There is 30 percent more carbon in the atmosphere today than there was 150 years ago. The first lesson in the four-part series teaches classes about the carbon cycle. Over two to three days, classes make a model of the cycle,...

Young historians play the role of history detectives as they investigate some primary source texts and images related to the early colonization of America, The Jamestown Settlement, and the Mayflower Compact. 

If only you had a Sorting Hat to sort out quadrilaterals. Learners sort cutouts of quadrilaterals based on their properties and attributes. A flowchart helps them organize the results of the activity.

Point your class in the right direction in plotting points with three activities that give scholars a chance to learn about and practice plotting points on a coordinate plane. They draw figures on the coordinate plane and list out the...

How well can a wolf survive without a pack? Third graders read about headstrong Will and his desire to be an independent wolf with a short story and series of comprehension questions.

Scholars independently explore several websites to calculate their ecological footprint. Using their new found knowledge, they answer six short-answer questions and take part in a grand conversation with their peers about how...

Go round and round to compare theoretical and experimental probabilities. Learners set the number of sectors and the number of spins for a spinner. Then, a table displays the experimental and theoretical probabilities of the spinner for...

Grab some marbles from a bag. The applet simulates drawing marbles from a bag. Pupils determine the number of four colors of marbles in a bag and how many marbles to draw. Using information on whether order matters in the draw and if...

What do the founders of Wendy's and Virgin Airlines have in common? They are both entrepreneurs! Key definitions and case studies help learners brainstorm their own definitions of what it takes to succeed in business. A series of...

Introduce your class to air masses and how they affect the weather with a activity that focuses on the differences between high and low air pressure systems. The class explores actual weather data using archived weather data.

Focus on plot and the impact-specific events in The Cay. Class members use their double-entry journals, created in a previous lesson in this series, to record their thinking about the guiding question as they read chapters 15 through 17....

Follow a fabulous slide show on how monsoons form and how satellite technology is being used to observe the phenomena, explaining why they occur. Afterward, visit the TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission) website to access actual...

Explore the impact a narrator's point of view has on a story with a reading of the children's book, Voices in the Park by Anthony Browne. Written in four different voices, the story is told and retold from different perspectives to...

Should countries use their militaries to stop humanitarian crises in other countries? Learners make claims, organize their reasoning, and provide evidence for their arguments with this rich resource.

Introduce your class to the Greek tragedy with a study of Sophocles’ Oedipus the King. Learners examine the features of a Greek tragedy, Sophocles’ achievements and contributions, and the universal themes that make the drama an...

Show young readers how to put some personality and voice into their storytelling with an in-depth assignment. Kids practice saying the same thing, such as counting from one to ten, in different tones and perspectives, and then work on...

Keep your mind and body fit with a fun activity about the five food groups. After going over the functions of fruit, vegetables, grains, meats and beans, and dairy, as well as oils and fats, learners participate in a bean bag toss...

How does our moral reasoning shape our identity? After a study of Kohlberg's Levels of Moral Reasoning, readers use Kohlberg's theories to analyze the speech, thoughts, and decisions of a character in A Separate Peace. They then...

Visual and print propaganda are featured in a lesson that asks readers of A Separate Peace to examine the techniques used in propaganda from World War I, World War II, presidential elections, and in the novel.

As part of their study of Things Fall Apart, class groups develop a multimedia presentation in response to the question, "In what ways does Achebe use literature as a means to express and comment on culture and history?"

To launch a unit study of the concept of diversity in World Literature, class members compare Chinua Achebe's essay, "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness" and Richard Rodriguez's essay, "The Chinese in All of...

"Eneke the bird says since men have learnt to shoot without missing, he has learnt to fly without perching." As part of their study of Things Fall Apart, class members read Paul Hernadi and Francis Steen's essay, "The Tropical Landscapes...

Get into the swing of things. Pupils use a pendulum to demonstrate the conversion of potential energy to kinetic energy and back. After measuring the speed of a pendulum and compare it to the calculated theoretical speed, they...

How well can you launch a ping-pong ball? Small groups design launchers that can launch a ping-pong ball 20 feet into a target. The teams follow the engineering design process as they develop a solution that meets the design...