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Speaking for the Trees
Students present a play based on The Lorax.In this environmental issues instructional activity, students read and discuss literature and complete activities pertaining to environmental stewardship.
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Worms: Nature's Recyclers
Students explore vermi-composting. In this vermi-composting instructional activity, students listen to the story Diary of a Worm and discuss the parts of a worm. They create worm bins and add organic food for the worms to recycle.
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Preparation and Community
Students explore community crisis and how to work together to improve a community. In this community stability lesson ,students explore how communities work together to solve problems and provide security. Students research news reports...
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Doctor's Dilemma: Advocacy for Whom?
Students investigate why doctors feel torn between patients and insurance companies. They examine the health care system and how it affects patients. They discuss one's ability to afford health insurance as well.
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Effective Lobbying
Students study citizenship issues related to democratic process. They report to the class with posters, graphics and handouts.
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Sizing Up Hail
Students participate in an estimation and measurement activity to improve their estimates of the size of hail. They hold several different sized wooden balls and record their guesses of the ball's diameters. They compare their estimates.
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Hiring a Lawyer
Pupils discuss the process of selecting a lawyer. They discover and define some common terms in the employment agreement between the lawyer and the client and keep in mind that comparison shopping is acceptable when hiring a lawyer.
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Dividing the Philanthropic Shares
Students define who volunteers are the and the types of jobs that they do. They identify various groups who volunteer in their community, and locate them on a city map.
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Foundation, Nonprofit, All Matter to Me
Students examine different types of foundations and non-for-profit organizations. They identify the focus of the different organizations. They finally relate the beginning of certain foundations or non-for-profit organizations with...
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Making Plans
Students choose site for a new school by using real life problem solving skills.
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Rivers for the Common Good
Pupils explore what effects improper waste disposal and water pollution have on the water cycle. They explore how philanthropic acts can help protect the water cycle and keep our water and planet clean.
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The Atrazine Dilemma
Students understand how farming practices and the topography of a region can effect the health and safety of all living things. Students play a game which helps them understand how the chemical Azatrine has spread in the watershed.
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Pollution Solution
Students explore the topic of oil pollution and how it affects the global ocean. They discuss oil spills in recent history and use problem solving skills to decide what strategies could be used to actually clean up an oil spill. Students...
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The Civil War in Historical Fiction and Historical Accounts
Eighth graders examine life during the Civil War through various readings. They compare and contrast a novel they read in class to one they chose on the subject. They work together as a class to produce a newspaper displaying the...
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Health Care Crisis Timeline
Young scholars work together to develop a timeline showing the history of the health cary system. They examine why so many Americans do not have health insurance. They create their own solutions to this problem.
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Wetland Adaptation
Students participate in a simulation to investigate the impact of the wetland environment on the migration of birds. They discuss the patterns of migration they took and why they avoided certain wetlands.
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More than One Way of Knowing
Students compare the obeservations of traditional people with the oberservations of Western science. They validate Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit (IQ) through comparison and the identification of...
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Wetland Adaptation
Fourth graders study the impact of the wetland environment on the migration of birds. They make a list of the important reasons on a large piece of paper to be posted in the classroom and point out the biggest wetland in the state (The...
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Rich and Poor
In this rich and poor dialogue, students read aloud questions and answers about the rich and the poor of the world in order to build vocabulary skills. Students work in pairs.
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Landfill Lounge
Young scholars accurately construct a model of a sanitary landfill and identify the parts of the landfill and explain their function. They work in grous using a clear plastic box, modeling clay, soil and a variety of garbage to create...
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Trappers Then and Now
Students study how trapping in the Illinois Territory in the 1800's effected the beaver population in the state. They compare methods, rules and regulations of the 1800s to those of today. In groups, they research a variety of...