History through Pop Culture, designed for today’s social studies classrooms
Ready-to-use curriculum, national oral history project, and classroom toolkit turning everyday objects into meaningful primary source analysis.
A model for turning the artifacts of everyday life into deep, effective social studies inquiry.
Everything is a Primary Source
The standards-aligned, inquiry-based EPS mindset and methodology guides social studies classes with immersive primary source analysis, critical thinking, and real-world connections.
Podcast
Conversations with experts and everyday people alike which model historical thinking, breaking down the past through the lens of popular culture and lived experience.
Unique, engaging artifacts from the last 200 years delivered directly to your classroom, encouraging deep social studies thinking as students hold history in their hands.
In the classroom or out in public, asking and answering critical thinking questions about an object, piece of media, or something from the built world leads to deeper understanding of time, place, and people. The Everything is a Primary Source model encourages teachers and students of all walks to invite curiosity, ask better questions, and uncover the historical significance in the world around them.
It starts with an artifact
Connecting teachers and students to the world around them
Everything is a Primary Source assists the social studies teacher who is not satisfied with lecture, textbooks, and slide shows. All parts of EPS draw direct lines from past to present, public history to classrooms, and detailed materials to big ideas, accentuating experiential learning in middle and high school settings.
For more than a decade, the Everything is a Primary Source approach has helped hundreds of students engage more deeply, think more critically, and make meaningful connections between the past and the world around them.
Why it matters now
We’re at a turning point in social studies education, where digital media, AI, and traditional sources are no longer separate, but overlapping. Students are constantly encountering information, but not always equipped to analyze it. EPS helps teachers and students work together to put a seemingly-endless supply of materials and ideas into order, building a wealth of knowledge about social studies in the process.
The EPS model meets this moment. By blending inquiry-driven, scientific-method-inspired thinking with authentic cultural artifacts, it gives students the tools to question, interpret, and understand the world as it unfolds.