Polk Bros Foundation
How to Summarize a Non-Fiction Passage
After reading a text, one way to find out how much your class comprehended is to ask your pupils to summarize. This worksheet helps class members prepare for writing a summary of a nonfiction text. They note down the topic, up to eight...
Curated OER
Taking From the Giving Tree
Learners explore the ways in which various American cities negotiate the protection of their "green infrastructure," gaining a broader understanding of proposed and enacted legislation as it relates to preserving and planting trees in...
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Social Studies: Canadian City Comparison
Learners research Canadian population distribution while comparing and contrasting the quality of life in two cities. They discuss issues and problems that cities and rural towns face. Students apply various methods, such as graphs and...
Curated OER
Convey Ideas in Writing
Write an unsent letter about a consumer scam, paying attention to the writing conventions of punctuation and spelling. This lesson could be adapted to fit a variety of social issues in which letter writing is appropriate. 4
Curated OER
A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words
Students complete a population pyramid for a city they are studying. They may complete a population pyramid for their city and another one for the country in which the city is located. They compare and contrast the results of the two...
Curated OER
Online —On Stage—and Action
Use your tablets to participate in a culture-sharing project with a class in a foreign country. Your class can communicate and share ideas with a class in another country, swapping information regarding language and culture. Together you...
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Urban Legends
Students consider how people of color and minority culture are represented in video games. After debating the issue as representatives of various interest groups, students reflect on their personal feelings regarding this issue.
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Wild Where?
Young scholars investigate why the urban environment is considered a hostile environment; define the concept of endangered species; describe and identify a Peregrine Falcon; describe and identify the eating habits of the Peregrine Falcon.
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Modeling Reality
Students identify what a role model is and what characteristics such a person should possess. They discuss a new trend in character role model figurines, which some believe perpetuate racial and ethnic stereotypes.
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Feeling the Heat
Pupils record temperatures at different locations around campus. They examine the results and draw conclusions about how materials and colors affect the amount of heat produced. They also analyze Los Angeles' temperature records over a...
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Having Fun: Leisure and Entertainment at the Turn of the Twentieth Century
Students explore how the innovations in culture and technology influenced the development of a leisure industry in America at the turn of the twentieth century.
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Celebrating Modernism at the A Century of Progress World's Fair
Students examine aesthetic movement known as modernism, discover why organizers chose modernism as World Fair's design pattern, interpret photographs of modernist fair buildings and identify artifacts that reflect modernist ideas, and...
Curated OER
Home Ties
Learners explore the reasons people choose to migrate including political, economic and familial motivations. They interview family members and compare their ancestors own reasons for migration to those of African American urban migrants.
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Urban Rocks: Investigating Stone Used for Buildings and Monuments
Students observe the rocks and stones used to build and carve monuments during a field trip.
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Urban Life: What Lives in Our Schoolyard?
Students research living organisms by exploring their school grounds. In this microscopic observation lesson, students gather materials, insects, and objects from their playground and schoolyard and bring them into class. Students...
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Development on the Edge of a City
Young scholars explore and analyze examples of changing relationships between patterns of settlement and land use in the state of Minnesota. They view different avenues of transportation, cities, suburbs, city planners and suburbanization.
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Create a City: An Urban Planning Exercise
Students explore the effects of population growth in Arizona. In this history lesson, students work in small groups to create a "perfect" city. Activities include examining the Arizona census results then discussing the importance of...
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Urban Biology: Can Fish Detect Odors
Students investigate how fish use their sense of smell. In this scientific method lesson, students design and perform an experiment to investigate how fish use their sense of smell. This lesson includes statistical analysis and safety ...
Skyscraper Museum
Building a Skyscraper
The construction of skyscrapers is no simple undertaking, involving the careful coordination and planning of many different people. The third lesson in this series explores this detailed process by first teaching children about the main...
Science 4 Inquiry
Deforestation
Young scientists observe deforestation from satellite photos and discuss the importance of forests to the global environment. They then simulate a plot of forest when farmers move into the area over the course of seven years. Finally,...
Curated OER
Writing A Storybook
Students create a storybook using vocabulary from the topic "urban and rural life". They write about past events in a children's story. They present their story to the class at an author's tea.
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The Tell-Tale Heart
Readers listen and critically read fictional prose to answer prediction questions at designated stopping points, and then they give a summary of the short story. This lesson is ideal for English language learners developing English...
Polk Bros Foundation
I Can Infer the Meaning of a Word in Context
Work on developing strategies for determining the meaning of unknown words and phrases with a quick context clues exercise. Class members choose two words from their reading and write down what they think they mean and why. See the...
Curated OER
Applied Science- Built environment Lab (Trains)
Students examine transportation. In this train design lesson, students study how trains work and how to efficiently design a track by working with an electric train set. As a class they compare various types of trains and work...