Determine your class's prior knowledge about the necessities of life with this pre-assessment for a unit on living things. Learners draw pictures of themselves with all the things they need to live, grow, and survive. These drawings will...

Assess your class's knowledge of the needs of living things with the final lesson plan in a series. Given a large piece of paper and coloring utensils, young scientists draw a picture of themselves and a plant or animal of their...

Breathe some life into product design. Pupils learn about the stages of product creation, use, and disposal—sometimes called a cradle-to-grave assessment. They see how this cycle relates to the life cycle of organisms.

North is to factory as South is to plantation—the perfect analogy for the economy that set up the Civil War! The first lesson in a series of five helps teach beginners why the economy creates a driving force for conflict. Analysis of...

Introduce organic chemistry through an analysis of flavor. A three-part unit begins with an overview of the components of flavor. Next, scholars prepare esters through esterification. Finally, they examine how all senses have an impact...

Give me a home where electric buffalo roam and I'll show you an ohm on the range. Introduction your classes to potential and kinetic energy, electricity, and renewable resources with a resource that combines observation, direct...

Students investigate the basic needs of organisms that must be met in order to carry out life processes. They view a variety of organism that are meeting and competing for resources. Students create an Idea Web for the animals shown....

Cover Freytag's Triangle and examine Anton Chekhov's "The Bet" in this third lesson plan in a series of fourteen based around short stories. Learners take a quiz and discuss Freytag's triangle. They apply the triangle to "The Bet" and...

What do whales sing about? Invite your class to imagine the thoughts of whales before writing acrostic poems on the topic. The plan blends together a bit of life science with plenty of opportunities for creativity and writing.

Wouldn't it be great if you could produce your own food? Scholars learn about the processes of photosynthesis and cellular respiration in plants. They consider how to use photosynthesis as a model of an efficient system and how to apply...

Please, sir, can I have a few thousand dollars for my research? The last installment in a six-part lesson has the pupils develop a grant proposal. Class members apply their knowledge of skin cancer, ultraviolet radiation, human skin, and...

Science, engineering, and United States history? Pupils research collections of artifacts from the Smithsonian to learn about historical scientific innovations. At the end of the lesson plan, they write an essay to discuss...

The Secret Life of Bees provides high schoolers an opportunity to connect the events in the novel to events in America’s history. After choosing a topic from a provided list, individuals research how the event affected the Civil Rights...

Young scholars role-play how organisms adapt to their environment. They play 20 questions with plant and animal habitats. They create a web of life to demonstrate how each plant and animal relies on the other for survival.

Investigate how temperature affects the density of water and stratification that occurs in bodies of water when temperatures vary. Water of differing temperatures is given different colors to see the layers that form. The lesson is meant...

Take your class' understanding of cells to the next level... or levels! Demonstrate the levels of organization using a variety of engaging methods. The teacher's guide includes the materials you'll need to execute a flower...

Inspire kindness in and out of school with a lesson that challenges scholars to perform 100 acts of kindness during the time between Martin Luther King Jr. Day to Valentine's day. Leading up to a celebration of friendship, learners...

Is qualitative or quantitative research more convincing when it comes to climate change? In the eighth lesson during this 21-part series, scholars begin by performing a quantitative analysis of deforestation and urbanization. Then, they...

Upper graders read the story One Grain of Rice, and use a Venn diagram to compare and contrast topics found in the story to current event topics today. Groups of three learners work together to create their diagram. The topics they must...

World War I was known for its gruesome battlefields and horrific injuries. Using photographs from a battlefield surgeon's scrapbook, scholars see first-hand what life was like in the trenches. After creating a timeline of the war using...

Planning a unit on simple machines? Save some time and energy with this collection of lessons and activities that explores how these devices are used in the real world to make life a little easier. 

After reading Elie Wiesel's Night, watching the movie Life is Beautiful, and researching World War II, class members write a comparison essay on the book and film. This includes a prior knowledge activity, discussion in whole and small...

Fifth graders identify all parts of an egg, and explore their importance to the life cycle of a chicken. Learners compare all sorts of birds and place them in categories based on what they look like. This five-day lesson effectively...

Few aspects of life make better fodder for a comedic play than politics. A study guide introduces George Bernard's Shaw comedy Arms and the Man. Along with summaries of each scene and brief biographies of the main characters, two lesson...