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Mom, Where Do TV's Come From?
Students explore the history of television using the lifetime achievements of Milton Berle as a springboard for studying social and technological advances in American entertainment. They, in groups, examine the role of television through...
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Stories That Really Add Up
Students, in groups, develop math lessons for younger students that each stems from a popular student story. Group members individually develop lessons for other subject areas based on their group's story, creating interdisciplinary units.
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Reaching Out
Students reflect on the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, explore the needs of the cities and citizens of New York City and Washington, D.C. and develop an action plan for a community service outreach project that they can...
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Special Treatment
Students determine the role of the FDA in approving new drugs. They investigate some of these new drugs and consider the pros and cons of taking part in a clinical study.
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Sparking History
Learners create exhibits about patriotic symbols for a living museum. They write reflective essays exploring the themes and symbols of independence and their influences on social responsibility.
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Futuristic Flights
Students study the orbital space plane, NASA's proposed spacecraft of the future. They work in groups to plan missions to take place twenty years from now and design orbital space planes in which to carry out the missions.
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Online and Off the Record
Students evaluate how effectively teen Web sites abide by privacy protections of the studenT Online Privacy Protection Act. They write letters to the Webmasters offering recommendations for improving the privacy and appeal of the sites...
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Gender Bender
Students explore the effects of Title IX. In addition, tudents create revised rulebooks for a sport in their school based on their understanding of Title IX and write a related article for the school newspaper.
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Sea No Evil
Students research the characteristics of marine life at different ocean depths. They use their findings as the basis for a classroom 'Life Under the Sea' museum exhibit.
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Return Of The Living Dead
Students research endangered animal species that have 'beaten the odds' as they continue to survive longer than scientists had expected. They write individual pages for a class book about endangered species.
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Still-Life Painting: Arranging Nature—Lesson 2
Learners choose meaningful objects for a still-life arrangement and paint it using watercolors. After reflecting on their choice of objects and composition, students begin to write an artist's statement.
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Don't Type To Strangers
Students create Web advertisements to protect young people from online predators. For homework, they write letters pitching their ads and analyzing their effect. They discuss their own use of the Internet and how to protect young people.
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Check the Mates
Students explore John Edwards, the running mate for 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. They research the ways in which vice presidential candidates have impacted presidential elections in modern United States history.
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Ooh, You're in Trouble!
Students consider disruptive school behavior and how school districts in several states are turning to the juvenile justice system for help. They debate this issue from a variety of perspectives, and write a paper.
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The Will to Drill?
Students read a New York Times article about plans for oil drilling in the Arctic. They examine and debate both sides of the plan to explore for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
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Trading Up?
Young scholars explore the benefits and drawbacks of free trade from the perspective of the United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Chile and Mexico. For homework, they each write a letter to the editor expressing their...
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Cranberry Bog
Young scholars explore cranberry farming in Massachusetts and the rest of the nation. They research on challenges facing cranberry farming industry and then write reflection papers on optimum pest control methods from the perspective of...
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Mmmm, Mmmm ... and Good
Young scholars consider their own diets and examine an op-ed article about organically produced foods. They research alternatives to various foods for the creation of a supermarket and reflect on their own diets after keeping a food...
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Challenges and Rewards
Students are to research a specific disaster after seeing the Challenger explosion. They are to create a collage for the disaster they are choosing to show.
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Let's Get Carried Away
Students discover how seeds travel from their parent plants in search of water, sunlight, and nutrients, and conduct experiments in which they note characteristics that encourage seed dispersal by means of wind, water, animal carriers,...
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Food Chains
Fourth graders study food chains, producers, consumers, and decomposers. They play a food chain game and create food chain mobiles or posters. They take a nature hike around the school and observe various parts of a food chain.
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Flight of the Imagination
Young scholars study the success of video games by reading an online article. They work in groups to design settings, storylines, characters and technical features for their own fantasy video games. Finally, they write scripts for...
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Pathfinders: Using Information Resources
Eighth graders gather and use information on a chosen topic for a hypothetical research paper. They use organizational features of printed text, the Internet, and other media to locate information and choose a specific topic.
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Sporting Tolerance
Students investigate African-American baseball players from the early 20th century. They read an article, answer discussion questions, write a journal entry, and create a poster-size baseball card for an athlete.