Presidential Primary Sources Project: New Sessions Start January 2021

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

By Jennifer LeMay, Internet2 CAP Consultant

Register now for the 2021 Presidential Primary Sources Project, which runs January — March of 2021. The Presidential Primary Sources Project (PPSP) is a program that connects students and educators with a free, live, interactive web series where students learn about the nation’s presidents through primary source documents. The 45-minute sessions are led by collaborating experts from the National Park Service, Internet2’s Community Anchor Program, U.S. Presidential Libraries and Museums, and cultural and historic organizations nationwide.

The PPSP will host 20 experts for a total of 40 free, interactive sessions. Highlights of this year’s series include Washington and the Whiskey Rebellion, President Clinton’s Public Diplomacy in Northern Ireland, and Black Americans and the Great Depression.

Building on PPSP’s 2020 Success

This year’s Presidential Primary Sources Project builds on the success of last year’s sessions. Spanning the same months, last year’s season ran alongside the rollout of stay-at-home orders and school districts nationwide moving to online learning. Despite the unexpected changes of that season, PPSP partnered with 13 different sites to put on a total of 26 virtual events. Overall, we connected 500 classroom and homeschool sites to reach 4,589 students. In addition, we had 1,539 users join us on our Facebook live streams. Videos of each session were also posted on the PPSP YouTube channel for asynchronous viewing.

The 2020 season led to an opportunity to partner with The National Archives to create an expanded summer and fall series that reached over 10,000 additional people and included professional development opportunities for educators.

All-New PPSP Sessions for 2021

With students everywhere still learning virtually, the 2021 Presidential Primary Sources Project series promises to be a great success. Take a look at the program schedule below and register now! All programs are live at 11 a.m. ET and 2 p.m. ET on their scheduled day and are geared toward students grades 4-12.