The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, in partnership with The History Channel, will host a National Teach-In on the life and legacy of the 16th president on the bicentennial of his birth, February 12. The presentation will feature three prominent Lincoln scholars, including Matthew Pinsker, Dickinson College associate professor of history, Doris Kearns Goodwin and Harold Holzer.

The Teach-In will be held at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., and broadcast live in a webcast on February 12 at 1:30 p.m.

As the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth approaches, interest in his legacy is at an all-time high. The 45-minute Teach-In will bring history to life as these three prominent Lincoln scholars share their expertise and answer questions from the audience and from students at schools tuning in to the webcast. Libby O'Connell, chief historian, senior vice president corporate outreach for History, will moderate the Teach-In.

More than 80 students from the District of Columbia and Fairfax County, Va., will be in the Teach-In audience, and more than 3,000 schools from around the country and abroad have already registered to participate in the webcast. Registration is open until the broadcast begins. Afterward, the archived program will be available at www.history.com/lincoln and www.abrahamlincoln200.org.

Pinsker has published two books and numerous articles on Lincoln and the Civil War era, including "Lincoln's Sanctuary: Abraham Lincoln and the Soldiers' Home" (2003). He is the Brian C. Pohanka faculty chair in American Civil War History at Dickinson College. He has served as a visiting fellow at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia and leads annual K-12 teacher workshops on the Underground Railroad for the National Endowment for the Humanities. Pinsker serves on the advisory committee for the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission.

A Lincoln scholar who teaches courses in U.S. political, legal and diplomatic history, Pinsker's research focuses on the career of Lincoln, partisanship in the Civil War era, American constitutionalism, the Underground Railroad and the history of U.S. campaigns and elections.

Named by the Organization of American Historians as one of about 300 scholars from across the country to join the 2008-09 Distinguished Lectureship program, Pinsker also was appointed in June 2007 by Gov. Ed Rendell to serve as a member of the Pennsylvania Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission (ALBC).

Goodwin is an award-winning author and Lincoln historian. She served as an assistant to President Lyndon B. Johnson and helped draft his personal memoirs. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 1995 for her book "No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The American Homefront During World War II" and was awarded the Lincoln Prize in 2006 for her best-selling work "Team of Rivals," about Lincoln's Cabinet. Goodwin serves on the Advisory Committee for the ALBC.

Holzer is considered one of the country's top authorities on the political culture of the Civil War era. He serves as co-chairman of the national Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission. Recipient of the Lincoln Prize for his book "Lincoln at Cooper Union," he is co-editor of "In Lincoln's Hand: His Original Manuscripts with Commentary by Distinguished Americans" (January 2009), the companion volume to the Library of Congress Lincoln exhibition. His latest book, "Lincoln President-Elect: Abraham Lincoln and the Great Secession Winter 1860-1861" details Lincoln's thoughts and actions during the four months between his election and inauguration.