Curated OER
People Interacting with the Environment
Students explore an arctic, temperate, and tropical environment and then decide what people need in each environment to help them live comfortably and what their lives would be like.
Curated OER
Blowing in the Wind
Students compare hurricanes and tornadoes. They write a paragraph explaining how to prepare for a storm. Students give an oral report. They use weather facts to practice math skills. Students record observations of a storm.
Curated OER
Parenting Styles
Students identify the traits of different parenting styles and discuss how they effect the students that are raised in that manner. They present their observations to the class.
Curated OER
Energeia -- Energy Diary Activity
Middle schoolers identify the six types of energy. They write journal entries about each type and give examples. They participate in a lab activity in which the different types are examined as well.
Curated OER
Comparing Amount of Rainfall in Different Geographical Areas
Students construct rain gauges and use them to log rainfall in their school zone, local city, and region and then compare and discuss them by plotting this information.
Curated OER
Digging Deeper: Mission San Sabá
Seventh graders view a painting of the destruction of Mission San Saba in Texas. They discuss the painting and identify information that they can infer from the painting.
Curated OER
The Three Faces of Isaac Stevens
Eighth graders examine three images of Isaac Stevens for information about the man and his activity as a US soldier, territorial governor and participant in treaty councils. Students are also shown Union Army pictures with different...
Curated OER
Discovering a Law of Space Physics
Students use data collected by an astronomer to determine the relationship between the time it takes the planet to orbit the sun and the average radius of the planet's orbit around the sun. Students use trial and error to find the...
Curated OER
Tall Tales: Reconstructing A Personal Tell
Sixth graders discover the ways archaeologists examine artifacts and where they are found. After being introduced to new vocabulary, they use artifacts from their own lives and discover what could be told about their life from them. ...
Curated OER
Maverick
Students apply probability to real life situation. In this statistics lesson plan, students play poker and make predictions on what hand they will get next. They apply their knowledge of how probability works to make their predictions.
Curated OER
It's All In The Rocks
Middle schoolers think critically to determine fact or inference when examining sedimentary layers with embedded fossils. Geology and evolutionary biology are introduced. They individually write a story about various diagrams and share...
Curated OER
Color Dots 3
Students make simple observations, test mixtures, and make generalized inferences from their observations. They observe bleeding of colored inks with water.
Curated OER
Pulse
Students determine a baseline pulse rate then chart the changes in rate with exercise. They describe the changes and develop a rationale for their observations. The task assesses students' abilities to make simple observations, determine...
Curated OER
Chemical Bonding
Eighth graders identify the three main types of chemical bonds. In this chemistry lesson, 8th graders draw Lewis dot diagrams of elements and determine the bond formed. They create a model water molecule.
Curated OER
Scientific Inquiry
Middle schoolers make inferences about what activities occur at different places in school. They form a hypothesis as to how space is used. They simulate how archeaologists explore past people by designing and conducting a research project.
Curated OER
In Your Own Backyard
Students observe organisms in their habitat and record their observations. They then draw conclusions about the organism's habitat needs and food sources.
Curated OER
Best of the Solar System
Young scholars visit a site which provides images to be analyzed. Notes are taken and planets are named based on observed features and observations. Using peer review, they try to determine the identity of the planets. They are free to...
Curated OER
How Does it Affect Plants?
Students examine the effects of acid rain on plants. They observe the growth of seeds and the health of different plants for a month. They share their findings with the community.
Curated OER
You Light Up My Life: Developing a Scientific Theory for What Fuels a Candle's Flame!
Students examine how candles work and how scientific theories are developed and tested. Students propose hypotheses about what is burning in a candle then perform tests in order to develop their scientific theory. After a teacher...
Curated OER
Science: Testing Water for Toxicity
Learners investigate the potential toxicity of water samples using California blackworms to test water quality. They observe the worms' behaviors in different water samples and determine which sample has the highest toxicity. At the...
Curated OER
Collaborative Book Club Groups
Students participate in book club forums where they write descriptive, evaluation, analysis, synthesis, or inference essays. They take on the role of a character in their bok and publish a web page.
Curated OER
Japanese Objects as Cultural Artifacts: A Model Lesson Using Textiles
Students complete a unit on the cultural significance of textiles in the Japanese culturre. They analyze cotton, line, silk, and wool fabrics, examine various fabric creation and decoration techniques, select an object and write a...
Curated OER
Social Studies: People in the Rocks
Pupils discover characteristics of Native Americans as depicted in their rock art. By examining the rocks from the Human Figures Photo Gallery, they make inferences about the activities and purposes of the people drawn on them.
Curated OER
Earth History Part II
Eighth graders hypothesize what caused the break up of continents. In this earth science lesson, 8th graders study about the events that took place during Mesozoic and Cenozoic Era. They reconstruct a supercontinent and report their...