5 Government Resources for Your Classroom

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5 Government Resources for Your Classroom

IMAGE: Generated by Bing Image Creator, https://www.bing.com/images/create, prompt: "a student using government resources".

As I stated in my Government Resources blog post, government resources are great for classroom use as they provide information, lesson plans, virtual tours, and more for FREE with basically no copyright stipulations. Here are 5 (which let's be real, is minute compared to what is actually out there) government resources that you may find useful.

United States Botanical Garden

Not just a pretty garden, you can find information on in-person and virtual field trips for grades 3–5. They also have lesson plans for plant life cycles for K–5, and includes plans on how to create a school garden and greenhouses for student programs for Pre-K–12.

  • Name of resource: Field Trips & Resources
  • Link: https://www.usbg.gov/schools-families/field-trips-resources 
  • Use: Connects with MA State Earth science standards for Pre-K–8. 
  • Searching: Resources are limited to one page. Searching brings resources and articles from the entire site.
  • Tags: Science, Earth Science, Elementary, Middle School, High School, Teacher Resources

Government of Canada

If you think government resources are only available from your country, think again! Canada has environmental resources for Pre-K–12 teachers that link to external organizations. Lessons include worksheets, videos, and games. While the content is from Canada, a lot of the resources are about climate science that affects everyone. We are also within the same hemisphere as Canada making the lessons relevant to our area.

  • Name of resource: Resources for Educators
  • Link: https://www.canada.ca/en/services/environment/weather/climatechange/get-involved/ressources-educators.html 
  • Use: A lot of resources from different organizations for different environmental topics. Bonus, a lot of the content is presented in both English and French. Connects with MA State Earth science standards for Pre-K–12.
  • Searching: Searching uses Canada.ca which does not help you look for specific classroom resources, but the Resources for Educators does allow you to filter content by subject, type of material, and / or grade level. 
  • Tags: Science, Earth Science, Elementary, Middle School, High School, Teacher Resources

Statistics in Schools (SIS) under the United States Census Bureau

The SIS provides Math, English, History, Geography, and Sociology resources that connect with statistics for grades K–12, with lessons being able to be filtered by grade level under each category. Lessons were created by teachers so each lesson contains Bloom’s Taxonomy, Subject, Topics, and Skills Taught. Each lesson has a teacher and student downloads, suggested grade levels, and when it was last updated. Who knew that statistics could be so broad? Probably statisticians. 

  • Name of resource: Statistics in Schools
  • Link: https://www.census.gov/schools/ 
  • Use: Connects with Massachusetts State History and Social Science grades 4–12 and Math Curriculum grades 6–12 standards.
  • Searching: Searching searches within Statistics in Schools (SIS).
  • Tags: Math, Elementary, Middle School, High School, Teacher Resources

United States Courts

Order in the classroom! The United States Courts provides resources to learn about federal courts, civil discourse, and the first, fourth, fifth, and sixth amendment as they relate to students.

  • Name of resource: Educational Resources
  • Link: https://www.uscourts.gov/about-federal-courts/educational-resources/educational-activities 
  • Use: Best for grades 8–12 as it connects with Massachusetts History and Social Science standards for court decisions and amendments. Gives background and examples for real court cases to conduct classroom versions of trials. 
  • Searching: Navigating to activities can be a little confusing as you need to click into the topic page where you get information about the topic, and then must find the link to the activity page which will contain more resources. When using the search feature it searches the entire United States Court website.
  • Tags: Government, Laws and Acts, History, Middle, High School, Teacher Resources

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

Did you know the United States is primarily the only place that uses the Imperial System as compared to the rest of the world that uses the Metric System (aka, International System of Units (SI)). With the help of the NIST, their site contains resources for using the Metric System for scientific and mathematical purposes. Teachers can request a free set of metric education resources for classroom use. They also provide data on object weight estimations for quick reference and the Periodic Table. An explanation on what Metric System (aka, International System of Units (SI)) is with many examples from multiple sources. It also includes the proper formatting on how to write using the Metric System along with educational resources for teaching Metric and professional development for teachers.

  • Name of resource: Resources for Parents, Teachers and Students
  • Link: https://www.nist.gov/education/resources-parents-teachers-and-students 
  • Use: A great resource to utilize for science or math classes. While it does not contain lesson plans, it does provide explanation and understanding of a measurement system used internationally for scientific processes.
  • Searching: Searching searches the entire NIST website, not just the educational section. There are a lot of sub-pages so finding information, or seeing the breadth of what is available takes some exploring.
  • Tags: Science, Math, Middle School, High School, Teacher Resources


For a larger list of government resources that I have curated, you can peruse my Raindrop.io Bookmark list.



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