Werner Herzog's film, Lessons of Darkness is the topic of this lesson plan on art, politics, and culture. Learners discuss the concepts of utopia, dystopia, detournment, and Scorched Earth then compose a paper which describes dystopian...

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. 

Acid rain, and how it affects the environment, is the focus of this Earth science lesson. During the study, learners evaluate measures to reduce acid rain, and design an investigation to demonstrate the conection between a hypothesis and...

Robert Hass's article "Rivers and Stories" underscores the importance of rivers in the development of civilization and the importance of reclaiming supposedly dead rivers and implementing policies that protect river health. Groups...

Middle schoolers develop an understanding of our planet as a system by designing a very-long-duration space mission in which the life-support system is patterned after that of earth.

Here is a beautiful lesson on clouds designed for your 1st graders. Learners study three different types of clouds. They construct drawings of cumulus, cirrus, and stratus clouds. The Cloud Book, by Tommie dePaola is used to...

While this lesson focuses on the birds and fish found on the Hudson River, it could be adapted for use in any classroom. Using a vocabulary list, learners explore the meaning of words like adaptation, habitat, barbel, and more. Then,...

Agriculture, deforestation, and urbanization. How have human's changed the planet and how might we mitigate the effects of human activity on the planet? To answer these questions class members research the changes in human land use from...

Where am I? The second installment of a 23-part NOAA Enrichment in Marine sciences and Oceanography (NEMO) program starts with pupils guessing the years in which major ocean exploration events took place. The instructional activity then...

Should driver's licenses be granted to unauthorized immigrants? That is the question class members grapple with in a lesson that asks them to first read a fact sheet that details the arguments for and against licensing unauthorized...

The U.S. Guest-Worker Program and the H-2A visa are the focus of a social studies activity. First, class members assume the role of advisors who must present the president with four proposals that would amend the visas given to...

As part of a study of immigration law, class members read a summary of the Supreme Court case, Arizona v. United States. They then examine a series of examples and acting as federal court judges, must determine if the scenarios...

Silver: more than jewelry, it's also a natural antimicrobial agent. An inquiry-based lesson asks collaborative groups to design and implement an experiment to test this property. Using samples of silver nanoparticles and a strain of...

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...

Field trips require a great deal of advanced planning to be successful. Ensure the success of your trips with a step-by-step preparation guide that itemizes before, during, and after activities as well as extension and adaptation...

Students explore the concept and implications of extinction using the example of the Passenger Pigeon, once an extremely abundant species that was completely eliminated by humans.

Students investigate the geography of Mali. They locate Mali on a satellite map, explore various websites, describe the landscape and climate, label a map, and write an essay about the Niger Riger.

Junior oceanographers access the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary Shipwreck Database and plot the locations of several shipwrecks. Shipwrecks are always an enthralling subject and this activity allows your learners to act as...

How to meet the needs of people around the globe—a question many ask. The fifth in a six-part series about human population and its effects on the globe, the eye-opening lesson includes discussion, a homework activity, and an in-class...

Students utilize maps/Atlases to find key spatial information, locate U.S. National Parks, characterize the geography of a specific region, and create a National Park brochure.

Middle schoolers discover that material and energy uses by a city come from outside the city boundaries. They realize that the pathway of these material is linear instead of cyclical as they are in natural ecosystems.

Young scholars investigate the importance of food surpluses to the historical development of urban ecosystems.

High schoolers, working in groups, research different aspects of the Mayan society of the classical period. They study the rise and fall of the civilization and present the information in multimedia presentations.

Discover some of the themes of Dr. Seuss's major books. They see that despite being written for young people, Dr. Seuss' books contain powerful messages and important themes.