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The Struggles Between "Something Old" and "Something New"
Students explore traditional life in Africa and assess how modern society may be impacting the values of the continent's traditional peoples. Students work in small groups to research various aspects of the infrastructures of African...
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Ghosts of Rwanda
Students participate in watching the film "Ghosts of Rwanda." They are put into a group of seven and assigned to track a specific area of the film. The group then discusses their assigned area of the film answering specific questions.
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Exploring California's Regions
Students participate in small groups to create a California's Region map. They research and identify the climate, geographic features, and one or two special features of their assigned region.
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The Writing's on the Wall
Learners examine a job-training/violence reduction program that removes gang graffiti in East Los Angeles. They discuss issues confronting their own communities and propose community service programs to address these issues.
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Tracking a Hurricane
Students play the role of amateur meteorologists and track a hurricane. In this hurricane lesson, learners follow a hurricane by tracking its coordinates on an overhead map. Students work in small groups to place dots on the map showing...
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Slanted Sentences
Students examine biased words in news articles, suggest synonyms, then rewrite the sentences to demonstrate how word choice can alter meaning.
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Turkey Soup for the Soul
Students read an article that tells how a young man turned his life around through the help of a local charity. They create inspirational scrapbooks and posters to help motivate their peers when they are facing adversity.
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Astronomy with a Stick
Students describe the movement of the Earth as it relates to the sun and
formulate a hypothesis for the movement and the changing length of the shadow. They express the relationship between the sun and the Earth and how that causes the...
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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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A Pixie Biography Report
Students practice biographical writing after completing research on the subject. In this journalism lesson, students read a story of an important person's life and discuss the important moments along the way. Students utilize their...
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Sense-itive Issues
Students consider the difficulties of adapting to the loss of different senses. They work in small groups, each developing a fictional superhero who experiences a loss of one of sense and must compensate for it with his or her other senses.
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Hall Monitors
Young scholars investigate the incidence of different types of violence that occurs in their schools through reading, discussion and interviews. They question local authorities about the best ways to reduce school violence.
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The Life You Save...
Students identify common warning signs of depression that, if not addressed, could lead to suicidal behavior. They write skits and create booklets in which they document appropriate suicide prevention techniques.
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Gazing Into the Faces of AIDS
Students consider whether or not there are generalizations that can be made about people who are infected with H.I.V. or who have the AIDS virus. They create public service ad campaigns to educate the public and consider other ways to...
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Phishing Tales
Students research different types of identity-theft fraud and ways to avoid falling victim to various scams. They create focused public service announcements in different media, targeted to individuals most susceptible to consumer fraud.
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Civil War
Students explore rules of conduct in a political body, first drafting rules that apply to their classroom, then adapting them to political actions in Congress.
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Writings on a River
Students identify words that can be used to describe Mark Twain's character Tom Sawyer. Students explore stage production of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" by reading and discussing "An Older (and Calmer) Tom Sawyer". They develop their...
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Lunar Lollipops
Students simulate the phases of the moon using a lamp and styrofoam balls. In this lunar phases lesson, students stand around a lamp and act as Earth. They hold styrofoam balls and rotate to show the phases of the moon.
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Reality Check
Students evaluate different types of reality television programming in "focus groups" and then submit their opinions on this type of programming to a television network.
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Plant Observation and Morphology
Students use plant specimens to explore how to recognize differences in plant morphology and to develop a vocabulary to describe these differences. They brainstorm: What is a plant? What parts do plants have? What is a leaf? Students...
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Contraceptive Options
Students discuss ways to avoid pregnancy. In this contraception options lesson plan, students can describe various types of contraception option. Students study the case of Rosa and David.
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Investigating the Types of Energy in Different Objects
Students investigate forms of energy. In this physical science energy activity, students work with a partner classifying household items according to the type of energy they have. Students complete a related worksheet.
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Paper Making
Students work together to make recycled paper. They identify examples of recycled materials and discover what can and cannot be recycled. They explore the history of paper making as well.
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Photographs of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake
Fourth graders study the details of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake including the fires that lasted for three days. They participate in discussion describing what they feel the city looked like after the earthquake and fires. They...