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Much of the information students interact with, whether on the Web or from texts, is secondary material. Someone else--an editor, commentator, or author--filters information, serving as an intermediary between students and the data. There are good reasons for using secondary sources of information. The primary data may be too complex for students to easily understand; it may be fragile; or it may be impractical to present in its raw form.
However, there is a power to primary material. First-hand accounts and raw material have an authority, speaking directly to students.
If you use primary source material in your classroom, Margaret Jerome Stuart has created a very useful and extensive guide to analyzing original source documents. It's probably not a guide that students below high school would be able to use, but teachers and advanced students will find it helpful.
Among the documents found at this site is a 1943 letter from President Franklin D. Roosevelt thanking Oppenheimer for his work on the atomic project.
1990 California Census Data (http://www.abag.ca.gov/bayarea/census90/pickhtml.html)
Detailed information from the 1990 census. Ideal for plugging into spreadsheets and plotting trends.
The Hiroshima Archive (http://www.lclark.edu/~history/HIROSHIMA/)
A large collection of photographs and documents relating to the decision to drop the atom bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.
The importance of learning the history of science is recognized by the National Research Council in the National Science Education Standards (National Academy of Sciences) as part of establishing a societal context for science learning. Primary source documents used in learning about the history of science can be powerful tools.
Large collections of raw data can provide an exploration area for students studying statistics or experimental design. Raw data could conceivably be downloaded to a single computer in the classroom, and manipulated by students using calculators or working in small groups at the computer.
