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Shoe Box Archaeology
Pupils assemble a shoe box following a layered pattern alternating between soil and artifacts. The layers of artifacts begin with the grandparents and end with the student's own personal possessions.
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Shoe Box Archaeology
Students make a box layered with information about grandparents, parents, and themselves. They dig up each other boxes and try to decipher the personality or lifestyle of the person whose box it is.
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Giving Thanks to Mother Earth
Learners create an art project to be made into a laminated placemat to use during a classroom Thanksgiving feast. The lesson involves choosing at least three cutouts of elements of nature to glue onto a background page, drawing one...
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What If: The Seed Of A Story
Learners read and comprehend a piece of fictional writing, analyze how setting, characterization, and plot affect the theme of a story and work in a group to create a new writing assignment. This 5-day plan culminates in students writing...
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The Gift That Keeps on Giving
Students reflect on the role of DNA in society since its discovery in 1953 by creating works of art and poetry that metaphorically illustrate the importance, influence and concerns of DNA research.
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Unearthing the Past
Students analyze artifacts from an early society to determine information relating to daily life in that society. They consider which artifacts from our society would be most valuable to future archeologists.
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Swinging on a Star
Learners explore the issues that might arise if humans were to go on an interstellar space mission. They synthesize their understanding of interstellar travel by writing scenes from a science fiction novel that would depict such a mission.
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Death Be Not Proud
Students consider various opinions concerning the execution of Timothy McVeigh. They formulate, and share in writing, their own perspectives on his execution and on the lasting impact of the Oklahoma City bombing.
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Political Puzzles
Students investigate how different liberal democracies around the world organize their governments and decide major policies. They compare their findings to the American political system, using examples of current political issues.
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Cranberry Bog
Students 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 a...
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Who's in my soil!?!...and just what do they think they're doing there?
Students discover organisms that inhabit the soil, the beneficial an detrimental roles these organisms play, and the interactions between the organisms and their environment and other organisms. Students participate in four hands-on ...
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Something Fishy?
Learners try to draw and identify a jellyfish from a physical description. After reading an article, they discover new information about cnidarians. In groups, they research and develop dioramas about a specific cnidarian species. They...
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Who Gives a Hoot?
Students look at owl migration and its impact on the environment and the food chain after reading an article from The New York Times. Students then apply this information to and research different food chain situations for other species...
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Exhibiting Tools of the Trade
Students design 'mini museums' that exhibit both historic and current artifacts and information associated with specific professions. They then display and defend their work in class gallery talks and exhibitions.
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Bronte and Rhys' Portrayal of Bertha
Students, while reading and discussing the two texts by Charlotte Bronte and Jean Rhys, compare/contrast the two main characters and juxtapose them as the same character told from two different points of view. They gain insight of how to...
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Gingerbread Baby v. Gingerbread Boy #7
Young scholars read two stories. In this comparison lesson, students read "The Gingerbread Baby," by Jan Brett and the original "Gingerbread Boy." Young scholars use a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast the two stories.
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Poetry Book
Pupils study the following terms and concepts: word choice, dialect, invented words, concrete terms, abstract terms, figurative and sensory language. In cooperative groups, they select three of the terms, research them, and pick poems...
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A Little Mystery and Intrigue in Writing Short Detective Stories
Students read and analyze the twelve short stories in the novel "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes." They create their own detective that has to solve a new kind of crime, and write and edit a short story with their original detective as...
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The Power Behind the Throne
Students choose a professional field of interest, consider what modern day or historical figure they would most like to assist, research the economy & its effect on support staff/entry-level jobs in that field, and create a strategy...
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Strong Feelings
Students explore how emotions affect the decision-making of peacekeepers and design simulators for training emergency-response personnel.
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Forest Grump
Students consider the definition of an ecosystem, its parts, and how these parts can be affected when the ecosystem is endangered. They examine dangers being faced by the Canadian boreal forest by reading "For Billions of Birds, an...
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POWWOW
Students investigate the significance of the Powwow to the Native Americans. They write a story about a special tradition or custom from their own family, play Native American children's games, prepare Indian fry bread, and participate...
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The Role of Geography -- The United States and the Republic of Turkey
Preteens review the five themes of geography. In groups, they examine the United States and Turkey to discover how geography can impact the way people live. They create a foldable for each country, listing information for each of the...
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Travels of a T-Shirt
Eighth graders recognize the natural resources used in an energy web. In this consumerism lesson students identify solutions to over consumption and the impact of consumerism.