C3 Teachers
African American Voices and Reconstruction: What Does It Take To Secure Equality?
High schoolers research the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, as well as other primary source documents, to determine Reconstruction's impact on the North and South. The 34-page inquiry-based lesson includes a staging question and...
C3 Teachers
Civil Rights: What Made Nonviolent Protest Effective during the Civil Rights Movement?
Sit-ins and boycotts, marches and speeches, songs and demonstrations were hallmarks of nonviolent protest of the civil rights movement. Young scholars research primary and secondary source documents to determine what made nonviolent...
C3 Teachers
African Americans and the Civil War: How Did African Americans Experience the Civil War?
To understand African Americans' involvement in the United States Civil War, high schoolers gather evidence from primary source images, census reports, and documents. As a summative performance task, individuals craft an argument,...
C3 Teachers
Anna - One Woman’s Quest for Freedom: What Did Freedom Mean for Anna?
The 2018 film Anna, One Woman's Quest for Freedom in Early Washington, D.C., offers high schoolers an opportunity to examine the sacrifices one woman endured to gain her freedom from slavery.
Anti-Defamation League
Rosa Parks: Sources of Information
Young scholars show what they know about Rosa Parks and the incident on one of the buses in Montgomery, Alabama. Groups discuss and identify where they receive most of their information. They examine the importance of having a complete...
Anti-Defamation League
Social Justice Poetry
Learners gain insight into how songs and poems express feelings of injustice. They also learn about literary devices and types of poems and make a personal connection when they write their own free verse poems about injustice.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Women's Suffrage: Why the West First?
Eleventh graders discuss the granting of voting rights to women in several Western states. They take a stand, supported by historical evidence, as to whether or not a single theory explains why Western states were the first to grant full...
University of Minnesota
Ways of Knowing: Apples as Models
Use apples as a way of thinking about models. Young scientists consider how the word apple, a two-dimensional drawing, a three-dimensional image, a photograph, and plastic apples all model real apples in preparation for developing models...
University of Minnesota
Manduca sexta: Caterpillar Dissection
Caterpillars have an amazing, yet tough job to perform in their short lives — eat much, avoid predators, and try not to let all those comments about being the unattractive stage of the life cycle get to them. How do they handle it all?...
University of Minnesota
Neuropathfinding: Kinesthetic Model
Playing follow the leader has never been so interesting! Get the class up and moving while they take on the roles of nervous system components. Through trial and error, they learn the importance of the "pioneer" growth cone that leads...
Curated OER
Open Inquiry Using C. elegans
Ever wondered what motivates a roundworm? Introduce your biology class to C. elegans, a non-parasitic model organism that can help them understand behavioral stimuli. Paired pupils design an experiment to test the worm's reaction to...
C3 Teachers
Emancipation: Does It Matter Who Freed the Slaves?
Scholars generally agree on the emancipation of enslaved people in the United States. This inquiry-based lesson asks high schoolers to consider more than the claims of who freed the enslaved people but the significance of the issues...
Learning for Justice
The Color of Law: Creating Racially Segregated Communities
It is pointed, powerful, and painful! The first of three lessons about laws and practices that support inequality looks at how government policies created and reinforced segregated communities. Young social scientists read excerpts from...
Learning for Justice
The Color of Law: Winners and Losers in the Job Market
The second lesson in "The Color of Law" shows how government policies supported economic inequality. Scholars read additional excerpts and respond to text-dependent questions from "The Color of Law" text, examine primary source documents...
Learning for Justice
The Color of Law: Developing the White Middle Class
The final lesson in the "Color of Law" series explores the government's discriminatory economic policies. Young scholars watch videos, read primary source materials, and examine images to gather information. They discuss how what they...
PBS
Amid Rising Economic Inequality, Does America Need a Third Reconstruction?
Young political scientists investigate the Poor People's Campaign protest held in Washington, D.C., on June 18, 2022. They research how the event was reported in various news outlets and consider their stance on whether "poverty is...
PBS
History of Juneteenth and Why It’s Now a National Holiday
June 19 is now a United States federal holiday. Young historians examine the background of the first Juneteenth celebrations and why on June 15, 2021, Congress finally approved "Juneteenth National Independence Day" as a federal holiday.
K20 LEARN
Let's Get S.M.A.R.T. - Goal Setting And Time Management
Advance U: Learning Strategies provides young scholars with a game that teaches them the importance of goal setting and time management. Players enroll in McLarin Academy and compete in three competitions requiring them to set Specific,...
Curated OER
Mirror Image
Why does practice make perfect? Give your class insight into procedural memory, where we learn to do new things — then continue to improve through repetition. By attempting to draw shapes while looking in a mirror, learners observe their...
Curated OER
Go Fish!
So much science in one tiny fish! Introduce young biologists to the zebrafish, a common aquarium inhabitant. The small, unassuming organism presents an opportunity for learners to study habituation using an easy-to-care-for species. Lab...
Curated OER
Fishy Behavior
Here's a lab that may make you rethink that morning cup of coffee. Biology scholars test the effects of caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine on the behavior of zebrafish through an intriguing experiment. Learners observe fish behavior before...
K20 LEARN
Voices from the Past: History and Literature
Art can enhance the understanding of history. That's the big idea in a lesson that has young scholars read Randall Jarrell's poem "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" and an excerpt from John Hersey's Hiroshima, which provide a...
K20 LEARN
The War of the Words: Grammar and Parts of Speech
Here's a activity that adds some zip to a study of parts of speech. Class members read two versions of the same article, one loaded with evocative nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs, while the other is missing this sensory language....
K20 LEARN
To Be or Not to Be? That’s a Career Question! College and Career Readiness
Tell your class members Que sera might be if they complete a survey of their interests, examine a list of careers that address these interests, research these careers, and develop an action plan that will help them progress toward their...