Modern History First Semester Curriculum Package: Hands-On History for Teens

Continue your students’ journey through modern history from the 1860s to the 1910s. The Modern History First Semester Curriculum Package introduces learners to the rich and diverse cultures of Africa, Asia, Oceania, Europe, and the Americas, showing how these worlds came together to shape the world we know today.

This half-semester-long package includes six themed boxes filled with creative, hands-on activities, lesson plans, reading lists, and educator resources for everything you need to bring modern history to life for students in grades 7th through 12th. 

Perfect for homeschool families, classrooms, co-ops, and history clubs, this curriculum helps learners understand history in a meaningful, memorable way.

What’s Inside?

This package includes six exciting boxes, each focusing on a key chapter of early American history. Each box contains age-appropriate activities, educator resources, and everything you need for an immersive lesson:

1. 1. 1860s: The International Exhibition: We have chosen to start our story in the 1860s. Reconstruction was underway in the United States, and the Fisk Jubilee Singers were beginning to tour. Trains and steam power are connecting people more than ever. International exhibitions show the newest inventions while also displaying the inequity of the Industrial Revolution and colonization. Learn about the opening of Japan to the West through the nineteenth-century whaling industry. 
   2. 1870s: Around the World in Eighty Days: Modern history is global history. Learn about the Bengal Renaissance in India. Read first hand accounts of Hong Kong and Singapore in the nineteenth century through the eyes of a rare female traveler, Isabella Bird. Focus on Louis Pasteur and the Second Scientific Revolution, and go to South America and explore the devastating consequences of the Paraguayan War. Returning to the U.S., learn about the growing industry monopolies and the Lakota’s resistance in the Black Hills War. 
   3. 1880s: Immigration & Imperialism: Explore late-nineteenth century imperialism through the French colonies in Africa and Asia including Vietnam, Cambodia, Tahiti, and Algeria. Understand better how the Scramble for Africa was rooted in racism and social Darwinism. Learn about the U.S. immigration system and the Statue of Liberty. Explore the role of electricity in modern life, and the life of anti-lynching advocate Ida B. Wells. 
   4. 1890s: A Turning Point: Learn about yellow journalism and the Spanish American War fought in Cuba and the Philippines, and learn about U.S. imperialism in Puerto Rico. Get moving with sportswear, bicycles, and the modern Olympic Games, and explore the impacts of the growing rubber industry in the Amazon and Africa. Visit the World’s Columbian Exhibition in Chicago. 
   5. 1900s: Changing Pace of Life: Travel to South Africa to learn about the Boer Wars. Be immersed in the changing world of the 1900s where skyscrapers rose, people lived in crowded tenements, sanitation improved, and industrial food couldn’t be trusted. Take a look at how planes, zeppelins, and automobiles changed the pace of life across the world and how the Panama Canal impacted people locally and globally. Look at the impact of scientific innovations like cameras and plastics too. 
   6. 1910s: Steaming Towards War: World War I and the Great Influenza epidemic connected the world in new and terrible ways while revolutions broke out in China and Russia. Explore medical advances that helped mend broken soldiers, and learn about suffrage movements bringing the right to vote to women across the globe. Travel in style on luxury steamships, and learn about the Jewish Pale of Settlement.

Why Choose our Modern History Curriculum Package?

This secular, hands-on history curriculum engages students with creative projects, meaningful stories, and thoughtful discussions. Teens learn by crafting, building, cooking, and imagining, all while building a deeper connection to the people and cultures that shaped the modern world.

Everything you need such as supplies, directions, and background information is included so you can focus on teaching while your students experience history firsthand.

Product Details

• Includes six themed boxes with lesson plans, reading lists, and educator resources
• Covers a half semester of modern history from 1860 to 1910. 
• Designed for students in grades 7–12 or 13+ (Youth) and 16+ (Young Adult version).
• Secular, inclusive, and adaptable for homeschool, classroom, or group learning
• In your first box you will receive a welcome packet with introductory materials including a timeline, time traveling journal, educator guide, comic, and coloring page. Young adult boxes will also receive an arts and entertainment journal.
• Please see our FAQs for additional information

Introduce your students to the people, places, and stories that shaped world history with the Modern History First Semester Curriculum Package for a creative, hands-on way to explore world history. Order today and spark their love of learning!