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American History: Elevating Black Voices (6-12)

13 Activities

More from this collaborator

Grades 6 - 12

9 Hours 10 Minutes

Overview

The American History: Elevating Black Voices Collection is a weekly, inquiry-driven playlist that invites learners to examine how storytelling, innovation, creativity, and leadership shape American history and civic life. Through complex texts, Innovator Trading Cards, and theme-based activities across literacy, STEM, the arts, and collaborative problem-solving, students engage with lesser-known Black Americans—whose contributions have influenced systems, culture, and community change. Each week introduces a thematic lens that builds historical analysis, critical reading, argumentation, and interdisciplinary thinking, culminating in a challenge-based game that requires evidence, reasoning, and collaboration. Designed to support meaningful discussion and application, this Collection highlights innovation as a collective process and underscores the power of amplifying voices that shape our shared history.

This collection is designed to have learners apply ideas from the weekly themes introduced through the Innovator Playing Cards with additional related activities; it is recommended to follow this sequence to maintain consistency:

Week 1: Storytelling and Voice

Designing Innovator Trading Cards (K-2)

What Makes a Good Story?

One Minute Speeches

Erasure Poetry as Resistance

Week 2: Inventing and Problem Solving

Designing Innovator Trading Cards (K-2)

Cell City

Catapult (Team Building) Game

Build an Extension Arm

Week 3: Creativity and Expression

Designing Innovator Trading Cards (K-2)

Create a Cardboard Self-Portrait

Improv: Say the Line

How to Look at Dance

Week 4: Leadership and Change

Designing Innovator Trading Cards

Playing Innovator Trading Cards

Analyzing and Constructing Timelines of Racial (In)justice

Dream Team

Designing Innovator Trading Cards (6-12)

Stories and Perspectives, We The People

Designing Innovator Trading Cards (6-12)

6 - 12

1 Hour

In this activity, learners examine the lives and contributions of lesser-known Black American innovators—past and present—through close reading, discussion, and synthesis. Each week introduces a new theme that highlights a different way people shape communities and history. Learners create Innovator Trading Cards that capture key details about each innovator and prepare those cards for use in a collaborative, challenge-based game later in the playlist. This activity supports historical understanding, literacy skills, and critical thinking by asking learners to connect individual contributions to broader themes of innovation, culture, and community impact.

This is the first of two activities in the Innovator Trading Card Collection: 

  • Activity 1 focuses on the theme of the week, learning about the innovators and their influence, and designing the innovator trading cards. 

  • Activity 2 focuses on facilitating the associated game to reinforce learning.

Discover Activity

What Makes a Good Video Story? (Student Reporting Labs)

Stories and Perspectives, Digital Voices

What Makes a Good Video Story? (Student Reporting Labs)

6 - 12

50 Minutes

What makes a video story good isn’t just about the topic, it’s how you tell the story.

In this lesson, you will focus on key elements that make for great nonfiction stories like news packages, video profiles, explainers, and short documentaries.

This is activity 4 of 16 in the PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs Module. Visit the Module to learn more before getting started.

Discover Activity

One Minute Speeches

Belonging and Community, Stories and Perspectives

One Minute Speeches

6 - 12

10 Minutes

Develop public speaking fluency, spontaneity, and confidence with this game.

Discover Activity

Erasure Poetry as Resistance

Stories and Perspectives, We The People

Erasure Poetry as Resistance

6 - 12

45 Minutes

Students discuss what erasure means, and how it can be used both as a tool of oppression and resistance. They then explore examples of poems that use erasure to question, challenge, and subvert existing texts, and create erasure poems of their own in the spirit of resistance.

Discover Activity

Cell City

STEM Lab: Build, Tinker, Explore, The Natural World

Cell City

6 - 12

45 Minutes

Students learn about cells, including their functions in the body, by building models for themselves!

Discover Activity

Catapult (Team Building) Game

Leadership and Teamwork, STEM Lab: Build, Tinker, Explore

Catapult (Team Building) Game

6 - 12

30 Minutes

Build the ultimate catapult and compete as your team launches coins across the room!

Discover Activity

Build An Extension Arm

STEM Lab: Build, Tinker, Explore, The Natural World

Build An Extension Arm

6 - 12

45 Minutes

In this activity, students learn about engineering as they design, build and test an extension arm.

Discover Activity

Create A Cardboard Self-Portrait

Arts in Action, Belonging and Community

Create A Cardboard Self-Portrait

K - 12

45 Minutes

In this activity, students will use creative reuse materials to create self-portraits.

Discover Activity

Improv: Say the Line

Arts in Action, Stories and Perspectives

Improv: Say the Line

6 - 12

45 Minutes

Have fun with improv! Students are given a scenario, such as "customer at a shoe store" or "students in the cafeteria line" and begin acting out a scene. At your signal, one of the actors needs to pick a slip of paper that contains a random line of dialogue and then try to work it into the scene. Watch the creativity and laughter ensue as you build on students’ improvisation skills.

Discover Activity

How to Look at Dance

Arts in Action, Stories and Perspectives

How to Look at Dance

9 - 12

1 Hour 30 Minutes

In this activity, students will practice discussing dance, by first observing and describing ordinary everyday movements. Then, students will apply a critical framework to describe, analyze, interpret, and evaluate dances. Students will write a four-sentence dance review; the same process can be used to review modern dance, hip hop, culturally specific dance, and more.

Dance is found in every culture and time period and is evolving all the time. The goal of this lesson is to demystify the discussion and vocabulary about dance through simple observation, description, guided analysis, and freely interpreting everyday activities. Knowledge of any particular dance technique is not needed for this activity.

Discover Activity

Playing Innovator Trading Cards (6-12)

Leadership and Teamwork, We The People

Playing Innovator Trading Cards (6-12)

6 - 12

1 Hour

In this culminating activity, learners use their completed Innovator Trading Cards to solve community-based challenges. Each challenge requires a balanced team of innovators, with one innovator from each theme. Learners must justify their team choices and explain how different kinds of contributions work together to address complex problems.

This is the second of two activities in the Innovator Trading Card Collection: 

  • Activity 1 focuses on the theme of the week, learning about the innovators and their influence, and designing the innovator trading cards. 

  • Activity 2 focuses on facilitating the associated game to reinforce learning.

Discover Activity

Analyzing and Constructing Timelines of Racial (In)justice

Belonging and Community, We The People

Analyzing and Constructing Timelines of Racial (In)justice

6 - 12

45 Minutes

Students reflect on how myths about history are perpetuated, analyze a timeline of racial (in)justice from The 1619 Project, and collaborate to build timelines that illustrate how the fight for racial justice continues in their own lifetimes.

Discover Activity

Dream Team

Leadership and Teamwork, Future Ready: Learning and Earning

Dream Team

6 - 12

45 Minutes

Students create their ultimate entrepreneurial "dream team" poster. Students first create an image of themselves as an entrepreneur (as creatively as they like), highlighting their entrepreneurial strengths, and then they will add team members to their poster (real or fictional), highlighting the mindsets and skills they will bring to the team to make up the ultimate entrepreneurial dream team - ready to take on any challenge!

Discover Activity

Designing Innovator Trading Cards (6-12)

Stories and Perspectives, We The People

Designing Innovator Trading Cards (6-12)

6 - 12

1 Hour

In this activity, learners examine the lives and contributions of lesser-known Black American innovators—past and present—through close reading, discussion, and synthesis. Each week introduces a new theme that highlights a different way people shape communities and history. Learners create Innovator Trading Cards that capture key details about each innovator and prepare those cards for use in a collaborative, challenge-based game later in the playlist. This activity supports historical understanding, literacy skills, and critical thinking by asking learners to connect individual contributions to broader themes of innovation, culture, and community impact.

This is the first of two activities in the Innovator Trading Card Collection: 

  • Activity 1 focuses on the theme of the week, learning about the innovators and their influence, and designing the innovator trading cards. 

  • Activity 2 focuses on facilitating the associated game to reinforce learning.

Discover Activity

What Makes a Good Video Story? (Student Reporting Labs)

Stories and Perspectives, Digital Voices

What Makes a Good Video Story? (Student Reporting Labs)

6 - 12

50 Minutes

What makes a video story good isn’t just about the topic, it’s how you tell the story.

In this lesson, you will focus on key elements that make for great nonfiction stories like news packages, video profiles, explainers, and short documentaries.

This is activity 4 of 16 in the PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs Module. Visit the Module to learn more before getting started.

Discover Activity

One Minute Speeches

Belonging and Community, Stories and Perspectives

One Minute Speeches

6 - 12

10 Minutes

Develop public speaking fluency, spontaneity, and confidence with this game.

Discover Activity

Erasure Poetry as Resistance

Stories and Perspectives, We The People

Erasure Poetry as Resistance

6 - 12

45 Minutes

Students discuss what erasure means, and how it can be used both as a tool of oppression and resistance. They then explore examples of poems that use erasure to question, challenge, and subvert existing texts, and create erasure poems of their own in the spirit of resistance.

Discover Activity

Cell City

STEM Lab: Build, Tinker, Explore, The Natural World

Cell City

6 - 12

45 Minutes

Students learn about cells, including their functions in the body, by building models for themselves!

Discover Activity

Catapult (Team Building) Game

Leadership and Teamwork, STEM Lab: Build, Tinker, Explore

Catapult (Team Building) Game

6 - 12

30 Minutes

Build the ultimate catapult and compete as your team launches coins across the room!

Discover Activity

Build An Extension Arm

STEM Lab: Build, Tinker, Explore, The Natural World

Build An Extension Arm

6 - 12

45 Minutes

In this activity, students learn about engineering as they design, build and test an extension arm.

Discover Activity

Create A Cardboard Self-Portrait

Arts in Action, Belonging and Community

Create A Cardboard Self-Portrait

K - 12

45 Minutes

In this activity, students will use creative reuse materials to create self-portraits.

Discover Activity

Improv: Say the Line

Arts in Action, Stories and Perspectives

Improv: Say the Line

6 - 12

45 Minutes

Have fun with improv! Students are given a scenario, such as "customer at a shoe store" or "students in the cafeteria line" and begin acting out a scene. At your signal, one of the actors needs to pick a slip of paper that contains a random line of dialogue and then try to work it into the scene. Watch the creativity and laughter ensue as you build on students’ improvisation skills.

Discover Activity

How to Look at Dance

Arts in Action, Stories and Perspectives

How to Look at Dance

9 - 12

1 Hour 30 Minutes

In this activity, students will practice discussing dance, by first observing and describing ordinary everyday movements. Then, students will apply a critical framework to describe, analyze, interpret, and evaluate dances. Students will write a four-sentence dance review; the same process can be used to review modern dance, hip hop, culturally specific dance, and more.

Dance is found in every culture and time period and is evolving all the time. The goal of this lesson is to demystify the discussion and vocabulary about dance through simple observation, description, guided analysis, and freely interpreting everyday activities. Knowledge of any particular dance technique is not needed for this activity.

Discover Activity

Playing Innovator Trading Cards (6-12)

Leadership and Teamwork, We The People

Playing Innovator Trading Cards (6-12)

6 - 12

1 Hour

In this culminating activity, learners use their completed Innovator Trading Cards to solve community-based challenges. Each challenge requires a balanced team of innovators, with one innovator from each theme. Learners must justify their team choices and explain how different kinds of contributions work together to address complex problems.

This is the second of two activities in the Innovator Trading Card Collection: 

  • Activity 1 focuses on the theme of the week, learning about the innovators and their influence, and designing the innovator trading cards. 

  • Activity 2 focuses on facilitating the associated game to reinforce learning.

Discover Activity

Analyzing and Constructing Timelines of Racial (In)justice

Belonging and Community, We The People

Analyzing and Constructing Timelines of Racial (In)justice

6 - 12

45 Minutes

Students reflect on how myths about history are perpetuated, analyze a timeline of racial (in)justice from The 1619 Project, and collaborate to build timelines that illustrate how the fight for racial justice continues in their own lifetimes.

Discover Activity

Dream Team

Leadership and Teamwork, Future Ready: Learning and Earning

Dream Team

6 - 12

45 Minutes

Students create their ultimate entrepreneurial "dream team" poster. Students first create an image of themselves as an entrepreneur (as creatively as they like), highlighting their entrepreneurial strengths, and then they will add team members to their poster (real or fictional), highlighting the mindsets and skills they will bring to the team to make up the ultimate entrepreneurial dream team - ready to take on any challenge!

Discover Activity

American History: Elevating Black Voices (6-12)

More from this collaborator

American History: Elevating Black Voices (6-12)

Grades 6 - 12

9 Hours 10 Minutes

Overview

Designing Innovator Trading Cards (6-12)

Stories and Perspectives, We The People

Designing Innovator Trading Cards (6-12)

6 - 12

1 Hour

In this activity, learners examine the lives and contributions of lesser-known Black American innovators—past and present—through close reading, discussion, and synthesis. Each week introduces a new theme that highlights a different way people shape communities and history. Learners create Innovator Trading Cards that capture key details about each innovator and prepare those cards for use in a collaborative, challenge-based game later in the playlist. This activity supports historical understanding, literacy skills, and critical thinking by asking learners to connect individual contributions to broader themes of innovation, culture, and community impact.

This is the first of two activities in the Innovator Trading Card Collection: 

  • Activity 1 focuses on the theme of the week, learning about the innovators and their influence, and designing the innovator trading cards. 

  • Activity 2 focuses on facilitating the associated game to reinforce learning.

Discover Activity

What Makes a Good Video Story? (Student Reporting Labs)

Stories and Perspectives, Digital Voices

What Makes a Good Video Story? (Student Reporting Labs)

6 - 12

50 Minutes

What makes a video story good isn’t just about the topic, it’s how you tell the story.

In this lesson, you will focus on key elements that make for great nonfiction stories like news packages, video profiles, explainers, and short documentaries.

This is activity 4 of 16 in the PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs Module. Visit the Module to learn more before getting started.

Discover Activity

One Minute Speeches

Belonging and Community, Stories and Perspectives

One Minute Speeches

6 - 12

10 Minutes

Develop public speaking fluency, spontaneity, and confidence with this game.

Discover Activity

Erasure Poetry as Resistance

Stories and Perspectives, We The People

Erasure Poetry as Resistance

6 - 12

45 Minutes

Students discuss what erasure means, and how it can be used both as a tool of oppression and resistance. They then explore examples of poems that use erasure to question, challenge, and subvert existing texts, and create erasure poems of their own in the spirit of resistance.

Discover Activity

Cell City

STEM Lab: Build, Tinker, Explore, The Natural World

Cell City

6 - 12

45 Minutes

Students learn about cells, including their functions in the body, by building models for themselves!

Discover Activity

Catapult (Team Building) Game

Leadership and Teamwork, STEM Lab: Build, Tinker, Explore

Catapult (Team Building) Game

6 - 12

30 Minutes

Build the ultimate catapult and compete as your team launches coins across the room!

Discover Activity

Build An Extension Arm

STEM Lab: Build, Tinker, Explore, The Natural World

Build An Extension Arm

6 - 12

45 Minutes

In this activity, students learn about engineering as they design, build and test an extension arm.

Discover Activity

Create A Cardboard Self-Portrait

Arts in Action, Belonging and Community

Create A Cardboard Self-Portrait

K - 12

45 Minutes

In this activity, students will use creative reuse materials to create self-portraits.

Discover Activity

Improv: Say the Line

Arts in Action, Stories and Perspectives

Improv: Say the Line

6 - 12

45 Minutes

Have fun with improv! Students are given a scenario, such as "customer at a shoe store" or "students in the cafeteria line" and begin acting out a scene. At your signal, one of the actors needs to pick a slip of paper that contains a random line of dialogue and then try to work it into the scene. Watch the creativity and laughter ensue as you build on students’ improvisation skills.

Discover Activity

How to Look at Dance

Arts in Action, Stories and Perspectives

How to Look at Dance

9 - 12

1 Hour 30 Minutes

In this activity, students will practice discussing dance, by first observing and describing ordinary everyday movements. Then, students will apply a critical framework to describe, analyze, interpret, and evaluate dances. Students will write a four-sentence dance review; the same process can be used to review modern dance, hip hop, culturally specific dance, and more.

Dance is found in every culture and time period and is evolving all the time. The goal of this lesson is to demystify the discussion and vocabulary about dance through simple observation, description, guided analysis, and freely interpreting everyday activities. Knowledge of any particular dance technique is not needed for this activity.

Discover Activity

Playing Innovator Trading Cards (6-12)

Leadership and Teamwork, We The People

Playing Innovator Trading Cards (6-12)

6 - 12

1 Hour

In this culminating activity, learners use their completed Innovator Trading Cards to solve community-based challenges. Each challenge requires a balanced team of innovators, with one innovator from each theme. Learners must justify their team choices and explain how different kinds of contributions work together to address complex problems.

This is the second of two activities in the Innovator Trading Card Collection: 

  • Activity 1 focuses on the theme of the week, learning about the innovators and their influence, and designing the innovator trading cards. 

  • Activity 2 focuses on facilitating the associated game to reinforce learning.

Discover Activity

Analyzing and Constructing Timelines of Racial (In)justice

Belonging and Community, We The People

Analyzing and Constructing Timelines of Racial (In)justice

6 - 12

45 Minutes

Students reflect on how myths about history are perpetuated, analyze a timeline of racial (in)justice from The 1619 Project, and collaborate to build timelines that illustrate how the fight for racial justice continues in their own lifetimes.

Discover Activity

Dream Team

Leadership and Teamwork, Future Ready: Learning and Earning

Dream Team

6 - 12

45 Minutes

Students create their ultimate entrepreneurial "dream team" poster. Students first create an image of themselves as an entrepreneur (as creatively as they like), highlighting their entrepreneurial strengths, and then they will add team members to their poster (real or fictional), highlighting the mindsets and skills they will bring to the team to make up the ultimate entrepreneurial dream team - ready to take on any challenge!

Discover Activity

Designing Innovator Trading Cards (6-12)

Stories and Perspectives, We The People

Designing Innovator Trading Cards (6-12)

6 - 12

1 Hour

In this activity, learners examine the lives and contributions of lesser-known Black American innovators—past and present—through close reading, discussion, and synthesis. Each week introduces a new theme that highlights a different way people shape communities and history. Learners create Innovator Trading Cards that capture key details about each innovator and prepare those cards for use in a collaborative, challenge-based game later in the playlist. This activity supports historical understanding, literacy skills, and critical thinking by asking learners to connect individual contributions to broader themes of innovation, culture, and community impact.

This is the first of two activities in the Innovator Trading Card Collection: 

  • Activity 1 focuses on the theme of the week, learning about the innovators and their influence, and designing the innovator trading cards. 

  • Activity 2 focuses on facilitating the associated game to reinforce learning.

Discover Activity

What Makes a Good Video Story? (Student Reporting Labs)

Stories and Perspectives, Digital Voices

What Makes a Good Video Story? (Student Reporting Labs)

6 - 12

50 Minutes

What makes a video story good isn’t just about the topic, it’s how you tell the story.

In this lesson, you will focus on key elements that make for great nonfiction stories like news packages, video profiles, explainers, and short documentaries.

This is activity 4 of 16 in the PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs Module. Visit the Module to learn more before getting started.

Discover Activity

One Minute Speeches

Belonging and Community, Stories and Perspectives

One Minute Speeches

6 - 12

10 Minutes

Develop public speaking fluency, spontaneity, and confidence with this game.

Discover Activity

Erasure Poetry as Resistance

Stories and Perspectives, We The People

Erasure Poetry as Resistance

6 - 12

45 Minutes

Students discuss what erasure means, and how it can be used both as a tool of oppression and resistance. They then explore examples of poems that use erasure to question, challenge, and subvert existing texts, and create erasure poems of their own in the spirit of resistance.

Discover Activity

Cell City

STEM Lab: Build, Tinker, Explore, The Natural World

Cell City

6 - 12

45 Minutes

Students learn about cells, including their functions in the body, by building models for themselves!

Discover Activity

Catapult (Team Building) Game

Leadership and Teamwork, STEM Lab: Build, Tinker, Explore

Catapult (Team Building) Game

6 - 12

30 Minutes

Build the ultimate catapult and compete as your team launches coins across the room!

Discover Activity

Build An Extension Arm

STEM Lab: Build, Tinker, Explore, The Natural World

Build An Extension Arm

6 - 12

45 Minutes

In this activity, students learn about engineering as they design, build and test an extension arm.

Discover Activity

Create A Cardboard Self-Portrait

Arts in Action, Belonging and Community

Create A Cardboard Self-Portrait

K - 12

45 Minutes

In this activity, students will use creative reuse materials to create self-portraits.

Discover Activity

Improv: Say the Line

Arts in Action, Stories and Perspectives

Improv: Say the Line

6 - 12

45 Minutes

Have fun with improv! Students are given a scenario, such as "customer at a shoe store" or "students in the cafeteria line" and begin acting out a scene. At your signal, one of the actors needs to pick a slip of paper that contains a random line of dialogue and then try to work it into the scene. Watch the creativity and laughter ensue as you build on students’ improvisation skills.

Discover Activity

How to Look at Dance

Arts in Action, Stories and Perspectives

How to Look at Dance

9 - 12

1 Hour 30 Minutes

In this activity, students will practice discussing dance, by first observing and describing ordinary everyday movements. Then, students will apply a critical framework to describe, analyze, interpret, and evaluate dances. Students will write a four-sentence dance review; the same process can be used to review modern dance, hip hop, culturally specific dance, and more.

Dance is found in every culture and time period and is evolving all the time. The goal of this lesson is to demystify the discussion and vocabulary about dance through simple observation, description, guided analysis, and freely interpreting everyday activities. Knowledge of any particular dance technique is not needed for this activity.

Discover Activity

Playing Innovator Trading Cards (6-12)

Leadership and Teamwork, We The People

Playing Innovator Trading Cards (6-12)

6 - 12

1 Hour

In this culminating activity, learners use their completed Innovator Trading Cards to solve community-based challenges. Each challenge requires a balanced team of innovators, with one innovator from each theme. Learners must justify their team choices and explain how different kinds of contributions work together to address complex problems.

This is the second of two activities in the Innovator Trading Card Collection: 

  • Activity 1 focuses on the theme of the week, learning about the innovators and their influence, and designing the innovator trading cards. 

  • Activity 2 focuses on facilitating the associated game to reinforce learning.

Discover Activity

Analyzing and Constructing Timelines of Racial (In)justice

Belonging and Community, We The People

Analyzing and Constructing Timelines of Racial (In)justice

6 - 12

45 Minutes

Students reflect on how myths about history are perpetuated, analyze a timeline of racial (in)justice from The 1619 Project, and collaborate to build timelines that illustrate how the fight for racial justice continues in their own lifetimes.

Discover Activity

Dream Team

Leadership and Teamwork, Future Ready: Learning and Earning

Dream Team

6 - 12

45 Minutes

Students create their ultimate entrepreneurial "dream team" poster. Students first create an image of themselves as an entrepreneur (as creatively as they like), highlighting their entrepreneurial strengths, and then they will add team members to their poster (real or fictional), highlighting the mindsets and skills they will bring to the team to make up the ultimate entrepreneurial dream team - ready to take on any challenge!

Discover Activity

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Copyright © 2026, Mizzen Education, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit on a mission to empower, uplift and support out-of-school time educators.

Library

CategoriesCollaboratorsExploreAll ActivitiesAll Collections

Community

Our StoryTeam MizzenEventsThe Mizzen Minute

Engage

NewsroomContact UsPrivacy Policy

Account

Sign InCreate an AccountMizzen for Teams

Copyright © 2026, Mizzen Education, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit on a mission to empower, uplift and support out-of-school time educators.