Lesson Ideas

Inquiry Tasks

• Ask students to consider how different groups of citizens and entities cooperated in response to the Oklahoma City bombing, using the lesson, Cooperation: All Knotted Up, from the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum. Facilitate a discussion about the necessity of teamwork by examining how the bombing created a unique challenge requiring the combined forces of law enforcement and the community. Encourage students to trace the root of what is now known as the "Oklahoma Standard" to the events of the bombing's aftermath, using the classroom presentation, Oklahoma Standard, provided by the Oklahoma Council for Social Studies.

• Encourage interested students to enter their original writings to the annual essay contest sponsored by the Oklahoma City Memorial. Information about each year's guidelines and focus can be found at the Oklahoma City Memorial's website.   

• What Happened on 9-11, from the 9-11 Memorial and Museum, offers students an opportunity to assess their prior knowledge of the attacks, investigate a variety of primary source materials related to the attacks, and develop an appreciation for first-person accounts from multiple perspectives. 

• Ask students to work collaboratively to examine global reactions to the attacks of 9-11, using the presentation, How the World Viewed 9-11, provided by O.C.S.S. Provide time for groups to review similar reactions as reported by selected newspapers, using the Front Page World News (print or digital packet). What assumptions were made immediately after the attack? How did public reaction turn to stereotyping and discrimination against Muslims as an entire group? 

• Balancing National Security and Civil Liberties, from the 9-11 Memorial and Museum, asks students to consider how Americans have been impacted by the event and subsequent attempts to avoid further attacks. Ask students to weigh the opposing views expressed during national debates over the USA Patriot Act.

• Ask students to work collaboratively to analyze the causes and effects of the Oklahoma City Bombing, beginning with an overview classroom presentation provided by the Oklahoma Council for Social Studies, entitled Homegrown Terror. Use the lesson, Investigation, developed by the Oklahoma City Memorial, including its informational handout, Testimonial and Physical Evidence, and the F.B.I. Summary to help students define terrorism, understand the role of the FBI regarding investigation of the crime, and describe how the evidence led to conviction of the perpetrators. 

• Taking Action on Terrorism, developed by the Oklahoma State Department of Education, provides an extensive, student-friendly investigation and authentic assessment regarding the events of 9-11 and subsequent actions taken by government to increased national security. Encourage students to access the set of edited primary sources in order to analyze the essential question, "What role and responsibility does the United States owe to both protect its citizens and preserve world peace?" Ask students to assume the role of the president and compose a White House Press Release, proposing and justifying a policy toward terrorism.

• Security, Liberty, and the USA Patriot Act, a lesson from the Bill of Rights Institute asks students to trace the historical roots of the Patriot Act, including the Anti-Terrorism bill passed immediately after 9-11 as a tool to intercept and obstruct future terrorist attacks on Americans. Encourage students to examine the government's power to gather intelligence and controversies over some actions, in order to draw conclusions regarding privacy and due process issues related to the Patriot Act. 

Primary Sources 

Secondary Sources 

•  Public Law 105-58, establishing the Oklahoma City National Memorial.

•  White House Press Release, from President Clinton, April 19, 1995.

•  World Trade Center Bomb, New York Times front page, 1993.

•  Editorial, April 19, 1995, Daily Oklahoman.

•  Trade Center Verdict, Youseff Guilty, New York Times,1997.

•  The New York Times Newspaper Front Page, April 20, 1995 reports about the casualties.

•  9-11 Political Cartoons, collection from national and international newspapers in responds to the attacks (provided by the Oklahoma Council for Social Studies)

•  President Bush Address to the Nation, 9-11, 4-minute video, from CNN. 

•   President Bush at Ground Zero, 3-minute news video, from MSNBC.

•  USA PATRIOT ACT, Congress.gov; complete text of legislation.

•  Shoebomber Sentencing, CNN News, 2003 (excerpt).

• The Oklahoma City Bombing, provided by the F.B.I., provides details of this domestic terrorist attack for student or teacher reference.

• Those Who Were Killed, Oklahoma City National Memorial's commemorative biographies of victims of the bombing.

• Oklahoma City Bombing Twenty Years Later, report and interviews by federal law enforcement who worked the case, provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

• 1993 Trade Center Bombing, Department of State, information related to the motives and aftermath of the first attack on the buildings.

• International Responses to Terrorism, article from Newsweek; provide contextual information for student reference.

• World Map of Terrorist Attacks Post 9-11, Newsweek.

• 9/11 Timeline, from the  New York City 9/11 Memorial.

• Surveillance under the PATRIOT Act, ACLU provides information and point of view related to issues of individual liberties in light of the PATRIOT ACT.

• About the Department of Homeland Security, provides background information on the historical and current focus of the department.

• On Civility and In Remembrance of the Oklahoma City Bombing, a message from Senator James Lankford (Okla), 12-minute videoclip (2020).