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Strategies for Successful Grade Level Cross-Content Collaboration
Strategies, ideas, and suggestions to create an effective teacher collaboration, which will enrich student learning.
National Wildlife Federation
Green Green Revolution
School budgets don't have a lot of extra money, so when students propose saving the district money, everyone jumps on board. The first lesson in the series of 21 introduces the concept of an energy audit. Scholars form an eco-action team...
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Exploring Countries and Cultures
Fifth graders choose a country associated with a family member and research its location, government, language, economy, history, holidays, foods, sports, and famous people. They write to inform using this data and draw a map identifying...
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Dashboard of the Future
Learners design dashboards for vehicles in 2020. After researching past and current trends in vehicle design, they sketch alternatives and select one to draw with computer-assisted design software (CAD), labeling all the components. With...
American Institutes for Research
Data and Probability: Marshmallow Madness
Upper grade and middle schoolers make predictions, collect data, and interpret the data as it relates to the concept of probability. They work with a partner tossing marshmallows and recording if they land on their side or on their...
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Comparing Theories: Lamarck and Darwin
High schoolers compare the evolution theories of Lamarck and Darwin. They use self-assessment and a video to increase their knowledge of evolution theories. They research questions and present them to the class.
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Harnessing Solar Energy
Middle schoolers discover the properties of light (radiant) energy from the sun by experimenting with solar collectors, cookers, and calculators. After a lecture/demo, students create their own solar collectors and test their efficiency.
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Vegetable Print Patterns
Create a unique print using vegetable stencils and tempera paints applied to grid like pattern formed from cut pieces of paper. Your students will choose either a warm or a cool color scheme.
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Sedimentary Rocks
Sedimentary rocks are the building blocks of this geology lesson. In it, learners discover what sedimentary rocks are and how they form. They understand the differences between the major sedimentary rock varieties and learn what types of...
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Globalization Comes to the Table
Students, in groups, research the issues surrounding one of several controversies involving food and globalization. Then they debate their position and show a PowerPoint presentation at a mock summit meeting.
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The Zabbaleen, Cairo's Garbage Workers
Here is a fascinating human geography study of the Zabbaleen. They are a sub-class of people who work as garbage collectors in Cairo, Egypt. I can't say enough good things about this resource in my limited space here. It is fabulous! If...
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Let Freedom Ring: The Life & Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Students use text and photos to visualize the delivery of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s historic "I Have A Dream" speech. They analyze Dr. King's speech for examples of imagery and allusion and create original poetry and illustrations...
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American Jews and Civil Rights
Tenth graders examine the Civil Rights movement of the 1960's and how American Jews were involved. They discuss the responsibilities of any minority or ethnic group. They consider the process of change in politics as well.
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Introduction to Primary Sources
Students explore the usage of primary sources, what they are and how they originate. Artifacts are compared and contrasted as part of this historical inquiry as questions are formulated and conclusions drawn.
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Dr. Fix-It Subjects: Health, Government
Help your young scholars undertand the critical problems around healthcare. By focusing on the political and private process of healthcare, students will watch a video, analyze issues, and write an essay on their findings. Additionally,...
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Degradation and Weathering of Polymeric Materials
Students investigate issues of degradation and weathering of polymeric materials during their useful life. They evaluate photodegradable plastics and their viability as an environmental solution for litter and investigate the qualitative...
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How to Clean Up an Oil Slick
Students explore how an oil spill is contained and cleaned up. They investigate an oil absorbing polymer that is hydrophobic, absorbs up to 19 times its own weight in nonpolar liquids, floats on water, and can be reused or disposed of by...
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Characterization of the Bioluminescence (Lux+) Gene E. coli
Students grow E. coli strain HB101, which contains the plasmid pUCD607 with the bioluminescence (Lux+) gene. The plasmid containing the Lux+ gene is isolated from the E. coli, then characterized by restriction analysis.
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Glass Transition in a Rubber Ball
Students illustrate the changes in the properties of a material at its glass transition point. They gather data which they use to construct graphs regarding elastic modules versus absorption modulus, tangent delta, and the effect of...
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Determining Cutting Site Locations
Learners explore DNA restriction mapping. They cut pieces of paper into lengths representing those produced when specific enzymes are used to cut a strand of DNA.
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The Great Cafeteria Caper
Students extract DNA from their own hair roots. They run an electrophoresis gel to examine patterns of their DNA along with standard DNA. The experiment is based on a crime scene scenario.
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Hand Lotion Analysis
Students prepare a sample of a commercial hand lotion for analysis by HPLC to determine the percent composition of two common cosmetic preservatives, methylparaben and propylparaben. They perform the analysis and the data is evaluated to...
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Domestic Violence and Teen Dating
It is important for learners to have a safe place to discuss domestic violence, dating, and abuse. This discussion-based lesson provides upper graders with a list of warning signs for abuse, community resources, and ways they can help...
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Pharmaceuticals and Treatments
Learners perform an experiment involving reverse transcriptase-polymerized chain reaction HIV replication to better examine the biotechnology used by scientists in pharmaceutical research of infections diseases like HIV. Students examine...