Media Smarts
The Newspaper Front Page
Hot off the presses! A perfect instructional activity idea for a journalism class or even a language arts class looking to incorporate some informational texts. Young writers analyze the front pages of various newspapers to determine the...
Media Smarts
Media Awareness Network: Hate or Debate?
Discuss the difference between legitimate debate on a political issue and arguments that are based on hate through a science-fiction scenario that shows how a controversial issue can be discussed in both ways. Then learn how purveyors of...
Facebook
Reputation
What's the key to maintaining a good reputation? Keep your friends close—and your secrets even closer! Social scholars score a deeper understanding of sharing during a lesson from a privacy and reputation module. Participants consider...
Curated OER
Prewriting
As a class, 7th graders observe examples of brainstorming and then complete brainstorming worksheets themselves. They compose and describe planning strategies. Prior to writing an essay, they identify the purpose and the audience.
Shodor Education Foundation
Racing Game with One Die
Pupils roll a die to figure out which car advances on a race track. They determine the rules for each car moving forward and, given the statistics of the winner, compare if it matches their predictions.
Virginia Department of Education
Determining Purpose and Audience
Build the writing skills of your junior high wordsmiths with activities that introduce many essential skills of writing. As a class, they develop working definitions of formal vs. informal writing, explore different categories of...
Curated OER
Press Review
How can word choice affect a political speech? Middle and high schoolers examine the text of the 1999 State of the Union Address, and then determine how newspaper articles and television reports describe and analyze the event. Use this...
Curated OER
Termination of Parental Rights
Learners study the causes for a juvenile court to terminate all rights of a parent to a child. They do case studies of a few examples of this scenario taking place. This lesson invites quite a bit of debate amongst the pupils, and...
Teach Engineering
Communicating Your Results
Groups analyze and interpret their data from previous research in order to develop individualized findings. The teams then use guidelines to help determine what aspects of their research to include on a poster. Class members then compare...
DiscoverE
Design a Shoe
Engage young scientists in a project where high fashion meets engineering! Using foam core and hot glue, partnered pupils design and create a functional, fashionable pair of shoes. Groups then put the footwear through its paces using a...
Briscoe Center for American History
Applying the SOAPS Method of Analyzing Historical Documents
Young historians use the SOAPS (Speaker, Occasion, Audience, Purpose, Subject) method of questioning to determine the historical value of primary source documents. The third in a series of five lessons that model for learners how...
Curated OER
Team Assignment - A Parking Dilemma
Class groups are challenged to solve the school’s parking problem. Each team must establish ground rules for their discussion, determine criteria that must be met, and brainstorm possible solutions. Next, they agree on one solution and...
Curated OER
Let's Put You in a Louisiana University
Considering a college search project? After picking a possible career choice, and determining if that career needs a technical college or university education, individuals examine a wide variety of sources and select three schools that...
Curated OER
Television News
Different media sources portray news in a variety of ways. In groups of three, learners look at different news sources, bringing in all the findings the next day. Three handouts help scholars compare sources, define specific terms used...
Curated OER
Media Literacy Analyzed
Fourth and fifth graders define the term media literacy, then come up with examples that they share with the class. The types of media studied are auditory, visual, and written. Learners get together in pairs and perform a media...
Curated OER
Express Yourself Lesson Seed 15: Theme
Build understanding of theme with an activity designed for The Cay and the Common Core. Small groups or pairs use graphic organizers to determine themes, find and record related details from the text, and formulate theme statements. In...
Shodor Education Foundation
Overlapping Gaussians
Adjust the overlap to compare probabilities. Using sliders, learners adjust the shape of two Gaussian curves. The interactive calculates the area of the left tail for one curve and the right tail for the other. Pupils set the interactive...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
What van Leeuwenhoek Saw
When van Leeuwenhoek saw cells and single-celled organisms for the first time, he knew these small things were a big deal! Share his discoveries with young learners through a narrated video, model-building activity, and scale study....
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Ebola: Disease Detectives
How did the Ebola virus first infect humans? Young virologists examine genetic sequences from the 2014 Sierra Leone outbreak to find similarities during a riveting activity. Following similar methods used by MIT and Harvard, partners...
National History Day
Why Did the United States Enter World War I in 1917?
World War I was the first major conflict on a global scale. Using primary documents, learners determine why the United States chose to enter World War I when it did. After analytical writing and group research, the causes of America's...
Shodor Education Foundation
Experimental Probability
Spin into a dicey experiment. Pupils use a spinner or a pair of dice to determine the experimental probabilities of each outcome. The interactive allows for either, one, five, or ten consecutive experiments. Using the applet, learners...
Shodor Education Foundation
Crazy Choices Game
Wanna take a chance on which game is best? The resource provides three games of chance using multiple types of games. Games range from coin toss to cards. Choosing a type of game, pupils determine what wins and enter the theoretical...
Shodor Education Foundation
Marbles
Grab some marbles from a bag. The applet simulates drawing marbles from a bag. Pupils determine the number of four colors of marbles in a bag and how many marbles to draw. Using information on whether order matters in the draw and if...
Curated OER
Patriotic Symbols of the United States
Young historians take a close look at the most famous patriotic symbols of the United States and determine what they actually stand for. Symbols such as Uncle Sam, The Statue of Liberty, The Bald Eagle, and The Liberty Bell are studied....