Curated OER
Design and Build a Road Sign Support
Emergent engineers plan, construct, and experiment with a spaghetti noodle structure that could be used to hold a load. Set them up for success by first showing them a four-minute video on engineering design and a slide show of different...
Smithsonian Institution
Conflicting Voices of the Mexican War
Americans wanted to fulfill Manifest Destiny, and this pattern continued with the Mexican War. The resource specifically teaches about the Mexican War through a variety of exercises including a research project, group work, brainstorming...
Film English
Paper Is Not Dead
Now that much of people's lives center around their electronic devices, paper is being used less often. However, sometimes you do need paper. Have your class brainstorm the uses of paper and of electronic devices and compare their...
Curated OER
Telling Our Own Stories
Explore online profiles and social media with your middle and high school classes. Use blogs to inspire your class to craft a well-written, thoughtful response to a prompt you give. A few example prompts are given.
TryEngineering
Search Engines
Introduce search engines with an activity that models how search engines work and the different algorithms they employ. Working in groups, class members then build search queries to demonstrate the knowledge learned.
Scholastic
Ready to Research Owls
Researching facts about owls can be a hoot for your class. Let them wisely collaborate on this writing project. The resource is the second part of three parts. It is best to use all three lessons in order.
Teach Engineering
Come On Over Rover
Introduce your class to the steps that occur in the manufacturing of parts, the assembly, and the testing of a Mars rover. Pupils learn about fabrication techniques and tolerances in the manufacturing process.
Ontario
Animation Programming—Computer Studies
Introduce high schoolers interested in animation programming to fundamental programming concepts so that they can plan and write simple programs.
National Wildlife Federation
An Energy Mix: Renewable and Nonrenewable Resources
What did the windmill say about renewable energy? I'm a BIG fan! Lesson three in the series of 12 has classes discuss potential and kinetic energy and then, in pairs, they complete a web quest over the different types of energy...
NPR
Chinese American Women Lesson Plan
The National Women's History Museum provides a plan designed to accompany their online CyberExhibit, Chinese American Women; a History of Resilience and Resistance. After examining a series of primary and secondary source documents,...
Teach Engineering
Rube Goldberg and the Meaning of Machines
A Rube Goldberg machine does not really look like it would make work easier. Introduce your class to Rube Goldberg with a resource that shows how his inventions make simple tasks harder to complete.
Teach Engineering
Weather Basics
Weather — there's more to it than meets the eye of the storm. With this resource young meteorologists learn about the basics of weather, including information about the factors that influence the weather, common weather vocabulary, and...
Teach Engineering
Complex Networks and Graphs
Show your class how engineers use graphs to understand large and complex systems. The resource provides the beginnings of graph theory by introducing the class to set theory, graphs, and degree distributions of a graph.
Curated OER
Using the Internet to Do Punnett Squares
What a fun way to explore Mendelian Genetics! Using a computer connected to the Internet, beginning biologists construct and use Punnett squares of monohybrid crosses to explain how genetic traits are passed to offspring. Other websites...
Crafting Freedom
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper: Lover of Literacy
This, the sixth in a series of 10 related resources, examines the life and works of Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, an African American author, born in 1825, who advocated literacy for both free and enslaved African Americans.
Curated OER
Modern Technology and Farming
Learners explore agriculture by conducting a technology conversation in class. In this food system instructional activity, students identify the path of food from farm to plate and view a virtual farm on the Internet. Learners complete a...
Curated OER
Environment, Technology, and Culture of the Chumash People
Students develop an understanding of the interrelatedness of technology, culture, and environment as illustrated by the Chumash culture. They research the tribe and complete a table for the Chumash people describing their environment,...
Curated OER
Technology and Teen Abuse
Students research dating abuse, particularly as it affects teens in general and specifically when technology like cells phones and the Internet is involved. They develop and use a survey on dating abuse in thier school and use the...
Curated OER
Technology for Studying Comets
Young scholars design an Aerogel model to capture clay particles. In this space science instructional activity, students discover what happens to comets as they hit a surface. They explain how the Aerogel technology would help scientists...
Teaching Tolerance
Digital Tools as a Mechanism for Active Citizenship
How is technology a useful tool for active citizenship? Pupils assume the role of technology consultants reviewing citizenship projects. Small groups collaborate to make recommendations about how to incorporate technology to improve...
Teach Engineering
The Grand Challenge
Magnetic resonance imaging, just how safe is it? The introduction to unit study of magnetic resonance imaging technology presents the grand challenge questions of how an MRI machine works, the risks involved, the physics involved, and...
National Research Center for Career and Technical Education
Photoshop Scale
Say cheese! Can your class take a great photo and size it to fit any need? A career and technology-centered lesson plan demonstrates the correct way to resize images in Adobe Photoshop. Scholars view a presentation and work individually...
Curated OER
How Communication Technologies Affect People
Third graders complete a worksheet, first with known information, and then with researched information. They create a PowerPoint, video, or radio broadcast to convey the results of their research. They learn to use a graphic organizer to...
Curated OER
Think It, Write It, Create It
Help your scholars create a class story. They will write a page of the story and illustrate that page. Then they use a variety of digital technologies to make the story come alive. A variety of digital resources are recommended for the...