A great resource for your unit on Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart. Small groups conduct research about related topics (list included), write papers, present PowerPoint slide shows, and take a student-created test. Fill in a few...

Explore the effect of outliers through an analysis of mean, median, and standard deviation. Your classes examine and compare these measures for two groups. They must make sense of a group that has a higher mean but lower median compared...

Technology or engineering teams are given a task to design, construct, and test the efficiency of a structure that will foster an even temperature throughout an entire sunny day. Intended as a long-term project, pupils research, plan,...

What word has two syllables and means a ray of moonlight? If young readers guessed moonbeam, they are correct! With the Shakespeare in Love study guide, participants test their guessing skills in an exciting game of Shakespeare Taboo...

Magnets don't grow in fields, but magnetic fields are important to understand. The lesson covers the effect electricity has on magnetic fields. Scholars use a compass, magnets, and electrical wire to test magnetic fields and energy...

Your pupils will be expected to determine the meaning of words and how those words affect the meaning of a text. Help them master this skill with the ideas listed here. First, look over the two activities that could be used for your...

What does the author believe about his topic? Why did he write in the first place? Challenge your class to figure out the answers to these questions as they read through informational texts. The resource provides a breakdown of the...

Don't let your pupils take everything at face value! They should analyze and evaluate what speakers say. Practice this skill with the two related activities described here. After brainstorming critical questions, learners can listen to...

Do your pupils know what a primary source is? How about a secondary source? Provide them with the information here about different types of documents and then test their knowledge with a brief quiz. The quiz is made up of two documents....

Paired reading passages frequently appear on standardized exams, but finding text sets to use in the classroom is sometimes a challenge. A lesson plan on using paired texts includes a selection of passages and a graphic organizer for...

As an introduction to the hypothesis and testing method of investigation, young history detectives engage in a special investigation of a family artifact. After watching a short video that demonstrates the method, they develop a...

Nothing flows like J-E-L-L-O! In the final portion of a four-part series, pupils create scale models of microfluidic devices out of gelatin and bendable straws. They use their devices to test various flow rates in the delivery of...

Teams work as material engineers to create ferrofluids, whose shape is influenced by magnetic fields. The activity, which is the fourth in the six-part series, has the teams create magnetic ink and use it to write, testing it with a...

Grandma said to gargle with salt water for a sore throat. Was she right? In the last part of the seven-part unit, lab groups design an experiment to test a cells reaction to salt solutions. The pupils conduct their experiment to answer...

Elapsed time is a skill developed by the single question that is the center of this activity. Fifth graders are asked to find out the time that is 2011 minutes after the beginning of 2011. This question addresses the standard that...

Boost positive self-talk with a chart that turns negative feelings into happy ones. Scholars write down their negative emotions then rewrite them with a positive flair to aid in changing their outlook. 

Scholars test their skills of reading body language with a collaborative learning experience that focuses on showing and identifying emotions. Pairs take turns acting out an emotion, one uses body language while the other guesses what...

Can you do better than a robot? Teams write instructions for a hypothetical robot to build a structure. They test their instructions by acting them out to see if they produce the desired structure.

Everyone loves food! Help your English language learners pick up some vocabulary with a series of activities based around cognates and food. Pupils practice each word and focus on the words in-depth by filling out Frayer model...

Class members use an applet on the Internet to simulate the spread of a disease. The simulation allows individuals to determine two nodes to vaccinate to limit the number of nodes infected. By running several simulations, scholars...

Readers learn to ask questions about text with an activity based on Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. As they read, class members craft questions based on Bloom's Taxonomy and then find the answers themselves.

Building an accelerometer app for your Android device. Groups develop an app that uses the accelerometer on an Android device. The purpose of the activity is to reinforce the programming design. The post activity assessment challenges...

Life science laureates choose a plant or animal cell to construct a model of as an at-home project. This handout provides guidelines, suggested materials, and a grading rubric for their reference. A full-page letter to parents is also...

How do you assess what your pupils have learned over the course of the year? Find out how competent they are at reading and analyzing age-level literature with the ideas presented here. Included in this resource are two suggested...