Curated OER
Build Your Dream Science Lab
Would your ideal science lab be filled with bubbling beakers and zapping Tesla coils? Or would it contain state-of-the-art computer technology and data analysis? Dream big with an innovative lesson that connects math and language arts...
Math Moves U
Collecting and Working with Data
Add to your collection of math resources with this extensive series of data analysis worksheets. Whether your teaching how to use frequency tables and tally charts to collect and organize data, or introducing young mathematicians to pie...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Living Dinosaurs: Fact or Fiction?
Are birds descendants of dinosaurs? Learners consider the question as they watch an informative video comparing fossil records of dinosaurs with current species. Following the video, groups ponder the evidence to draw conclusions about...
Curated OER
The Lost World (4 parts)
Tenth graders view this science fiction adventure, though not scientifically accurate, creates opportunities to explore the extinction of dinosaurs and to explore evolution.
Curated OER
Ego Trip- Exploring the Inner Workings of the Human Body
Students gain an understanding of how systems and organs in the human body work. They create their own fictional account of a trip through the human body, and describe one response the body makes to stimuli.
Idaho Coalition
The Hunger Games: Gender Empowerment
The odds are in your favor that your pupils will love this lesson that uses The Hunger Games to launch a study of gender empowerment, as well as the influence of social constructs of gender. Groups discuss how Katniss Everdeen and Peeta...
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics
Space Travel Guide
Looking to take a trip? Why not go to space? Here, scholars take on the role as travel agent to create a guide to their favorite planet including travel tips and sightseeing recommendations.
Dream of a Nation
Big6 Research Project
Do research projects at your school look like a class of eighth graders staring at a blank screen? Use the Big 6 research method to guide middle schoolers through the process of finding a topic, searching for and evaluating sources,...
Curated OER
Entomologists on Safari: On the Hunt for Mosquitoes
Students research about the symptoms of West Nile Virus. In this health lesson, students play the role of scientists investigating mosquito activity in a fictional community. They suggest ways to prevent West Nile virus infection by...
Curated OER
The Feudal System: Castles at War
Students study the feudal system of the Middle Ages. In this Middle Ages lesson plan, students watch "The Feudal System at War". Students listen to an instructor-delivered lecture regarding the roles of monarchs, nobles, knights, and...
Curated OER
Cardiac Arrest! Using Forensics to Investigate Cardiovascular Anatomy and Function
Learners identify the different parts and functions of the cardiovascular system. In this forensics lesson, students collect and analyze evidence on a fictional crime. They describe different causes of cardiac arrest.
Curated OER
Real or hoax?
Seventh graders brainstorm a list of criteria that makes a webpage useful for research and not useful for research. They complete the activity, "Real or Hoax," and discuss fiction and non fiction stories and determine which websites are...
Novelinks
The Martian Chronicles: Response Writing
Follow the format of Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles with a journal-writing activity. Readers choose a character and examine the character's life and circumstances through brainstorming, research, and discussion before writing a...
Curated OER
Confectionary Bureau of Investigations: Case of the Cookie Mystery
High schoolers perform tests on different chemicals to determine their chemical properties. In this forensic science lesson, students identify an unknown sample using its physical and chemical properties. They solve a fictional crime...
Curated OER
Gene Puzzles
Students come to understand that in sexually reproducing organisms, such as humans, typically half of the genes come from each parent.
Students examine a fictional pedigree and determine which gene is responsible for a given trait. The...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Attitude Determines Altitude
A fabulous instructional activity which combines mathematics with space science. Middle schoolers work in cooperative groups in order to research early astronauts and their accomplishments. They look at a variety of rocket and space...
Curated OER
Designasaurus: Modeling Activity for a Paleoartist
Students create and draw fictional dinosaurs. They write a description of their dinosaur.
Curated OER
Facts and Myths about our Solar System
Sixth graders explore popular ideas about the Sun and Moon. In this space science instructional activity, 6th graders separate commonly accepted details about our solar system into facts and myths. Students research a particular idea and...
Curated OER
Tell Us All: Tools for Integrating Math and Engineering
What a scam! Middle and high schoolers pose as journalists exposing consumer fraud. In this activity, they write an article for a magazine using data collected during previous investigations (prior lessons) to defend their findings that...
National First Ladies' Library
Science: The Purloined Letter
Students examine Edgar Allan Poe's "the Purloined Letter" from the perspective of a profiler. To sharpen search procedures, they examine the text and make lists of items and places in the house that were searched. Then students discuss...
Curated OER
Where Are the Dinosaurs?
Learners explore the concept of extinction by studying dinosaurs. In this dinosaur activity, students distinguish between extinct creatures and those that still exist.
Curated OER
The Memory Invention
Young writers edit their writing to make sure it shows good meaning and clarity. In this writing lesson, learners are given a variety of "What If?" scenarios to choose from as writing prompts. A class discussion ensues, which focuses on...
Curated OER
Disaters!
Students read a fiction and nonfiction accounts about different types of disasters. The class uses iChat AV and iSight camera to interview students in a different part of the country about natural or manmade disasters in their area....
Curated OER
Frindle: A Guiding Reading Unit
Guide your class through a reading of the popular children's book, Frindle, with this comprehensive literature unit. Starting with a brief introduction to the guided reading process, the class goes on to read the story two chapters at a...