National Endowment for the Humanities
Folklore in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God
Learners define folklore, folk groups, tradition, and oral narrative. They identify traditional elements in Their Eyes Were Watching God Analyze and understand the role of traditional folkways and folk speech in the overall literary...
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.
University of Colorado
Space Travel Guide
Neptune takes 164.8 Earth years to travel around the sun. In the fifth of 22 lessons, young scientists create a travel guide to a planet in our solar system. They provide tips for others on what to bring, what they see, and their...
Curated OER
Christopher Columbus: The Man, the Myth, the Legend
Learn more about maps by examining Christopher Columbus's voyage to the New World. Kindergartners will learn about basic map skills and how to identify the compass rose, oceans, and land masses. They will also discover the purpose of...
Curated OER
"Lighthouses"
Learners listen to the book "Beacons of Light" by Gail Gibbons and identify the different characteristics and facts concerning lighthouses and their history. They examine the differences between fiction and non-fiction books and engage...
Curated OER
Reindeer Research
Students research reindeer habitats and purposes. They investigate the historical significance of reindeer and the Christmas holiday. Finally, they write a short fictional story about reindeer using the information from their research.
Curated OER
Who Are We? An Introduction to the Life Within Our Bodies
Students examine cell structure, cell division, and the basic structure of DNA. They read and discuss a case study of DNA research, answer discussion questions, role-play the process of mitosis, and complete a DNA Fact or Fiction worksheet.
Curated OER
Edible Coal Mining
Learners explore the concept of bituminous coal and the role it plays within our world. In this economic and earth science lesson, middle schoolers discover and model the extraction methods with hands-on activities. Learners also...
Curated OER
The Golden Spike
Students investigate modern transportation in the 19th century by examining artifacts. For this U.S. history lesson, students read the story Joseph's Railroad Dreams, and discuss the Golden Spike used in the first transcontinental...
Curated OER
Create A Medical Chart
Young scholars investigate the disease of Duchenne muscular dystrophy in a unique way. They create a medical chart for a mock patient that has the disease. This allows them to research the disease in order to obtain information for the...
Curated OER
"War of the Worlds": A Broadcast Re-Creation
Why did Orson Welles' 1938 Broadcast of a adaptation of H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds cause such a panic? To answer this question, class members listen to the original broadcast and research the panic that resulted. They then engage...
Curated OER
Food in History
Students research, predict and offer solutions regarding factors that affect current or future food crops could result in economic, political or social changes.
Curated OER
History Detective: The Case of the Mysterious Trunk
Students role play as history detectives. In this historical inquiry lesson, students discuss what detectives do, analyze a trunk of "artifacts" and make conclusions about its fictional owner. Students complete six pages of related art,...
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
A Passage Through Time
Young learners research and present information about a chosen subject to their peers, parents, instructors, and community. This lesson has a strong research and public speaking component, and would be ideal for your higher level students.
Curated OER
Will There Be Subsistence Farmers in the 21st Century?: Feeding the World
Students examine the topic of subsistence farming. They research the future of subsistence agriculture, identify the types and locations of subsistence agriculture, and write about subsistence farming in regards to developing nations and...
Curated OER
Minty
Students investigate, read, and discuss about other famous Afro-American leaders. Students compare/contrast slaves home, activities, etc. with that of Afro- Americans today. Students create a time line to post on the wall of Harriet's...
Curated OER
911 As History
Students recognize persuasive techniques, think criticaly about the messages contained in various media, and discuss controversial issues in constructive ways. They analyze the deeper messages contained in children's literature, and...
Curated OER
A Journey Through Time!
Young scholars discover more about conducting genealogical research on the challenges that their ancestors and others experienced during their immigration to Canada and their migration within Canada. They engage in a variety of creative...
Curated OER
What Has Happened Here?
Students read a passage from Geraldine Brooks's novel Year of Wonders. They generate questions to clarify the meaning of the text and make connections between the text and information learned in their history and science classes.
Curated OER
The Buckshot Stops Here
Students study the incident between Vice President Dick Cheney and his friend while hunting. They brainstorm and research different scandals throughout History and complete a homework assignment.
Curated OER
Beauty in the Eye of the Scientist
Students research science's 10 most beautiful experiments and the historical periods in which these experiments were conducted. Then, students create magazine covers for issues of a fictional magazine.
Curated OER
America in Film and Fiction
Students begin the lesson by reading a book on film study. After watching the movie "Citizen Kane", they work together to identify the issues concerning the United States before World War II. As a class, they discuss how the ideas and...
Curated OER
Butterfly 1: Observing the Life Cycle of a Butterfly
Students observe and identify the characteristics of the life cycle of a butterfly.