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Dinosaurs Were Real!
Students investigate the history of dinosaurs, as real animals. In this dinosaur lesson plan, students examine basic concepts that help them understand the history of all life. Included in this article is information on the world of the...
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Learning from Letters and Other Mail
Students explore the history of our mail system. In this postal lesson plan, students evaluate mail as a means of communication, create a mail system in their classroom where they can send and receive mail. Once the students receive...
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JAPAN, IMAGES A PEOPLE
Students interpret Japanese and American paintings; evaluate paintings as sources of cultural and historical information
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Creating Climographs
Pupils chart statistical information on graphs, interpret the information and use it to explain spatial relationships, and identify the relationship between climate and vegetation.
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Creatures from Planet X: Spiders
Students are given a description of some fascinating animals from "Planet X". They follow the descriptions given to illustrate one of these animals paying careful attention to introduced vocabulary such as 'appendages', 'receptors', and...
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Students Become Mapmakers
Young scholars practice making a map of a continent and correctly plotting five cities on that map. They place latitude and longitude lines on a map, determine the need for various map projections and explain why map scales are necessary.
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Plants and Animals: Partners in Pollination
Students identify the plant parts and bee structures that are involved in pollination. They simulate pollination in a group activity and process the information.
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Scenes from Cameroon
Students examine art by a Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon. Using the artwork, they identify three physical land features. They use sand and other materials to create their own day or evening scene in Cameroon. They share their...
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Baga Drum
Students examine a Baga Drum in order to explore the history of the Baga people of West Africa. In this art history lesson, students recognize figures used in Baga Drum design that represent aspects of Baga culture. They also design and...
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The Rocky Shore
Students compare a realistic landscape painting with a photograph of the same place.
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See the World
Seventh graders locate and write creatively about different places and their cultures. They identify the physical, economic, social, political and cultural characteristics of selected regions in the Eastern Hemisphere. Finally, 7th...
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How Things Fly
Students observe photographs of selected twentieth-century aircraft at the National Air and Space Museum and note differences in the design of aircraft wings, fuselages, and engines.
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Money Talks
Students move from fact finding to interpretation as they examine paper money from the time of the American Revolution. In the final exercise, they use the issue dates of the bills to construct a chronology of political changes during...
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Pictures Telling Stories
Students see the importance of primary sources in the study of history, but also the limitations of relying only on primary sources of taking the money, as it were, at face value.
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East Asian Architecture
Seventh graders compare architecture in East Asia to North American, European, Russian/Eurasian, North African/Southwest Asian and South American architecture. They search the internet for current and historic images of East Asian...
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North African and Southwest Asian Architecture
Seventh graders search online for current and historic images of North African and Southwest Asian architecture. They compare North African and Southwest Asian architecture to North American, European, Russian/Eurasian, and South...
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Southeast Asian Architecture
Seventh graders search online for current and historic images of Southeast Asian architecture. They compare architecture in Southeast Asia to North American, European, Russian/Eurasian, North African/Southwest Asian and South American...
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Spy on a Spider
Pupils view slides or live specimens to name and describe the distinguishing features of groups of arthropods, especially spiders and insects. They complete worksheets, observe webs and then search for and record where spiders can be...
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Facts, Feats and Folklore: Spiders
Students review and discuss a variety of sayings, folklore and superstitions about spiders. They discuss this information and choose either an interesting fact or appealing foklore tradition to illustrate.
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Letters from the Japanese American Internment
Students make deductions about life in an internment camp by reading and comparing letters written to Clara Breed. Along the way, they consider the advantages of looking at a historical event from the multiple points of view of...
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Geographic Luck
Students examine why some countries are rich while others remain poor. They view a video on the website, Guns, Germs and Steel, analyze primary sources to conduct research about plants and animals, and create a game based on their research.
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Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain
Learners analyze the story Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain geographically, and explain the term climate and discuss its relevance in the story as well as to their own lives.
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Create a Classroom Exhibit: Rocks and Minerals
Students bring in rocks and minerals from home. They observe them and describe them carefully, completing a worksheet. Finally, a classroom exhibit is created.
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Plants and Animals: Partners in Pollination
Students describe the complementary relationships between pollinators and the plants they pollinate, identify adaptations that flowers have developed to "encourage" pollination, and create and draw their own "designer" flowers.