Curated OER
Community Building
Students explore the issues of urban and suburban sprawl. They work in small groups to create their own planned communities.
American Museum of Natural History
Dive Into Worlds Within the Sea
Make connections between ocean organisms. Individuals explore three different ecosystems in the ocean. With an online interactive, they learn how different organisms depend upon each other. Learners first answer questions to connect...
Curated OER
Communities
Young scholars are introduced to the concept of communities. Using a map, they locate and describe different communities of all sizes. They watch a video and answer questions on a worksheet to complete the lesson.
Curated OER
Design a Service Learning Activity
Students work together to design a service learning activity for their community that would benefit the Tijuana estuary. Using the internet, they research the elements of a service learning project and plan their's accordingly. They...
Curated OER
Who Works for the Common Good in Our Community?
Students identify community organizations that help those in need. In this service learning lesson, students listen to members of local service organizations present information. Students write journal entries based on the information...
Curated OER
Why Does Service Matter?
Students determine how community members serve others. In this service learning lesson, students interview community members who volunteer by serving others. Students then determine how they could serve their community.
National Park Service
Nutcracker Fantasy
The Clark's nutcracker bird hides seeds in 25,000 different sites every year to save for winter. Lesson demonstrates how difficult it would be to find these seeds months later when they need them for food. In the first of five lesson,...
Curated OER
A Cost-Effective Model of Teacher Development
As funding for staff-development days dwindles, Professional Learning Communities offer a no-cost alternative for professional development.
Compton Unified School District
How Can We Locate Places?
How can we locate places? Maps, of course! Expose second graders to the tools available in maps and discuss how these tools can help people find locations. Students also look at communities, including what makes a community and the...
Library of Congress
Investigating the Building Blocks of Our Community’s Past, Present, and Future
As Ken Jennings said, "There's just something hypnotic about maps." Certainly, the longer you look at them the more you can learn. In this project-based learning lesson, individuals study both historic and present-day maps of their area...
iCivics
Counties Work
Turn learning into a game by asking pupils to play an online interactive activity! Learners choose their own characters, departments, work toward building the population of their towns, earn money, and must maintain an approval rating...
Health Smart Virginia
Stepping Up to Depression and Suicide
Health Smart provides a instructional activity that shows middle schoolers how they can step up and help someone exhibiting self-harming behaviors. After learning the signs and symptoms of depression and suicide, teams research local...
Teaching Tolerance
Oral History Project
Get up-close-and-personal with history using guidance for an oral history project. An engaging resource takes pupils through brainstorming through feedback for a project to interview and collect oral histories from members of their...
Curated OER
Persuasive Writers
Use the power of the pen to persuade others to get involved in community issues! Individuals reflect on personal service learning activities and the writing process. They compose essays regarding service to others. While designed for...
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
The First Communities
These documents list essential questions and foundational concepts associated with early civilizations and farming communities in the agricultural revolution. Use this as a starting point for developing specific lessons and activities...
Curated OER
Holiday Cookie Exchange
Students build community with cookies. In this service learning lesson, students make holiday cookies to share with the custodial maintenance staff and cafeteria staff in their school.
It's About Time
Succession in Communities
What occurs following a natural disaster? High schoolers research this question and others as they investigate natural succession after a disaster. First, as they differentiate between primary and secondary succession, they explain how...
All Things PLC
A Balanced and Coherent System of Assessment
Assessment is key in any professional learning community (PLC). Check out this graphic that details the types of, frequency of, and purpose of various types of assessments used by PLC teams.
Teaching Tolerance
Modern-Day Heroes: People Who Are Making a Difference
Not all superheroes wear capes. An engaging lesson delves into the world of modern-day heroes and activists for change. Academics learn there are many different ways to be a hero as well as explore what makes a person a hero. The...
National Library of Medicine
Your Environment, Your Health: Runoff, Impervious Surfaces, and Smart Development
Can a sidewalk increase the amount of pollution in local streams? Scholars learn the answer to this question though research and experimentation in the fifth unit in the six-part series. Pupils study runoff, impervious surfaces, and the...
Curated OER
Communities
In this communities worksheet, learners answer six questions true or false concerning different types of communities and read eight clues to identify eighty different community helpers.
Curated OER
Sharing in the Classroom
Students explore the concept of sharing. In this character education lesson, students role play methods of sharing in the classroom and create a guidebook for sharing in the classroom.
Missouri Department of Elementary
Color Your Community
Eighth graders work together to come up with a topic for a service learning project that engages all members of the school community. Groups then develop a dialogue and visit other classrooms to encourage other students to participate....
Curated OER
Designing Connections: Bringing Communities Together
Young scholars design a community and write a persuasive essay selling their design. For this community relations lesson, students learn about design concepts and use problem solving skills to design structures and events that will bring...