Curated OER
A Delicate Balance
Students reflect on racial balance in their own schools, debate merits of policies that seek to create and maintain school racial diversity, and write essays on whether their school should promote racial balance.
Curated OER
What Makes Up a Healthy Watershed
Students, after observing the elements of a local watershed, explore the need to protect watersheds as water resources for the future. They examine the factors involved with a watershed: geology, ecology, and the effect of man's...
Curated OER
Conditions of City Life in the Late 19th Century
Students examine tenement life. In this lesson on early urbanization, students research the role of journalism for social change in early American cities. Students write a journal article for themselves that demonstrate an understanding...
Indiana Department of Education
Indiana K-12 Educators’ Resource Toolkit
Imagine a tool that magically engages readers in the classroom. A handbook for Indiana educators doesn't guarantee success, but it does offer a variety of strategies for teachers to try. The handbook opens with research-based theory...
Virginia Department of Education
Laboratory Safety and Skills
Avoiding lab safety rules will not give you super powers. The lesson opens with a demonstration of not following safety rules. Then, young chemists practice their lab safety while finding the mass of each item in a mixture and trying to...
Global Oneness Project
Architectural Wonders
Angkor Wat, a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Cambodia, is the focus of a activity that asks class members to consider factors that could result in the destruction of these archeological treasures. Pupils listen to a lecture on the...
Statistics Education Web
I Always Feel Like Somebody's Watching Me
Future statisticians and potential psychics first conduct an experiment to collect data on whether a person can tell if someone is staring at them. Statistical methods, such as hypothesis testing, chi-square tests, binomial tests, and...
Library of Congress
Industrial Revolution
Could you live without your phone? What about cars, steel, or clothing? Class groups collaborate to produce presentations that argue that either the telephone, the gramophone, the automobile, the textile industry, or the steel industry...
Curated OER
Jane Goodall, Renowned Naturalist and Champion of Chimpanzees
Students study the life of Jane Goodall and how she made an impact studying chimpanzees. For this endangered species lesson students write in their journals.
Virginia Department of Education
Weather Patterns and Seasonal Changes
Get your class outside to observe their surroundings with a activity highlighting weather patterns and seasonal changes. First, learners take a weather walk to survey how the weather affects animals, people, plants, and trees during...
Curated OER
College Research Skills: Evaluating Reliable Online Sources
Students analyze Public Art in preparation for college discussion, research, and writing, and create their own artistic creations. In this art and college prep lesson, students develop an original research question to explore an art...
Curated OER
Understanding What Makes a Good News Story
Young scholars explore the news sources at their school in order to write stories that reflect what's going on in all communities and to identify what makes a good story. In this news writing lesson, students journal about what makes a...
Curated OER
Ottoman Lyric Poetry
Students explore the Ottoman style of poetry. They view a video, Suleyman the Magnificent, and view maps of Europe, Asia, Africa and the Mediterranean Sea. They research the Ottoman Empire and keep a journal. They read various Ottoman...
Curated OER
Food Environmental Quality And Health
Pupils focus on the issues that students face during middle childhood. They recognize the negative effects of poor nutrition and make more informed healthy decisions. They conduct further self-analysis in regards to their individual...
Curated OER
A Comparison of Indentured Servants and Slaves
Sixth graders examine and compare the lives of slaves and indentured servants using primary sources and the historical fiction books, "Molly Bannaky and Barefoot." They analyze and compare advertisements for runaway slaves. Students...
Curated OER
Global Environmental Issues: Air and Water Pollution
Thinking about designing a project for your social studies or environmental science classes? Use an overview of a project that prompts class groups to research an environmental issue.
Curated OER
Reading Primary Source Documents: Historical Content
Why do we read primary source documents? What can they give us that other writings cannot? Provide your learners with any of the primary sources attached here (there are seven), and have them complete the graphic organizer (which opens...
Curated OER
Michigan Supreme Court
Students read articles on a hot topic (controverial topic) and prepare for a discussion on the article. They engage in forming an opinion on an important public concern and defending their opinion/position with supporting data. They...
Curated OER
Friday Forum
Young scholars research controversial issues and formulate their own opinion. They defend their position with supporting data and evaluate arguments from opposing viewpoints. They present their stand both verbally and in the written form.
Curated OER
Live Well Now to Live Longer Later
Ninth graders select a topic to research, completing the sentence, "Are the effects of _______ really that detrimental to one's health?" They record information in a journal, including sources of information. Students work in groups with...
Curated OER
Why Be An Independent Learner?
Learners discuss why research skills are important to have as a skill in life. As a class, they identify their prior knowledge when it comes to researching a topic and discuss why it is important to be an independent learner. In...
Curated OER
Learning Festival
Fifth graders at this age are very interested in the adventures of knighthood and life in the past, so the unit will serve as a basis for teaching skills while maintaining high interest.
Curated OER
Friday Forum
Middle schoolers research a variety of controversial articles to gain knowledge. They form an opinion and defend their position with supporting data. They evaluate opposing arguments and present their viewpoint both verbally and in the...
Curated OER
Taste Test - Combining Sentences
Pupils combine sentences to create compound sentences. They write about creating their own soda, then make their own soda, comparing and contrasting it with a national brand. They write a paragraph containing compound sentences.