Kenan Fellows
What Element Would You Be?
Primo Levi wrote a collection of short stories comparing his life from Italy to Auschwitz to elements in the periodic table. Pupils read an excerpt from his book and research the characteristics of various elements. Then, they make a...
PBL Pathways
Medical Insurance
Design a plan for finding the best health insurance for your money. Learners compare two health plans by writing and graphing piecewise functions representing the plan rules. Using Excel software, they create a technical report...
Curated OER
Learning to Resist: Watercolor
Consider wax resist drawings as a way to bridge art and science. Learners view, discuss, and practice drawing insects or animals using waxy crayons. They pay attention to the creature's features as they create images with watercolor and...
University of California
Euclidean Geometry
Go back to where it all began! Investigate how axiomatic systems and Euclidean geometry are based on undefined terms, common notions, postulates, and propositions by examining passages from Euclid's Elements. (Social studies teachers...
US Department of Commerce
Creating and Taking a Survey
Individuals learn how to conduct surveys and collect data for the class on age, pets, and number of people at home. Scholars compare their household size to the information in the census. Pupils then develop additional questions to ask...
Kids Voting USA
Kids Voting USA: K-2 Classroom Activities
Address both social studies and critical reading skills with a resource dedicated to the voting process, the American democracy, and the ability to evaluate information in order to develop a stance on an issue. Each themed activity...
Noyce Foundation
Sewing
Sew up your unit on operations with decimals using this assessment task. Young mathematicians use given rules to determine the amount of fabric they need to sew a pair of pants. They must also fill in a partially complete bill for...
Scholastic
Hopes and Dreams
A lesson encourages mini scholars in setting goals. Peers share their hopes and dreams and discuss how each one adds to everyone's unique character. Class members draw themselves in a scene achieving a goal. A follow-up meeting allows...
Education.com
Winter Break Survival Kit
Help parents and children survive the long winter break with this collection of fun activities. Offering suggestions for volunteering during the holidays and making family New Year's resolutions, as well as a variety...
Teach Engineering
Energy on a Roller Coaster
Roll with your class into the idea of conservation of energy. Pupils use a roller coaster track to collect data to reinforce the concept of conservation of energy and the influence of friction. Class members then create a graph from...
Noyce Foundation
Lawn Mowing
This is how long we mow the lawn together. The assessment requires the class to work with combining ratios and proportional reasoning. Pupils determine the unit rate of mowers and calculate the time required to mow a lawn if they work...
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Molecules to the Max!—Teacher's Discovery Guide
Molecules to the Max! refers to a movie released in 2009 about the world of atoms and molecules. A helpful discovery guide provides five posters on science topics typically covered at the middle school level. It also explains the...
Curated OER
Surface Areas of Prisms, Pyramids and Cylinders
Learners identify and use appropriate formulas to find surface areas of solid figures, practice using formula sheet to solve textbook problems, construct solid figures of given surface area using TABS+ software program, and use Internet...
Curated OER
Slopes of Lines
Students examine a graph and relate it to the real world situation it depicts. They investigate changes in an equation and the appearance of a line. They investigate the connection between the graph of a situation and the meaning of the...
Curated OER
Life is Full of Problems
Pupils use the problem solving strategy of guess and check to investigate math word problems. They determine which problem solving strategy or strategies would work best in problem situations.
Curated OER
All Choked Up By Smoking Statistics
Scholars use the article "More College Students Are Smoking, Study Says" as a springboard for discussion on the reasons why people smoke cigarettes. They investigate different methods of graphing statistics by using the data provided in...
Curated OER
Laughing Matters
Is laughter really the best medicine? Middle and high schoolers discuss the truth behind this adage by reading and discussing a New York Times article about Dr. Patch Adams. They participate in a round-table debate in response to...
Curated OER
Shame on You!
Should public humiliation be an acceptable consequence for a crime? Have your middle schoolers engage in a round table discussion about the recent resurgence of the use of public humiliation as a punishment for crimes in the United...
Curated OER
Beyond Black and White
Students critically examine the portrayal of minorities in video games and other forms of entertainment and assess the role of racial stereotyping. They keep a log of media minority portrayals and respond to their findings.
Curated OER
Cloning Around
Review concepts of cloning and genetic engineering and participate in a round-table discussion based on the ethics and potential of cloning with your class. Each learner then writes a formal essay on the topic, stemming from the debate.
Curated OER
The Periodic Table
Learners research an assigned element using the library, an encyclopedia, the Internet and other appropriate resources in order to write a research paper, a project, and an oral presentation.
Curated OER
"Separate But Equal" Revisited
Students examine the struggle for desegregation during the Civil Rights Movement. They assess ways in which race relations have and have not changed since the Brown v. Board of Education decision.
Curated OER
Using several learning modalities to teach about the Periodic Table.
Pupils identify how to relate the position of an element in the periodic table to its atomic number and atomic mass. They identify how to use the periodic table to identify metals, semimetals, nonmetals, and halogens, and also, alkaline...
Curated OER
School-Home Links: Book Parts 2
In this parts of book worksheet, learners use a book from the school or their home and point out the title and author of the book. Students also show their family the title page and table of contents. Learners then read the book and look...