Curated OER
Costume Exploration
What a great lesson, upper graders are sure to love. They explore costume design and the relationships between theatre, culture, and history. They research three time periods, write a response about two of them, then create a composit...
Curated OER
Hot, Hot, Hot, Cold
Learners dance the image of falling snow. They move, swing, fall, and rise to music working to depict snow falling, the sun, and high/low movements. This is a well-thought out lesson that aids them in seeing movement as a form of...
Curated OER
Homophone Cartoons
A terrific lesson on homophones awaits your youngsters. First, pupils access a website that contains lists of homophones. Then, it's time to get creative! Everyone gets a piece of poster board and they create a homophone cartoon -...
Curated OER
Cell Structures and Their Functions
Life science learners investigate live cells. They examine wet mount slides of cyanobacteria and Elodea plants. They peer into the dynamic microscopic world of protists. Afterward, they construct a model of a cell, including rudimentary...
Curated OER
Writing History: From Students to Scholars
An Online NewsHour article about scholarly ethics launches this study of plagiarism. Since historians are supposed to bring original ideas and perspectives to their publications, they must give credit to the ideas of others. After a...
Curated OER
Atmospheric Pressure
Push the envelope with this lesson plan on atmospheric pressure! Your physics or geology juniors will be amazed at your super-human ability as you demonstrate the breaking of a stick using a newspaper! They also work with peers to...
Discovery Education
Exploring Geometry
Middle schoolers construct a three-dimensional model of a city using both similar and congruent figures and geometric transformations. City must have at least ten buildings with each building labeled and may be constructed out of paper...
Curated OER
Coordinate Plane Transformations
Geometric transformations are explored by high schoolers. They will create a set of instructions for plotting coordinates representing an original transformation of a real-world figure. These instructions are shared with middle...
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Escher-Esque Tessellations
Middle and high schoolers participate in a seven-part lesson creating Escher-Esque tessellations. They demonstrate their knowledge of geometric transformations after viewing a PowerPoint presentation, conducting Internet research, and...
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Melba Pattillo and Ruby Bridges: Two Heroes of School Integration
Learners put themselves in the shoes of learners who integrated Little Rock High School in 1957-58. Note: The primary resources in this activity provide powerful and poignant descriptions of what those students faced.
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Sustainable Livestock
Young scholars investigate healthy eating habits by researching livestock. In this food sustainability lesson, students research the negative impact factory farming has on our environment due to pollution. Young scholars define...
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Pesticide Watch Card
Students examine human health by identifying dangerous pesticides. In this agriculture instructional activity, students research the food production system in the United States and discuss dangers such as pesticides, chemicals and...
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Playing With Science
Young scientists investigate the scientific concepts and principles that help make common toys such as hula hoops, yo-yos, slinkies, and silly putty work. As a class, they read "Backyard Rocket Science, Served Wet" to get a look behind...
Curated OER
Expressing Your Views to the Letter
Analyze the motivation, purpose, and value of letters to the editor by examining letters written in response to the violence at Columbine High School. For homework, middle and high schoolers write their own letters to the editor about an...
Curated OER
Seeing is Believing - Or Is It?
Here is a great science activity. It extends the concept of vision into the area of optical illusions, perspective, and tessellation. This well-designed plan has tons of great activities, utilizes interesting video, and should lead to a...
Curated OER
Citizens of the Future
Young sociologists explore how local, state, and federal governments work. This very impressive and ambitious lesson requires pupils to contact government officials who represent them and their families. They research elections, and hold...
Curated OER
Inertial Mass, Weight, and Newton's Second Law of Motion
The stage is set for you to guide future physicists through three forceful activities about motion. In the first, learners experiment with rolling carts to discover how objects interact. In the second, they inspect images of an object in...
Curated OER
A Whole Lotta Changin' Goin' On
Here's a fabulous lesson plan on the life cycle of a butterfly. Youngsters are able to identify and understand the four stages of life. They construct models of a caterpillar and write a sequence story about the life of a butterfly. This...
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Campaign Trailblazers
Explore the backgrounds, qualifications, and platforms of the presidential candidates for the 2000 election. Though the lesson is outdated, the activities within the informational text could be good practice for your young learners as...
Curated OER
Short But Sweet
After analyzing and evaluating news summaries found in the New York Times "Week in Review" section, middle schoolers study the steps for summarizing a news article briefly and accurately. They write two news summaries: one on a newspaper...
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Alicia Keys, Songs in A Minor
Need a musical lesson for your drama or performing arts class? VH1 has put together a really neat lesson, in which learners use biographical information about Alicia Keys to write and perform a one-act musical related to her life. This...
Curated OER
Japanese Tea and Teacups
Upper graders use the potter's wheel to make Japanese style tea cups, which they will use in a Japanese style tea ceremony. They hone their sculpting techniques while exploring Japanese cultural and the history of tea. There are two...
Curated OER
All in a Day's Work
Who is Herman Melville? Read and discuss "Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-street." Then, discuss the film adaptations of Melville's work and translate a passage of the text into modern-day English. Discussion questions are...
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Adventures in Creating Hypertext Stories
Use hypertext to make a multimedia choose-your-own adventure story! Young writers incorporate knowledge of story writing elements to write their own stories, and rewrite the adventure with various scenarios and endings. Use technology to...