Other
Ncesse: Student Spaceflight Experiments Program
A competition for students in Grades 5 and up, in which they design an experiment that would fly in space under conditions of microgravity. Winners in local competitions are chosen to submit their designs for inclusion in a...
Other
Critical Thinking Consortium: A Teacher's Guide to Great Fuzz Frenzy [Pdf]
The Great Fuzz Frenzy by Janet Stevens & Susan Crummel is a story about a prairie dog community where discord sets in. The lessons in this teacher guide help students analyze the issues critically and then write a sequel to the...
Other
Critical Thinking Consortium: A Teacher's Guide to Story of Ferdinand [Pdf]
The Story of Ferdinand by Robert Lawson is about the misconceptions people have when they jump to conclusions. After exploring the story, young scholars will discuss situations in real life. Blackline masters and a rubric are included.
Other
The Critical Thinking Consortium: A Teacher's Guide to the Gardener [Pdf]
The Gardener by Sarah Stewart won the Caldecott Honor in 1998. It centres around a set of letters about a young girl who moved from the countryside to the city. In the lessons in this teaching guide, students must make inferences from...
Other
The Critical Thinking Consortium: A Teacher's Guide to the Three Questions [Pdf]
A study of The Three Questions by Jon J. Muth will have students critically examining the text as they exercise their higher order thinking skills. This excellent teacher's giide comes with blackline masters and an assessment rubric.
Other
Nasa: Iss Earth Kam
Students get a whole new perspective of the world through images obtained from the International Space Station. Students can even request images to be taken through ISS EarthKAM. Activities and educator guides are provided.
University of California
University of California at Berkeley: Understanding Science: Mystery Boxes
An interesting lesson where students collaborate to create a visual image of what the inside of a sealed box looks like. The box has a marble or other type of sphere inside it, as well as partitions and/or ramps. Students come to...
Other
Harvard University: Justice With Michael Sandel
Justice with Michael Sandel is a twelve-part university-level course about justice, equality, democracy, and citizenship that Harvard University has opened to the public. Using a video-lecture format, Justice gives viewers turns to...
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Junk Mail: Negotiating Critical Literacy at the Mailbox
Contains plans for three lessons that teach students to examine junk mail critically. In addition to objectives and standards, this instructional plan contains links to sites used in the lessons as well as assessment and reflection...
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Get Close to Think Deeply: Creating Primary Level Close Readings
This strategy guide focuses on planning and implementing close reading of complex text in the primary grades which fosters progressively deeper thinking as students become more responsible for their own learning. It offers a step-by-step...
Other
The Futures Channel: Problem Solving
"Connecting learning to the real world" is the goal of the Futures Channel. Through the use of short videos, teachers can integrate real-world examples of how math and science are used in everyday life. Complete teaching guidelines...
Museum of Science
Museum of Science and Industry: Online Science: Activities: Straw Bridges
An investigation where students design and build a bridge, using only straws and tape, that must support a weight.
Other
Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project
The Densho Project is a digital archive of oral history interviews, historical photographs and related documents that captures, shares and preserves the experiences of Japanese Americans before, during and after World War II.
University of Canterbury
University of Canterbury: Cs Unplugged: Primary Enrichment Program [Pdf]
This unit introduces students to some of the building blocks of how computers work without using a computer at all. The lessons keep students actively involved in communication, problem solving, creativity, and thinking skills in...
Other
Iste: Computational Thinking for All
Advances in computing have expanded our capacity to solve problems at a scale never before imagined, using strategies that have not been available to us before. This professional article introduces educators to the idea of teaching...
Education Development Center
Center for Children and Technology: No Way: Electricity
Moving away from the fantasy worlds of video games, No Way draws learners into a compelling real-life scenario in which they are editorial interns at a science-themed website. This classroom activity on electricity offers a fun way for...
Mind Tools
Mind Tools: Creativity Tools: Develop Creative Solutions to Business Problems
20 techniques for solving problems in creative ways. Fantastic tool for teachers and leaders.
Code.org
Code Studio: Computational Thinking
Introduce the Computational Thinking model as a way of preparing real-world problems for digital representation. With nothing but paper and markers, young scholars learn the four steps of computational thinking.
Google
Google for Education: Machine Testing
Students test the functionality of a mysterious new machine whose operations are described to the class, but cannot be opened up for further investigation. Students come up with a testing strategy for this machine, test it according to...
Google
Google for Education: Writing a Story
In this activity, student storytellers write a story with each group member writing one chapter based on a set of story points. After all the members have come up with their chapters independently, the group collaborates to make the...
Northwestern University
Northwestern University: Ct Stem Project: Computational Thinking: Lessons
Northwestern University frames lessons which bring computational thinking enhanced activities into STEM classrooms.
Other
Code Combat
This computer programming game allows students to learn how to write code. Learners write code in real programming languages.
Other
Alaska Sea Grant: Investigation 4 Human Impact Survey
Young scholars examine and record data about the impact human activity has on a local aquatic environment in this teaching unit. They then analyze the information and develop a plan for improvement. The unit depends on being able to take...
Other
Harvard University: Project Zero: Artful Thinking
Find engaging ways to integrate visual art and music into regular classroom instruction and strengthen cognitive thinking skills and abilities to reason creatively from multiple perspectives. Get great classroom questioning tips, case...