Put your students in the shoes of military intelligence analysts on the eve of the Pearl Harbor attack. This rigorous, immersive primary source lab gives students the exact intelligence reports crossing desks in Washington and Hawaii on December 6, 1941.
 
Instead of just reading a summary of the attack, students must process the raw data. Working through eight carefully reconstructed intelligence documents—including radar anomalies, decoded diplomatic messages, rumors, and local newspaper dispatches—students will evaluate which warnings were credible and which were simply "noise."
 
This curriculum provides a structured framework for students to weigh historical evidence, build arguments, and answer the central question: Should the United States have seen the attack coming?
 
Perfect for building source evaluation skills, this resource seamlessly blends historical inquiry with the high stakes of an intelligence investigation.

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What’s Included
Eight historically grounded intelligence documents
Pacific Region reference map
Mission briefing and Analyst Worksheet
Pattern analysis page CER writing prompt
Scoring rubric
Teacher guide
 
What Students Will Learn
Explain the causes of the attack on Pearl Harbor
Evaluate credibility and bias in intelligence documents
Distinguish between strong evidence and weak or misleading clues Identify patterns across multiple sources
Construct a Claim–Evidence–Reasoning assessment
Understand how uncertainty influenced decision-making prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor
 
Grades: 8-12
Duration: 1-2 Days
DOK: Levels 2-3
Format: Word