

one president got pulled over for speeding. the next one lost the popular vote and won anyway. what did grant and hayes change?

Ulysses S. Grant and Rutherford B. Hayes in seven short bytes: a colt deal gone wrong, ten thousand cigars, the Klan, a traffic stop at 13th and M, and the 1876 election deal that ended Reconstruction.

  • Two trading cards to flip, then seven bytes from a colt deal around 1830 to Grant finishing his memoirs three days before he died.
  • Make eight year old Ulysses's colt deal, run the cigar math and decide what Officer West should do with a speeding president.
  • Count the twenty disputed votes of 1876 yourself, then send them to the commission.
  • Eight real or fake calls, three short questions and the back of a trading card. Answers save in the browser and copy into Classroom.
open the story →
  • ulysses s. grant
  • rutherford b. hayes
  • election of 1876
  • compromise of 1877
  • ku klux klan act
  • presidents
A row of young women at work tables in a darkened factory studio, their hair, hands and trays glowing green
hidden history· special edition / friday feature· 1917–1939ready to teachspecial edition no. 1

shines in the dark

a company told the women who painted its glowing watch dials that the work was safe. what did it know, and what did their bones prove?

The Radium Girls, told as a horror comic from the real record: lip, dip, paint in Orange, a Harvard report that changed on the way to the state, the five women who sued, and the Ottawa painter whose hearing moved to her living room.

  • Six comic pages from the Orange studio in 1917 to the Ottawa hearing in 1938.
  • Paint a 45 second shift of watch dials at piece rate and see how much radium lipping the brush would have put in your mouth.
  • Flash the lights in the studio like the Harvard investigators did, then run two weeks of sealed dental film through the plant.
  • Unmask five things the company said, listen to a counter measure what the women carried, and guess what changed after 1925.
  • Three short questions and a narrator box for the last panel. Answers save in the browser and copy into Classroom.
open the story →
  • radium girls
  • workplace safety
  • united states radium corporation
  • catherine donohue
  • corporate cover up
  • radiation
Colorized photograph of the long white wooden buildings of the Oak Ridge Army hospital under a cloudy sky in 1944
hidden history· unit 04 / trust and verify· 1945–1997ready to teach

never use the word

the government really did inject hospital patients with plutonium. were they dying anyway, and why was it kept secret?

Eighteen patients filed under code numbers, a first shot given to a man with broken bones, a stomach cancer that was an ulcer, the 1947 memos that kept the reports locked, and a 1972 rule never to say the word plutonium.

  • Eight entries from the Los Alamos accident of 1944 to the settlements of 1997.
  • Count out ten milligrams of plutonium one microgram at a time, then run the years on all eighteen patients against the claim that none would live ten more.
  • Label the reasons in the 1947 secrecy memos and see what survivors and families were told in 1973.
  • Rule on five claims with evidence, answer four short questions and write a 150 to 200 word argument. Answers save in the browser and copy into Classroom.
open the story →
  • plutonium injections
  • manhattan project
  • human radiation experiments
  • informed consent
  • eileen welsome
  • conspiracy theories
A white Air Force WC-130 weather reconnaissance plane flying over a blue ocean dotted with clouds
hidden history· unit 04 / trust and verify· 1966–1977ready to teach

too successful

the military really did make it rain over the ho chi minh trail. does that prove the government controls the weather?

Operation Popeye: a secret cloud seeding program over Laos and Vietnam, a State Department memo that called the test too successful, and a closed Senate hearing where the Pentagon admitted the results were limited and unverifiable.

  • Seven sections from the 1966 test over the Se Kong valley to the treaty signed in Geneva in 1977.
  • Seed a cloud four ways and see what the technique could and could not do.
  • Bet on how long the secret would hold, then step through the Pentagon’s own declassified maps and flight totals.
  • Follow June 1971 from 1,391 seeding units down to the roads, then grade a 1972 news story built on unnamed sources.
  • Four short questions and a 150 to 200 word argument. Answers save in the browser and copy into Classroom.
open the story →
  • operation popeye
  • vietnam war
  • weather modification
  • cloud seeding
  • chemtrails
  • conspiracy theories
Colorized photograph of agents pouring a barrel of seized liquor into a New York sewer during Prohibition
hidden history· unit 04 / trust and verify· 1926–1933ready to teach

sheer poppycock

the government really did put poison in alcohol during prohibition. did it kill ten thousand americans on purpose?

Wood alcohol, a Christmas week at Bellevue, Formula No. 5, the worst week on the Bowery, and a New York medical examiner who blamed the government in 1926 and called government poisoning talk sheer poppycock in 1928.

  • Seven sections from the Christmas deaths of 1926 to the Senate votes of 1930.
  • Fill a pint from three sources and run the medical examiner’s own arithmetic on wood alcohol.
  • Draw your prediction for alcoholism deaths from 1920 to 1940, then see the record for ten states including Michigan.
  • Regroup seven famous numbers by what they count, widen a famous quote until its meaning changes, and cut the claim into five testable pieces.
  • Four short questions and a 150 to 200 word argument. Answers save in the browser and copy into Classroom.
open the story →
  • prohibition
  • denatured alcohol
  • wood alcohol
  • charles norris
  • death statistics
  • conspiracy theories
Colorized photograph of the USS Arizona burning at Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941
hidden history· unit 03 / reading the record· 1940–1946ready to teach

don’t worry about it

washington knew a war with japan was days away. did anyone know it would start at pearl harbor?

A war warning that names six places and not Hawaii, codebreakers who could read Tokyo’s diplomats but not its navy, a destroyer’s first shot, a radar blip 132 miles out, and the theory that Roosevelt let it happen.

  • Seven sections from the November 27 war warning to the 1946 joint committee of Congress.
  • Plot every place the war warning names, then run the 1941 codebreakers on six real Japanese messages.
  • Drag the clock through the 53 minutes between the Opana radar contact and the first bombs.
  • Test each link of the Roosevelt knew theory, then build the truest sentence the record supports.
  • Four short questions and a 150 to 200 word argument. Answers save in the browser and copy into Classroom.
open the story →
  • pearl harbor
  • world war two
  • magic and purple
  • kimmel and short
  • opana radar
  • conspiracy theories
Colorized photograph of the destroyer USS Maddox underway at sea
hidden history· unit 03 / reading the record· 1964–2005ready to teach

nothing but black sea

the navy reported a second attack and congress handed over a war. what actually happened in the gulf of tonkin?

Torpedo boats attack the USS Maddox in daylight on August 2, 1964. Two nights later two destroyers fight radar ghosts in a storm, the President goes on television, and Congress votes 504 to 2. An NSA historian finally opens the whole file in 2005.

  • Five sections from the real attack of August 2 to the NSA study released in 2005.
  • Work a radar scope through the night of August 4 and watch the ships create their own torpedo reports.
  • Slide from 1964 to 2005 as the public record of one day fills in, then check a translation and a drawer of 59 reports.
  • Find the two votes against, trace what "all necessary measures" carried, and stamp six claims.
  • Five short questions and a 150 to 200 word argument. Answers save in the browser and copy into Classroom.
open the story →
  • gulf of tonkin
  • vietnam war
  • nsa
  • lyndon johnson
  • robert mcnamara
  • tonkin gulf resolution
Early color photograph of a crowded Mulberry Street in New York around 1900
us history 9· unit 02 / the gilded age· 1858–1905ready to teach

i seen my opportunities

the machine robbed the city and helped the neighborhood. why did people keep voting for it?

Tammany Hall found jobs, paid rent, and fed families burned out of their homes. The Tweed Ring billed New York $179,729.60 for three tables and forty chairs. Four sources on immigrant New York, Boss Tweed, and George Washington Plunkitt’s honest graft.

  • Four source sections covering immigrant New York, one day of a district leader’s favors, the Tweed Courthouse, and honest graft.
  • Open the hours of Plunkitt’s day, open the courthouse invoices, and watch the $250,000 budget grow to $13 million.
  • Sort three deals the way Plunkitt would, then a ledger and a 100 to 150 word argument using two sources.
  • Student answers save in the browser and can be copied into the Classroom assignment.
open the story →
  • political machines
  • tammany hall
  • boss tweed
  • plunkitt
  • thomas nast
  • immigration
President Nixon beside a stack of edited White House tape transcripts, April 29, 1974
hidden history· unit 02 / watergate· 1971–1974ready to teach

who pressed record

for a year it was one man’s word against the president’s. what turned the story into proof?

John Dean accuses the President under oath. Alexander Butterfield answers one question. A secretary’s stretch fails to explain 18 and a half minutes of buzz, the Supreme Court rules 8 to 0, and the June 23 tape ends the Nixon presidency.

  • Five source reels from Dean’s testimony to the resignation letter.
  • Rank four kinds of evidence, then test Rose Mary Woods’s account against the experts on the 18 and a half minute gap.
  • A 38 seat committee vote chart and a Senate count that shows how far short Nixon fell.
  • A ledger of what could be denied and what could not, then a 200 word argument. Answers save in the browser and copy into Classroom.
open the story →
  • watergate
  • nixon tapes
  • butterfield
  • 18 and a half minute gap
  • united states v. nixon
  • evidence
Joe Louis walking away as Max Schmeling kneels on the canvas, June 22, 1938
beyond the scoreboard· unit 02 / the national stage· 1908–1981ready to teach

two minutes, four seconds

what did the country ask of joe louis, and what did it give him back?

A Detroit fighter lives by rules written because of Jack Johnson, loses to Max Schmeling, beats him in 124 seconds in front of 70 million radio listeners, gives his purses to a segregated military, and spends his later years owing the government.

  • Four source sections from Jack Johnson’s shadow to Arlington National Cemetery.
  • Sort the rules Louis’s managers gave him, then ring the bell on the 1936 and 1938 fights.
  • Compare the words Louis spoke at Madison Square Garden with the words the government printed on his poster.
  • A ledger and a 200 word argument. Answers save in the browser and copy into Classroom.
open the story →
  • joe louis
  • max schmeling
  • jack johnson
  • detroit
  • world war two
  • race and sport
Muhammad Ali raising a gloved fist beside the words What’s My Name
beyond the scoreboard· unit 04 / the athlete revolt· 1964–1971ready to teach

what’s my name

who gets to decide what a person is called—and what can that decision cost?

Muhammad Ali changes his name, refuses the draft, loses his title and the best years of his athletic prime, then wins at the Supreme Court. Students use six sources to decide what the stand cost him and whether it was worth it.

  • Six source-based sections covering the name change, the draft, the Terrell fight, the press, and the Supreme Court case.
  • A visual timeline of the 1,277 days Ali lost during his athletic prime.
  • A cost-versus-gain evidence ledger followed by a 250-word argument using at least three sources.
  • Student answers save in the browser and can be copied into the Classroom assignment.
open the story →
  • muhammad ali
  • identity
  • vietnam war
  • draft resistance
  • athlete protest
Joe Frazier walking to a neutral corner as Muhammad Ali lies on the canvas, March 8, 1971
hidden history· unit 05 / watching the watchers· 1970–2024ready to teach

who took the files

eight people robbed an fbi office during the fight of the century. what did the files prove, and was it worth the crime?

On the night of Ali and Frazier, eight activists empty the FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania. The files expose COINTELPRO, the Post prints over the Attorney General’s objection, 200 agents never solve the case, and the burglars stay hidden for 43 years.

  • Eight source folders from the casing of the office to the Church Committee and the Watergate burglars.
  • Declassify a real FBI memo, guess what the files contained, then open the drawer.
  • Make the Washington Post’s 10 PM call, then see what all five recipients did.
  • A clock covering 53 years that runs out the statute of limitations and reveals the burglars one by one.
  • A ledger weighing the crime against the evidence, then a 200 word argument. Answers save in the browser and copy into Classroom.
open the story →
  • cointelpro
  • fbi
  • media burglary
  • freedom of information act
  • church committee
  • watergate
Colorized photograph of crowds and two locomotives meeting at Promontory Summit, 1869
us history 9· unit 02 / the gilded age· 1862–1901ready to teach

who paid for it · part one

the gilded age made america rich. who paid the bill?

The Central Pacific, Standard Oil, and Carnegie Steel. Three sources on the fortunes built between 1862 and 1901 and the Chinese railroad crews and Homestead steelworkers whose labor built them.

  • Three source sections covering the railroad, oil, and steel.
  • Interactive refinery takeover and supply chain tools that show how the fortunes were built.
  • A ledger of who got rich and who paid and a 100 to 150 word argument using two sources.
  • Student answers save in the browser and can be copied into the Classroom assignment.
open the story →
  • gilded age
  • railroads
  • standard oil
  • carnegie steel
  • horizontal integration
  • vertical integration
Colorized photograph of workers building magnetos on the first moving line at Highland Park, 1913
us history 9· unit 02 / the gilded age· 1869–1925ready to teach

who paid for it · part two

who paid for the gilded age, and who finally got a share of it?

The Chinese workers who built the railroad are banned from the country by the law of 1882, and a Dearborn farm boy builds a car the men on his assembly line can afford. Two sources on the law and the line.

  • Two source sections covering the Chinese Exclusion Act and the Model T.
  • Open the actual wording of the 1882 law, then drag the years to see how many days of work a Model T cost.
  • A ledger of who got rich and who paid and a 100 to 150 word argument using two sources.
  • Student answers save in the browser and can be copied into the Classroom assignment.
open the story →
  • chinese exclusion
  • geary act
  • henry ford
  • model t
  • assembly line
  • five dollar day
AI-authored reconstruction of an empty railroad cut in the Sierra Nevada
us history 9· unit 02 / the gilded age· 1867–1885ready to teach

the one that passed · episode one

politicians did not fix low wages. they made exclusion federal law.

Chinese railroad workers join the labor fight. Economic anger turns against them. Congress answers one labor demand with the Chinese Exclusion Act, and the consequences spread west.

  • Stamp five labor demands and discover which one received federal power.
  • See how the Page Act shaped families before the 1882 exclusion law.
  • Follow the vote, the population change, and the Rock Springs massacre to the episode’s answer.
open the story →
  • chinese exclusion
  • nativism
  • labor
  • page act
  • rock springs
AI-authored reconstruction of an 1880s steamship approaching the California coast
us history 9· unit 02 / the gilded age· 1885–1943ready to teach

they said no · episode two

chinese americans organized, refused, sued—and changed the law.

Exclusion reaches homes, ships, identity papers, and courtrooms. Chinese Americans answer with mass resistance and cases that strengthen equal protection and birthright citizenship.

  • Move a ship carrying a valid return certificate that Congress cancels during the crossing.
  • Build a residence file and confront a legal condition the applicant cannot supply alone.
  • Follow Yick Wo, mass refusal, Wong Kim Ark, Angel Island, and sixty-one years of exclusion.
open the story →
  • chinese exclusion
  • civil disobedience
  • equal protection
  • wong kim ark
  • birthright citizenship
Generated cyanotype-style reconstruction of the road across the South Fork dam
us history 9· unit 02 / the gilded age· 1838–1889ready to teach

the margin

how many ordinary decisions can a safety margin survive before there is no margin left?

The South Fork dam begins as a state engineering project, is breached and abandoned, then returns as the centerpiece of a private club. Students follow the missing pipes, lowered crest, warnings, storm, flood path, liability fight, and the engineering disagreement that still matters.

  • A subtraction instrument that shows how safety features disappeared without inventing unsupported capacity percentages.
  • The fifty-seven minute route from the dam to Johnstown and the accepted death toll of 2,209.
  • Competing engineering conclusions presented as a real evidence disagreement rather than a fake certainty.
  • Persistent student notes, note repair, reduced-motion support, and a source-transparency panel.
open the story →
  • johnstown flood
  • south fork dam
  • gilded age wealth
  • liability
  • safety margin
Generated reconstruction of a Cold War planning map stopped on an official desk
hidden history· standalone / evidence lab· 1962–1997ready to teach

the desk it stopped at

what can a real declassified document prove — and where does the evidence stop?

Operation Northwoods is real, signed, declassified, and routinely misused online. Students keep proposal, approval, and execution separate while following the paper from the Joint Chiefs to the desk where the released record stops.

  • An annex instrument that separates what was proposed from what was approved or carried out.
  • A status chain from request to draft to signed transmittal to the point where the released record stops.
  • A claim ladder that makes students decide how far one genuine document can carry a later claim.
  • Persistent student notes, note repair, reduced-motion support, and a source-transparency panel.
open the story →
  • operation northwoods
  • declassified records
  • primary sources
  • claim scope
  • corroboration
Generated sepia reconstruction of a 1905 football death tally on a wooden desk
beyond the scoreboard· the national stage / standalone· 1905–1912ready to teach

the death harvest

did the forward pass save football, or did the rule book need a deeper rewrite?

Newspapers turn football deaths into a national tally, Roosevelt brings college leaders to the White House, and the sport rewrites its rules. Then the counts rise again. Students test the famous forward-pass story against the rule book and the messy newspaper series.

  • A 1905 rule constraint test showing why mass plays made strategic sense under five yards in three downs.
  • A season series that preserves conflicting newspaper totals instead of turning them into fake official data.
  • The 1909 second crisis, the 1910 changes that attacked mass play directly, and the origins of the NCAA.
  • Persistent student notes, note repair, reduced-motion support, and a source-transparency panel.
open the story →
  • 1905 football crisis
  • theodore roosevelt
  • forward pass
  • ncaa origins
  • sports safety
Illustrated reconstruction of Philadelphia garment cutters meeting privately in 1869
us history 9· unit 02 / the gilded age· 1869–1893ready to teach

unions & collective bargaining

what changes when workers stop negotiating as individuals and begin acting together?

A tiny secret society of Philadelphia garment cutters becomes the largest labor organization in the country, beats one of the richest railroad owners in America, grows almost sevenfold, and then collapses in about two years. The story runs from a locked room in 1869 to a five state strike that reached ten thousand workers and still lost.

  • A scale you can move from one worker to ten thousand, with what actually changes for the employer and for the workers at every step.
  • The firing of C. A. Hall in Marshall, Texas, followed out to the five states it stopped.
  • Archival photographs of Jay Gould and Samuel Gompers from the Library of Congress, with the record for each.
  • A note repair board and a source list students can check for themselves.
open the story →
  • knights of labor
  • terence powderly
  • jay gould
  • haymarket
  • the afl
Authored paper-and-ink scene of an empty rail yard at first light
us history 9· unit 02 / the gilded age· 1877–1895ready to teach

who showed up

when workers stopped the trains, who arrived to make them move again?

Four strikes across seventeen years reveal a system getting faster and more distant: local militia, outside troops, hired detectives, and finally a court order that could reach a national union without leaving the courtroom.

  • A rail-network timeline that shows the 1877 strike spreading city by city and records who answered it.
  • A workday dial, a Pullman household ledger, and a step-by-step federal injunction instrument.
  • Six visible plain-language bridges that explain local loyalty, private force, the eight-hour demand, the company-town loop, and why paper became more powerful than troops.
  • A final comparison ladder and a note-repair table built around six common historical distortions.
open the story →
  • great railroad strike
  • haymarket
  • homestead
  • pullman strike
  • labor injunctions
Editorial ledger cover with an intentionally empty player chair
beyond the scoreboard· unit 01 / inventing american sport· 1876–1885ready to teach

not in the room

what changes when the people doing the work are missing from the meeting?

Baseball owners create a league, set entry rules, and close the labor market while the players who produce the game are absent from the room. Students follow exactly where control moved and who gained it.

  • A four-clause charter audit that makes students identify the problem each owner rule was designed to solve.
  • A reserve-rule market that shows how one agreement can erase competing bids without making labor illegal.
  • A pay-and-freedom plot that separates earning more from controlling where you may work.
  • Visible classroom-language explanations, note repair, persistent notes, and a source register.
open the story →
  • national league origins
  • william hulbert
  • club ownership
  • reserve rule
  • player labor
Editorial receiver dial contrasting repeated signals with independent signals
hidden history· unit 01 / the official story vs. the rumor· 1969–1974ready to teach

two sources

when a hundred retellings trace back to one origin, how many sources do you really have?

The “Paul is dead” rumor and the Watergate investigation put two very different source networks side by side. Students trace origins, collapse repeated claims, and test whether each conclusion can be disproved.

  • A backward trace that follows many rumor outlets to the same two Michigan origins.
  • A source-deduplication instrument that distinguishes repeated work from independent evidence.
  • A symmetric disproof test applied to both the rumor and the reporting method.
  • Seven visible plain-language bridges, named-person placeholders, note repair, and transparent source limits.
open the story →
  • source independence
  • corroboration
  • paul is dead
  • watergate
  • falsifiability
Generated interpretive StoryHub art of an 1890s farmer facing a fixed debt while crop value falls
us history 9· unit 02 / the gilded age· 1870s–1896ready to teach

the debt didn’t move

what happens when the price of what you sell falls while the number you owe refuses to change?

Wheat gets cheaper. The mortgage does not. A farm problem widens into rail regulation, cooperative organizing, the Colored Farmers’ Alliance, the Omaha Platform, free silver, and the strange 1896 bargain that helped swallow the party while leaving parts of its argument behind.

  • A wheat-price model that makes a fixed debt harder to pay as crop prices fall from 1891 to 1894.
  • A two-sided railroad-rate field that keeps higher western freight rates and lower traffic density visible at the same time.
  • The Colored Farmers’ Alliance as a main part of the agrarian story, including the collision between economic cooperation and racial power.
  • Seven teaching interactions, a note-repair ending, and a source panel that separates generated narrative art from historical evidence.
open the story →
  • populism
  • farm debt
  • railroad rates
  • free silver
  • farmers alliance
  • omaha platform
July 1947 Roswell Daily Record front page used as the entry image for the first-week evidence StoryHub
hidden history· unit 01 / the official story vs. the rumor· june–july 1947ready to teach

the week roswell became roswell

what can the first week of the roswell record actually establish?

Students stay inside the first-week evidence boundary: Kenneth Arnold, Brazel, the Army “flying disc” release, the same-day correction, the Fort Worth debris photographs, and the FBI teletype. The lesson separates what is confirmed, what is unproven, and what later retellings project backward into 1947.

  • A strict first-week timeline that keeps later body testimony out of the 1947 evidence set.
  • Creator, timing, access, and limit lenses for reading the front page and FBI teletype.
  • A false-dilemma test showing why weakening one explanation does not prove the largest alternative.
  • A final evidence audit: confirmed, unproven, misleading, followed by a student note-repair ending.
open the story →
  • roswell
  • 1947
  • flying disc
  • source limits
  • claim scope
  • evidence
Colorized Jacob Riis photograph of Bandits Roost, an alley off Mulberry Street hung with laundry
us history 9· the progressive era / the muckrakers· 1870–1901ready to teach

the other half

why did a photograph move New York when ten years of newspaper stories had not?

Jacob Riis carries magnesium flash powder into rooms nobody uptown had ever seen. Students fire the flash, fit twelve lodgers into his Bayard Street room, and test a dumbbell tenement against the 1901 law.

  • A flash reveal that shows Bandits Roost for a split second, the way Riis first saw it.
  • A scale floor plan of the Bayard Street lodging room where twelve sleepers fill 169 square feet.
  • A dumbbell tenement floor tested rule by rule against the Tenement House Act of 1901.
  • An honest look at what his photographs can prove and what his captions cannot.
open the story →
  • jacob riis
  • how the other half lives
  • tenements
  • dumbbell tenement
  • flash photography
  • tenement house act
Udo Keppler’s 1904 Puck cartoon Next, showing Standard Oil as an octopus wrapped around the Capitol
us history 9· the progressive era / the muckrakers· 1859–1911ready to teach

the paper trail

how do you prove a secret contract exists when the richest company on earth wants it buried?

Ida Tarbell takes on Standard Oil with documents. Students run the 1872 freight bill, read Keppler’s octopus cartoon spot by spot, decide which claims Tarbell could print, and break the company into 34 pieces.

  • A freight bill with sliders that shows how the rebate and drawback made rivals pay for Standard.
  • The 22 of 26 Cleveland refineries read two ways, from the independent and from Rockefeller.
  • Six hotspots on the octopus cartoon that explain what each tentacle grabs.
  • An editor’s desk where each claim is printed or held based on its evidence.
open the story →
  • ida tarbell
  • standard oil
  • rebates
  • monopoly
  • antitrust
  • mcclures magazine
Colorized early 1900s postcard of a dressing room at the Union Stock Yards in Chicago
us history 9· the progressive era / the muckrakers· 1904–1906ready to teach

the jungle

Sinclair aimed at the public’s heart and hit its stomach. what did the 1906 laws fix, and who did they leave behind?

Upton Sinclair spends seven weeks undercover in Packingtown and writes a novel that changes what Americans eat. Students check his scenes against the Neill and Reynolds report and sort which of Jurgis Rudkus’s problems the laws solved.

  • Four scenes from the novel predicted against what the government inspectors confirmed.
  • The lard vat passage as the most famous and least proven scene in the book.
  • A sorter that counts fixes protecting eaters against fixes protecting workers.
  • A stamp that lands only when every problem is sorted.
open the story →
  • upton sinclair
  • the jungle
  • meat inspection act
  • pure food and drug act
  • muckraker
  • union stock yards
Allen W. Dulles’s CIA identification card, released by the agency
hidden history· mkultra· 1950–1973ready to teach

follow the money

the cia burned the files. what can the receipts still prove?

MKULTRA as the accounting paper tells it: a funding line, 149 subprojects, 80 institutions and 375,000 dollars routed through a cutout into a hospital building fund. Students declassify a memo and find out which lines stay black.

  • A declassify button that lifts redactions and leaves the destroyed records dark.
  • A money chain that tracks 375,000 dollars step by step and shows who knew.
  • An 80 square waffle of institutions with a final question nobody can answer.
  • The 1963 Inspector General finding that approvals were never written down.
open the story →
  • mkultra
  • cia
  • allen dulles
  • sidney gottlieb
  • cutout
  • brainwashing
Typical guest floor plan of the Hotel Pennsylvania, later the Statler, in a navy and gold tint
hidden history· mkultra· 1953–2013ready to teach

room 1018a

what was the Olson family told, and when did they learn the truth?

Frank Olson is given LSD without consent and dies nine days later at the Statler Hotel. Students move year by year through what his family believed against what the record shows, then check a viral video claim by claim.

  • A year by year view from 1953 to 2013 of what the family knew and what the government knew.
  • Safe houses in San Francisco and New York alongside the federal hospital in Lexington.
  • A four claim video check where one claim is wrong and one needs a label.
  • The difference between a confirmed cover story and an unproven murder.
open the story →
  • frank olson
  • mkultra
  • informed consent
  • safe houses
  • lexington
  • rockefeller commission
Portrait of CIA Director Richard Helms in an ember tint
hidden history· mkultra· 1973–2026ready to teach

burn the files

is six all that happened, or six all we can prove?

152 files are destroyed in January 1973. Seven boxes survive in the wrong storage center. Students burn the files, compare two readings of Turner’s six proven cases, and sort claims into confirmed, unproven, unsupported and misleading.

  • A burn animation of 152 files that leaves seven boxes behind.
  • A 149 square grid read two ways, with the destroyed record shown as fog.
  • A verdict board that sorts eight claims by what the record can carry.
  • The June 30, 2026 House hearing with each witness claim labeled.
open the story →
  • mkultra
  • richard helms
  • stansfield turner
  • church committee
  • evidence
  • mksearch
Colorized photograph of Jackie Robinson in his UCLA uniform
beyond the scoreboard· jackie robinson· 1919–1945ready to teach

the scouting report

what did Branch Rickey see in Jackie Robinson before Brooklyn?

Four sports at UCLA, a court martial over a bus seat at Camp Hood and a Red Sox tryout that went nowhere. Students flip his trading card, pick his best sport, step through the charge sheet and guess when the last team integrated.

  • A flip trading card with the stats Rickey would have read.
  • A pick his best sport challenge where the answer is the surprise.
  • A charge sheet that goes from six charges to zero guilty verdicts.
  • A guess and reveal timeline of all sixteen teams from 1947 to 1959.
open the story →
  • jackie robinson
  • ucla
  • camp hood
  • court martial
  • kansas city monarchs
  • integration
Colorized photograph of Jackie Robinson in his Brooklyn Dodgers uniform
beyond the scoreboard· jackie robinson· 1945–1949ready to teach

the bargain

what did it cost Robinson to promise he would not fight back?

Branch Rickey wanted a player with guts enough not to fight back. Students follow the promise through Montreal, the Durocher petition, Ben Chapman and the strike threat, weigh Rickey’s motives, and compare the silent rookie with the free MVP.

  • The August 28, 1945 meeting in the words Robinson remembered.
  • A season strip of six moments that tested the promise.
  • A motive mixer that splits ten points among conscience, money and winning.
  • A 1947 against 1949 stat toggle that shows what freedom changed.
open the story →
  • jackie robinson
  • branch rickey
  • brooklyn dodgers
  • ben chapman
  • rookie of the year
  • 1947
Red and white Negro American League game poster featuring Satchel Paige
beyond the scoreboard· jackie robinson· 1920–2024ready to teach

who lost when robinson won?

integration was right. who paid for it?

The Negro Leagues were one of the largest Black owned businesses in America. Students open the ledger on Robinson and Doby, sort the two truths of integration, and flip the career batting leaderboard to the day Josh Gibson took the top spot.

  • Founders cards for Rube Foster, Gus Greenlee and Effa Manley.
  • A ledger that opens to zero dollars for Robinson and 15,000 for Doby.
  • A two truths sorter where Mays and Aaron land in both columns.
  • A leaderboard before and after May 29, 2024.
open the story →
  • negro leagues
  • rube foster
  • effa manley
  • larry doby
  • josh gibson
  • integration