American Chemical Society
Density: Sink and Float for Solids
Steal cubes sink, but steal ships float. Lesson explores the density of solids as well as the density of water in determining what will sink and what will float. A hands-on group activity helps pupils see that weight and volume are...
EngageNY
Between-Figure and Within-Figure Ratios
Tie the unit together and see concepts click in your young mathematicians' minds. Scholars apply the properties of similar triangles to find heights of objects. They concentrate on the proportions built with known measures and solve to...
Curated OER
Distinguished Discoveries: Florida quarter reverse
Florida's state quarter has an image of a space shuttle and a Spanish Galleon on its reverse side. Pupils will examine the state quarter and think about how the Spanish explorers and Space explorers are the same and different. The class...
Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media
Continental Differences
Students break into groups and closely investigate primary sources associated with the seven different continents. After deciding which continent their primary sources relate to, representatives from each group present their...
Curated OER
Vocabulary Instructional Routine: Synonyms
Young scholars work with word cards to define and identify synonyms, antonyms, and homophones. Participants listen to instruction, read word cards, discuss their new-found knowledge, and put it into action by creating sentences and...
Illustrative Mathematics
Equal Area Triangles on the Same Base II
A deceptively simple question setup leads to a number of attack methods and a surprisingly sophisticated solution set in this open-ended problem. Young geometers of different strengths can go about defining the solutions graphically,...
Curated OER
The Final Analysis: Cause and Effect, Fact and Opinion
Middle schoolers read and review informational texts, analyze cause and effect, and distinguish fact from opinion. They assess a "one-minute mystery" you read aloud for cause and effect relationships. Resource includes complete set of...
Willow Tree
Arithmetic and Geometric Sequences
Old mathematicians never die; they just lose some of their functions. Studying sequences gives scholars an opportunity to use a new notation. Learners write functions to model arithmetic and geometric sequences and use them to find new...
American Chemical Society
The Periodic Table and Energy-Level Models
Teach your class to think of electrons as tiny packets of energy that travel in waves. Through a short video and diagram, participants see how electrons are located around the nucleus of an atom. They then get into groups and try to...
Curated OER
Equal Differences Over Equal Intervals 2
Your algebra learners explore linear functions concretely using tables of values in a collaborative task. The idea that linear function values change by equal differences over equal intervals, is emphasized. The slope and...
Space Awareness
Day and Night in the World
How do different parts of the world experience day and night? Introduce scholars to the concept of global citizenship while teaching about animal behavior with discussion of nocturnal and diurnal animals. Then, learners complete...
Perkins School for the Blind
Mix and Match
Sorting and matching are skills that have all kinds of applications. Learners with low, but useable vision work to match an object to an object, an object to a picture, and a picture to a picture. This will help them identify objects...
For the Teachers
Cause and Effect Matrix
Study cause and effect in both literature and informational text with a lesson designed for several different reading levels. After kids review the concept of cause and effect, they read an article or story and note the causes and...
Curated OER
Scene Writing: Literacy and Playwriting
Drama is ever-present in our daily lives and eloquently depicted on stage. Middle schoolers practice writing scenes based on different prompts and frameworks, and then perform those creative scenes for their classmates. The...
Curated OER
Same and Different
Students are taught the concept of what looks the same and what looks different, with both objects and movement.
Science Matters
Energy Transfer and Transformation
When you take a simple task and create an exceptionally difficult way to complete it, it is known as a Rube Goldberg machine. These machines are filled with many types of energy transfers and energy transformations. Here, pupils...
National Security Agency
Awesome Area - Geometry and Measurement
Break out those math manipulatives, it's time to teach about area! Capturing the engagement of young mathematicians, this three-instructional activity series supports children with learning how to measure the area of squares,...
EngageNY
Inscribed Angle Theorem and Its Applications
Inscribed angles are central to the instructional activity. Young mathematicians build upon concepts learned in the previous instructional activity and formalize the Inscribed Angle Theorem relating inscribed and central angles. The...
Virginia Department of Education
Area and Perimeter
Develop a strategy for finding the area and perimeter of irregular figures. Building on an understanding of finding area and perimeter of rectangles and triangles, learners apply the same concepts to composite figures. After...
EngageNY
Families of Parallel Lines and the Circumference of the Earth
How do you fit a tape measure around the Earth? No need if you know a little geometry! Pupils begin by extending their understanding of the Side Splitter Theorem to a transversal cut by parallel lines. Once they identify the...
Serendip
Golden Rice – Evaluating the Pros and Cons
More than half the world's population eats rice as a daily staple ... imagine if that rice could prevent illness. Scientists genetically engineered rice to include vitamin A for just that purpose. However, room for debate still exists....
Prestwick House
Understanding Language: Slant, Spin, and Bias in the News
We live in a time of fake news, alternative realities, and media bias. What could be more timely than an activity that asks class members to research how different sources report the same topic in the news?
University of Colorado
Are All Asteroids' Surfaces the Same Age?
Did you know scientists can tell the age of an asteroid by looking closely at its craters? This final lesson of a six-part series focuses on two asteroids, Gaspra and Ida, in order to demonstrate the concept of dating asteroids. Scholars...
Berkshire Museum
Camouflage!: Collecting Data and Concealing Color
Help young scholars see the important role camouflage plays in the survival of animals with a fun science lesson. Starting with an outdoor activity, children take on the role of hungry birds as they search for worms represented by...