A fun lesson that utilizes toys and persuasion! After reading the article, which was written in 2005, pull some advertisements for toys currently being sold. These will be more relevant to your middle and high schoolers. What toy is a...

How are disasters addressed by the Federal Government? This New York Times lesson, based on the article "Disaster Aid: The Mix of Mercy and Politics," prompts middle schoolers to discuss the idea of using a disaster declaration as a...

How can you foster a thoughtful learning community for your class? First, the class brainstorms a list of behaviors that will help make the classroom a great place to learn. Then learners group similar ideas together and come up with...

Budding historians read six documents related to grievances that led to the writing of the Declaration of Independence. They then craft an essay in which they discuss the perspective of both the colonists and the king. This DBQ could be...

Passive solar heating is a technology that's been in use for thousands of years. Here, elementary schoolers are exposed to this type of heating, the materials that are used in passive solar heating, and they study how engineers design...

Got a rainy day and need a few fabulous activities to foster creative thinking skills? The class works to understand the three types of human power; direct, indirect, and stored. They do this by first creating a parade float like the...

Sift through soil and learn about why it's important for organic processes. After discussing what makes up soil, such as the living organisms and what types of soil have more nutrients, kids sample layers of mulch and deeper soil to...

What do Whoosh and Jet Stream have in common? They are both characters in a fantastic game designed to help students identify various positive and negative spending behaviors. Through an engaging activity, worksheets, and...

After cutting down a forest to make a farm, how long would it take the environment to turn an abandoned farm back into a forest? Scholars study this exact scenario while they interpret many charts and graphs of the changing ecosystems as...

Find photos of bird beaks or show a prepared four slide PowerPoint, "Extreme Beaks" to introduce your class to this special animal adaptation. Provide them with a data table and supplies to try gathering food with tools that each...

Log some practice with logarithms. A PowerPoint presentation provides a tutorial on the change of base formula involving natural logarithms and solving exponential equations with logarithms in the fourth installment of a seven-part...

Students build models of the three major types of volcanoes and see how a volcano's shape is related to the type of material it erupts. As a class, they observe a demonstration that simulates the nature of two volcanic materials: lava...

Students explore the different blood types, and are introduced to new knowledge through a crime scene simulated activity. They explore the genetics of blood types, and are introduced to immunology/diseases.

Students create models of the three major types of volcanoes and determine how a volcano's shape is related to the type of material erupted. They then observe a demonstration that simulates the nature of two volcanic materials: lava and...

There are three little words every teacher is just dying to hear; investigate, discuss, and play. Kids love those words too, and they'll love finding out what types of things children did for fun long ago. As homework, they interview...

Typing is an essential skill in our day and age! Introduce your second graders to computer typing by teaching them the correct placement of the fingers on a keyboard. Then, they complete an assignment using the word processor.

Looking for an excellent lesson that incorporates math, science, and technology? Groups of three young scholars use a viewing tube to perform an experiment, and discover how to organize their data into an Excel spreadsheet.  This is...

Kndergarteners work to build strong listening and reading comprehension skills by answering higher level questions. After a teacher demonstration of the task, learners listen to the story The Three Little Pigs, the teacher asks them...

Young scientists investigate chemical and physical changes to the states of matter—gas, liquid, and solid—as well as solutions and suspensions with a variety of demonstrations, grand conversation, and an interactive quiz to check for...

Compare and contrast the characteristics of fresh and salt water marshes. After exploring the typical plants and animals found in each marsh type, participants use a set of flash cards to sort into fresh and salt water marsh life. Their...

Different types of mutations cause unique types and degrees of muscular dystrophy. Scholars learn about the types of mutations and the impact on the body. They compare the location of the mutations and draw conclusions about how it is...

Second graders are introduced to different types of motion. They make rolling spider toys and race them on different surfaces to invsetigate forces and motion. Pupils make glue "spider webs" for their spiders after testing different...

Sixth graders explore physical and chemical changes. In this physical science instructional activity, 6th graders study vocabulary, discuss the changes they see in the world and look up information on chemical and physical changes....

Middle schoolers explore different types of doors from an artistic point of view. In this creative thinking lesson, students look at different types of architectural doors and doorways and analyze them. They create a project of a door as...