Historical Investigations Portal
The Historical Investigations Portal (HIP) is our online curriculum, offering interactive lesson plans that allow students to analyze and synthesize multiple primary source documents, images, and objects to draw evidence-based conclusions about compelling historical questions.
The Maryland Center for History and Culture partners with CourseArc, a local leader in e-learning, to provide HIP to educators. Districts, individual schools, or teachers can link HIP lessons directly through their Learning Management Systems (LMS) or other digital resource platforms. Public access links are also available for those that do not operate with an LMS.
Upper elementary (grades 4-5) and middle to high school (grades 8-12) courses are available. All lessons address topics in Maryland and U.S. history, while building essential reading, writing, and thinking skills.
Please complete this form to request our teacher resource packets (including lesson answer keys, primary sources, and lesson standards) for the lessons available below, or contact David Armenti, Director of Education, at darmenti@mdhistory.org for more information to get your classroom, school, or district set up with HIP.
Upper Elementary Course (Grades 4-5)
Maryland State Curriculum for fourth and fifth grade levels requires students to examine how individuals and societies have changed over time in Maryland, the United States, and the world. Classes also investigate how geography, civics, and economics impacted these developments, from the pre-colonial period to the American Civil War.
Available Lessons
- Maryland Colonists Meet the Native Americans
- The Founding of Maryland
- Lord Baltimore’s Lesson in Geography
- Maryland During the Revolution: Loyalist or Patriot?
- The Tobacco Economy
- How Did the Chesapeake Bay Shape Early Maryland?
- Religious Tolerance in Early Maryland
- The Underground Railroad: Resisting Slavery in Maryland
- Civil War Maryland: Martial Law in Baltimore
- Free African American Experience in Antebellum Maryland
- Forced Migration of Africans
- Anthony Stewart: Guilty or Innocent?
- Western European Immigration: Push and Pull
- Expanding Maryland’s Western Frontier
- Baltimore and the American Revolution
- Comparing Maryland’s Regions
- Maryland’s Indians, Before and After
- Slavery in its Many Forms
Middle and High School Course (Grades 8-12)
Available Lessons
- Exploring History: How to Use Primary Sources
- Liberty and Slavery (Change Over Time)
- The Constitution and Common Americans
- Maryland During the Revolution: Loyalist or Patriot?
- The Tobacco Economy
- Was the Dred Scott Decision Legally Correct?
- Religious Tolerance in Early Maryland
- Manifest Destiny
- Women in Public Life
- Free African American Experience in Antebellum Maryland
- The Underground Railroad: Resisting Slavery in Maryland
- Western European Immigration: Push and Pull
- Civil War Maryland: Martial Law in Baltimore
- Forced Migration of Africans
- Anthony Stewart: Guilty or Innocent?
- Expanding Maryland’s Western Frontier
- Baltimore and the American Revolution
- Protesting: Maryland and the Long Civil Rights Movement
Please Note
Educators within Anne Arundel County, Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Calvert County, Dorchester County, Harford County, Howard County, St. Mary’s, and Queen Anne County Public Schools are able to access HIP through their learning management systems. Please contact your county or school’s Social Studies Coordinator/IT Specialist for more information.
Have a Question?
Call 410-685-3750, ext. 324, or email darmenti@mdhistory.org.
Stay Connected
Sign up for our biweekly Educator Newsletter about all things education at the Maryland Center for History and Culture.