Cornell University
Sometimes You Behave Like a WAVE, Sometimes You Don't!
Electromagnetic radiation behaves like both a wave and a particle. Help classes explore this concept through a lab investigation. Young scientists create optical interference patterns on a glass slide using a carbon layer. They analyze...
NASA
Eclipse Activity Guide
Ever made solar s'mores? Or recreated the solar system using peanuts? Astronomers young and old investigate all things solar using a variety of activities. Explore how the sun works, types of light it emits, and methods of charting the...
Southern Poverty Law Center
Teaching Hard History: A Framework for Teaching American Slavery
Pupils investigate American slavery from colonial times through the Civil War. They incorporate primary sources, video clips, and firsthand accounts to understand how the slavery issue gripped the nation. Essays, presentations, and...
NASA
Newton Car
If a car gets heavier, it goes farther? By running an activity several times, teams experience Newton's Second Law of Motion. The teams vary the amount of weight they catapult off a wooden block car and record the distance the car...
Curated OER
Rating Systems
Your favorite sports team is ranked #1. How do the powers that be determine this rating? Learn how ratings are mathematically computed using probability concepts, from the Elo Rating System for chess to the Rating Percentage Index for...
PBS
Think Like a Historian: A Viewing Guide
Calling all junior detectives! Scholars use the tools of investigation to determine the causes and impacts of the American Civil War. Using viewing guides, videos, group research, and written resources, they discover what it takes to...
Purdue University
Global Design for the Seasons
People don't all get the same amount of sun at the same time of the year. Collaborative groups explore how the motion of Earth contributes to the idea in an inquiry-based STEM lesson. Learners first investigate how the rotation of Earth...
Newseum
You Can’t Say That: Right to Know vs. Security Risk
Print or block? That is the question young journalists debate as part of their study of the freedom of the press. Half the class represents the journalists' legal team, and the other half represents the government's legal team. Teams...
Bowland
My Music
Scholars investigate how the tempo of music affects heartbeats. Groups develop hypotheses about music and its connection to heartbeats before carrying out an experiment. They analyze and present data from their investigations.
PBS
Using Primary Sources: Nazi Spy Ring Busted
Spy games are not just for professionals anymore! Scholars use short video clips, primary documents, and photographs to investigate Nazi spies in America during World War II. The young detectives analyze the paranoia warfare can create...
PBS
Using Primary Sources: The Rogue's Gallery
What would be in your life's scrapbook? Scholars use short video clips, primary and secondary documents, and photos to investigate a 1909 scrapbook. They analyze and uncover what the Rogue Book tells them about the past in Western...
PBS
Evaluating Conflicting Evidence: Sultana
What sunk the Sultana? Scholars become investigators to uncover the facts behind the 1865 sinking just after the end of the Civil War. Through group work, videos, and primary documents, they research and analyze why 1,800 men died....
Teach Engineering
Building a Barometer
Forget your local meteorologist — build your own barometer and keep track of the weather with an activity that provides directions to build a barometer out of a narrow necked bottle, a glass, and some water. Using their barometer, teams...
NOAA
Waves
Is it possible to outrun a tsunami? After watching a presentation that explains how waves and tsunamis occur, class members investigate the speed of tsunamis triggered by an earthquake.
Smithsonian Institution
Weather Widget
What's so difficult about predicting the weather? Scholars work collaboratively to build a device that models how meteorologists use computers to forecast weather. Team members collect and interpret data while working together to...
Newseum
Reporting Part II: Beyond the Basics
Scholars examine the articles written for the series' first activity and select ones that would benefit from further research. In a 48-hour deadline, teams of three select one topic to investigate in greater depth and craft a revised...
Anti-Defamation League
Is Olympic Coverage Sexist?
Women Olympians have come a long way since 1900 when 22 women competed for the first time. News coverage of the Olympics has also changed dramatically. What has been slow to change, however, is the language used in the coverage of female...
Anti-Defamation League
Harriet Tubman on the $20 Bill: The Power of Symbols
How important are symbols and symbolic gestures in society? Middle schoolers have an opportunity to analyze the importance of symbols on American currency with a lesson that investigates the controversies surrounding redesigning the $5,...
News Literacy Project
Fact-Check It!
Here's a lesson designed to help learners develop their digital verification skills. First, expert groups study specific digital verification skills, and in a jigsaw activity, share what they have learned with classmates. The jigsaw...
Curated OER
Evergreen's Green Team Energy Audit
Students investigate the ways energy is used at their school and how it can be changed. In this energy lesson, students participate in a service project related to energy. Students record and calculate changes that saved energy and the...
Curated OER
Investigation--Comparing and Ordering Fractions
Fourth graders use fraction strips to compare and order fractions. Identify various ways a figure can be divided. Find equivalent fractions. Recognize and order fractions with the denominators 2,3,4,5,6,8,10, and 12.
Curated OER
Investigation--Can You Build This?
Early learners explore shapes using colored blocks. They first get some hands-on time with the blocks and then look at beginning math concepts regarding spatial relationships. They work with a partner to build a 6-8 block tower with...
Curated OER
Investigation - Staci's New Car
Students study a shopping problem. They discuss strategies for determining the number of possible choices. They create a tree diagram and an organized list. Students analyze patterns and derive an equation for the multiplication principle.
Curated OER
Crime Scene Investigation - Biology Teaching Thesis
Students explore the different blood types, and are introduced to new knowledge through a crime scene simulated activity. They explore the genetics of blood types, and are introduced to immunology/diseases.