Curated OER
Designing a Crew Exploration Vehicle
Take your class on an out-of-this-world adventure with this fun engineering design instructional activity. Working in small groups, young scientists design, build, and test crew exploration vehicles using some creativity, teamwork, and...
Boward County Public Schools
Hoot Activities
If you're looking for engaging, cross-curricular, inquiry-based activities and projects to support your class reading of Carl Hiaasen's Hoot, you've come to the right place!
Weekly Story Book
Folk Tales and Fables
Pages and pages of engaging activities, worksheets, and writing projects on teaching folktales and fables await you! You don't want to miss this incredible resource that not only includes a wide range of topics and graphic organizers,...
Curated OER
Writing Portfolio: An Autobiography Assignment
An extensive portfolio project encourages your kids to reflect on their personalities with multiple writing assignments. From activities on extended metaphors to writing about an important day in their lives, kids explore the way they...
Wordpress
Behind the Music Project
Authors write about what they know, and that does not exclude songwriters. Invite partners to explore the story behind a song. They analyze and discuss the lyrics, conduct research online, create a poster, and put together a two-minute...
Curated OER
Evernote
Here is an app version of a powerful tool that allows you and your students to have one place where you can capture, organize, and share items in multiple media formats. The different uses for this app are as varied as your ideas and...
Exploratorium
Soda Can Mirrors
Here is an entertaining and illuminating lesson on morphed images. Middle schoolers make cylindrical mirrors by wrapping soda cans in reflective mylar. First, they try to determine what the images are that are embedded in the plan by...
Exploratorium
Building Three-Dimensional Structures
Are you looking for a good 3-D geometry lesson that includes hands-on activities for your middle schoolers? Look no further than this one! Pupils use centimeter grid paper embedded in the plan, along with detailed construction...
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Interactive Gumball Machine
Sure, you may be able to build a better mousetrap, but what about a gum dispenser? In a fun engineering challenge, teams must design and build a working interactive gumball machine with specific constraints and criteria.
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Get it Write
In an effort to practice engineering design, STEM classes break out into teams and endeavor to make a working ink pen. To prepare, they read about writing implements through history, patents, and viscosity of liquids. Armed with this...
Penguin Books
A Teacher's Guide to the Signet Classics Edition of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Whether new to teaching The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn or an experienced pro, you’ll find useful resources in this teacher’s guide. The 40-page packet includes background information, historical context, an annotated list of...
Curated OER
Task: Miniature Golf
"Fore!" All right, no one really yells this out in miniature golf, but this well-defined activity will have your charges using lots of numbers in their unique design of a miniature golf hole. Included in the activity criteria is the...
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Classroom Paper Recycling
After reading about the history and recycling of paper, creative crafters collaborate to think of a new process for making recycled paper. A complete teacher's guide and student worksheets are included. There is no written procedure for...
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Telescoping Periscope
Ahoy, matey! Here is an engineering expedition that mini mariners are sure to be swept away by! After reading a brief description and history of periscopes, they work in crews to construct one. Use this activity to enhance a lesson on...
US Department of Energy
Geothermal Energy
With Earth Day quickly approaching, as well as many science fairs, why not challenge your class to investigate geothermal energy or other renewable energy resources? There are five driving questions explored in depth here, as well as...
Discovery Education
Ahead of the Game
According to the movie Wildcats, "It's the sport of kings, better than diamond rings, football!" It is also, however, the sport of severe concussions and ongoing blows to the head. In order to keep our Seahawks soaring and Broncos...
California Academy of Science
How Big is Big?
In a math or life science class, "mini-me" models are created with cardstock to reflect a 1:10 scale of students' bodies. Learners measure each others' heights with meter sticks, and then reduce the size by 10. After this exercise, they...
California Academy of Science
Greening Your Middle School
Middle schoolers redesign their school to make it more energy efficient, and create a model of their design. Learners get together in groups of 5, and they take on the task of making their school more energy efficient. To do this, they...
Odyssey of the Mind
Odyssey of the Mind Curriculum Activity: GREAT TO COMMUNICATE
Humans love to communicate and they do it in so many different ways. The class investigates how people have used new inventions and technological innovations to communicate. They are divided into groups of three or four and given the...
Odyssey of the Mind
Odyssey of the Mind Curriculum Activity: Mathematicus Dramaticus
The best part about this resource is that you've got four wonderful activities to choose from. Each of the projects can work together or on its own to help learners understand the history of math and how it can be seen every day. In...
Odyssey of the Mind
Odyssey of the Mind Curriculum Activity: Performing Arts
The classical arts have made a lasting impact on our society and your advanced learners get to find out why. The activity starts as the children create a list of the arts found in society, they discuss how these art forms impact their...
Odyssey of the Mind
Odyssey of the Mind Curriculum Activity: Making of a Monster
Over the course of a week, the class will study how monsters are portrayed throughout literature. But why? Monsters in science fiction or horror often depict the darker side of human nature; they are described for their horrific physical...
Owl Teacher
Teach Ancient Rome!
Teaching the class about Ancient Rome can be fun for you and for them! Check out this incredible resource that has everything you need to bring ancient Roman civilization back to life. Begin by scrolling to the bottom of the page and...
Odyssey of the Mind
Odyssey of the Mind Curriculum Activity: Extend-sive Thinking
Can knowing about things of the past help predict the types of things seen in the future? Advanced learners consider the idea that things extend. In other words, concrete things like bridges and intangible things like ideas extend from...