Towson University
Berries...With a Side of DNA?
Sometimes science lab can be ... delicious! Middle school science scholars extract DNA from strawberries and other fruits in an engaging lab activity. The teacher's guide includes pacing, materials list, and worksheets with answer keys.
Nosapo
Writing about a Meal
You don't need to be a food critic to describe your meal accurately! A series of activities introduce learners to vivid adjectives when writing about the taste, smell, and feel of food. After working with word choice, parts of a...
Nosapo
Creating a Bio Poem
Find out what's special about your pupils with a fun biopoem activity! As they fill out their name, words that describe them, what they love, and what they dream of, learners create an expressive poem about themselves.
Nosapo
Reading, Vocabulary, Comprehension
Whether you teach mainstream elementary classes or older English learners, a set of reading comprehension resources is a great addition to your language arts curriculum. Ten activities each include a reading passage and set of...
Florida International University
Simulating Microgravity with Buoyancy
How do astronauts know how to live and work in a weightless environment? It doesn't come naturally! Junior physicists conduct experiments to examine the link between buoyancy and microgravity. Each activity illustrates a different aspect...
Teacher's Corner
The Magic School Bus: Plays Ball Video
Join the Magic School Bus crew as they take a field trip to the baseball field. Learners respond to questions as they watch the video.
Common Core Sheets
Declarative, Interrogative and Exclamatory Sentences
It's time to identify these sentences as interrogative, exclamatory, or declarative based on their ending punctuation.
Nosapo
Pronouns: Personal Pronouns, Demonstrative Pronouns
Which do you use: that or this? Which or where? Me or I? Practice pronoun use with a series of activities that focus on personal and demonstrative pronouns.
Nosapo
Reading Activity: Circle the Right
Fables can teach us about life's morals, but they are also helpful for reviewing verb tense, spelling, and word choice. Three reading passages feature well-known fables, each with several opportunities for students to circle the correct...
Education Development Center
Finding Parallelogram Vertices
Four is the perfect number—if you're talking about parallelograms. Scholars determine a possible fourth vertex of a parallelogram in the coordinate plane given the coordinates of three vertices. They read a conversation...
Illustrative Mathematics
Multiples of 3, 6, and 7
What are the common multiples of three, six, and seven? Assess young mathematicians ability to find the common multiples of three numbers in a straightforward math task.
Illustrative Mathematics
Comparing Growth, Variation 2
A twist on the first variation of the growth task, this task poses an argument on two explanations of which snake grew more, based on the idea that two is a larger part of six rather than 10.
Illustrative Mathematics
Comparing Growth, Variation 1
Young mathematicians compare the growth of two snake lengths in feet over one year in a straightforward word-problem task.
Education Development Center
Finding Triangle Vertices
Where in the world (or at least in the coordinate plane) is the third vertex? Given two coordinate points for the vertices of a triangle, individuals find the location of the third vertex. They read an account of fictional...
Curated OER
Scale Activities
How do you put something as large as the universe in perspective? Use a series of scale experiments. Classmates collaborate around four experiments to examine the scale of the earth-moon system, our solar system, the Milky Way galaxy,...
International Technology Education Association
Become a Weather Wizard
Accurate weather forecasting is something we take for granted today, making it easy to forget how complex it can be to predict the weather. Learn more about the terms and symbols used to forecast the weather with an earth science lesson...
Institute for Energy and Environmental Research
Practice with Scientific Notation
Zeroes are more important than they look! A guided practice activity takes learners through the process of both scientific and decimal notation, culminating in more complex word problems and equations.
Math Drills
Valentine's Day Ordering and Comparing (E)
Love is in the air, and in a math table! Young learners chart the number of cards from each grade from least to greatest in three Valentine's Day word problems.
Fluence Learning
Writing Informative Text: Did Shakespeare Write Shakespeare?
William Shakespeare penned some of the richest and most fascinating works of literature—or did he? Middle schoolers read three brief informative passages and conduct additional research to evaluate the claim that Shakespeare did not...
Fluence Learning
Writing About Literature: Exploring Themes About Conformity
Feeling the pressure to confirm is something any adolescent can relate to. Explore an essential theme with a response to literature assessment that prompts learners to identify main ideas with evidence and supporting details.
Illustrative Mathematics
Karl's Garden
Whose garden is bigger? Assess your class with the area task of finding out if Karl or Makenna's garden is bigger in area.
Illustrative Mathematics
Multiples of Nine
Which numbers are multiples of 9? Task class members to find the first ten multiples of 9 in a straightforward assessment activity.
Illustrative Mathematics
Using Place Value
Learners count by tenths, hundredths, or tens in a task that uses decimal place value strategies. The young mathematicians then use <, >, or = to make correct comparisons between expanded decimal notations.
Fluence Learning
Writing an Argument: Is Electronic Communication Helpful or Harmful?
Technology has undoubtedly improved the lives of people around the world—but has it improved communication? Seventh graders read two informative passages about the rise of texting and emailing versus in-person conversations before...