This lesson is intended as preparation for a school health fair but could be used anytime. Learners discuss and compare the nutrition found in typical snack foods. They compose investigative questions, collect data, and research a...

A natural disaster could strike at any time: do your learners know the school and community emergency plans? Start the school year by honing research and speaking skills in a practical way with this preparedness lesson. Youngsters...

The Secret Life of Bees provides high schoolers an opportunity to connect the events in the novel to events in America’s history. After choosing a topic from a provided list, individuals research how the event affected the Civil Rights...

Sixth graders strengthen their understanding of what a high quality website is composed of. Learners evaluate three websites for accuracy, credibility, and reliability by completing a chart.

Explore a variety of fables to learn life's lessons through engaging stories. Add rigor to the learning process with activities that include matching a a fable to the story's moral, short answer exit slips, and a three-column graphic...

What important facts about Dr. Seuss influenced the Read Across America movement...? This is the driving question of a research project that requires scholars to find information about Dr. Seuss' life and work. Class...

Can science ever go too far? Learners explore this topic with the Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde study guide. They read about the connection between scientific experimentation in fiction and real life and then compare a scene from the novella...

Teaching job skills to your learners with special needs before they enter the workforce is a great way to ensure that they will gain employment. For this lesson, your young scholars will become the school's very own mail or delivery...

How can you tell if a number of items is reasonable? Combine math and language arts with a fun lesson based on Jeff Shepard's The Right Number of Elephants. After reading the book, kids discuss amounts of other items and create...

How did Europe transition from a period of conflict to a period of sustained peace? As class members continue their study of the history and development of the European Union, groups examine the events in six time periods, from the...

From the start of the Industrial Revolution, it only took 147 years for someone to invent plastic. This may seem like a long time, but in the history of inventing or discovering new materials, this is incredibly fast. An informative and...

Helmets not included! Scholars brainstorm adjustments and sensors to football helmets in an engineering design project to help prevent injuries, such as concussions and spinal injuries.

What does your class know about GMOs? Are they savvy to selective breeding? Challenge young minds to engineer the greatest crop of all time using a hands-on genetics unit. Learners discover the good and bad details of selective breeding,...

How many people live on the planet, anyway? The first resource in a six-part series covers the topic of the world population. Scholars work in groups to conduct research and make population posters after learning about the global...

Class members choose a current social, political, environmental, or economic problem presented in Tyson Miller's Dream of a Nation: Inspiring Ideas for a Better America, research this problem and a variety of suggested solutions, before...

If you are taking your class on a library tour, use this scavenger hunt activity to spice it up. Although this hunt isn't actually attached (like the lesson says it is), you will get a good idea of how to implement a task like this....

Organizing information gathered for a research topic can be a challenge. Read aloud notes you have collected on a topic and use suggestions offer by the class to categorize and sort this information. Partners then follow this pattern,...

As part of a unit devoted to the study of autobiographies, this one-day library session focuses on developing research skills. Class members locate and properly cite a sketch of a Creative Commons image, as well as record the call...

Kindergartners learn who community helpers are and what contributions they make for the community. They will hear a story outlining various community helpers, their jobs, and tools, create a graphic organizer connecting community...

Using discoveries and inventions as the focus, learners complete a research project. First, they come up with research questions. Then, they conduct research on the topic. Finally, they write a research paper.

Choosing an issue from a play or novel, researchers find two primary sources from different time periods to compare how people's views have changed. Many questions are listed to guide young writers. In the end, learners produce a...

This is the third in a series of lessons scaffolding the research paper. It purports to teach researchers how to evaluate internet sites, but the lack of links, specific criteria, or site evaluation rubrics would require additional...

Model for your class how to craft an analysis of a sonnet by examining the literary techniques used, the background of the poet, and critical reviews of the poem. As guided practice, learners are assigned a sonnet, complete a preliminary...

A great idea for showing language arts pupils the universality of themes, even in the real world! Have class members choose an idea-noun (peace, justice, war, love, etc.) at the beginning of the year or semester. They complete weekly...