Students become familiar with teh selection, evaluation, and use of instructional software for 4-8 classroom. They download software demos from the web and discuss critiquing software. Students browse software evaluations on web sites.

Get your class outside to observe their surroundings with a lesson highlighting weather patterns and seasonal changes. First, learners take a weather walk to survey how the weather affects animals, people, plants, and trees during...

Thirty at the party won't cost any more than twenty-five. The assessment task provides a scenario for the cost of a party where the initial fee covers a given number of guests. The class determines the cost for specific numbers of guests...

Gustav Holst's The Planets provide young musicians an opportunity to examine how composers can create a suite: a collection of smaller pieces grouped to explore a single topic. After listening to "Jupiter," they examine "Mars" in...

Put those old holiday lights to good use. Individuals use a section of ornamental lights to create electric circuits. If the lights glow, it's a success; otherwise, it's time to try again!

Have you ever noticed a news story revolves around an essential question? Scholars research methods of reporting historical events. Working in groups, they use an interactive module to gather information on a historical topic, uncovering...

What happens next? Work on story sequence with a lesson that prompts kids to put a story back in order. Additionally, they discuss what would happen if one event was missing from the sequence.

What does stew have to do with bartering? Learners will find out how by reading the story Saturday Sancocho, discussing the text, participating in a bartering activity in class (once with goods only and once with money), and...

Do these items have the same ratio? Through a learning contract, pupils master proportions by practicing proportions via word problems, graphs, and with manipulatives. An exit ticket checks for understanding at the end of the...

If tap water is more acidic than ocean water, why are we so concerned about ocean acidification? The third installment of a 23-part NOAA Enrichment in Marine sciences and Oceanography (NEMO) program focuses on carbon dioxide levels in...

Solving a murder is like isolating a variable. Using a video on a murder mystery, the narrator introduces the idea of solving a literal equation for one variable. After solving several equations, the class comes up with a set of...

Can corn power the world? Young scientists learn about how corn and other plants can provide renewable biofuels in the second of nine lessons. They set up an experiment to investigate how different variables affect plant growth. All of...

To understand the controversy surrounding the US 2000 presidential election, class members investigate the rationale behind the Electoral Collage, the intimidation involved in the election of 1876, and the 2004 American League...

Estimate the value of one of the most famous irrational numbers. The hands-on instructional activity instructs classmates to measure the circumference and diameters of circles using yarn. The ratio of these quantities defines pi.

It's all about the plot, main events, and story mapping with this lesson. As the class reads the novel James and the Giant Peach, they create an excitement graph that actually charts key events and moments of excitement. After...

Learners explore, discover, compare, and contrast arithmetic and geometric sequences in this collaborative, hands-on activity. They build and analyze growing patterns to distinguish which kind of sequence is represented by a set of data...

After reading and discussing chapter 10 of Victor Martinez's Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida with a partner, individuals write about a time they had to exhibit real courage.

What do electrical currents have to do with an MRI? Using a simple wire setup and a magnet, class members explore forces used in an MRI by investigating the magnetic force acting on a wire carrying a current. 

Carlos Fuentes’s The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait and Jaspre Bark’s Journal of Inventions: Leondardo da Vince serve as models for an assignment that asks class members to create a personal journal they will use...

Student statisticians calculate ratios to determine how many shades of green were mixed by Ms. Baca's art class. They graph the number of blue parts against the number of yellow parts for each combination and discover that some produce...

Can you design the perfect chair? Scholars apply the engineering design process to design and build a prototype of a new type of chair from wires. They test their designs with a wooden artist model or stuffed animal.

For many people, Barack Obama's presidency was the next step in Martin Luther King, Jr's dream of America's future. Explore the dreams of Americans past and present, as well as the young Americans in your class, with a set of activities...

Take your science class on a hypothetical field trip to Mars with an engaging astronomy lesson. After first learning about NASA's Mars rover missions, young scientists plan their own scientific investigations of Earth's...

Whose home is it anyway? Design teams plan a housing development in which they must also protect a native species. The teams consist of a project manager, civil engineer, environmental engineer, and graphic designer. Teams present their...