Curated OER
Open-Ended Questions
Students identify a topic for an open-ended question and evaluate the question. After developing ideas that lead to inquire, they investigate and research this topic on the Internet, and then create an iMovie.
Illustrative Mathematics
How Many Cells Are in the Human Body?
Investigating the large numbers of science is the task in a simple but deep activity. Given a one-sentence problem set-up and some basic assumptions, the class sets off on an open-ended investigation that really gives some context to all...
Illustrative Mathematics
How Many Leaves on a Tree?
This is great go-to activity for those spring or fall days when the weather beckons your geometry class outside. Learners start with a small tree, devising strategies to accurately estimate the leaf count. They must then tackle the...
Illustrative Mathematics
How Many Leaves on a Tree? (Version 2)
A second attack at figuring out the number of leaves on a tree, this activity makes both an excellent follow-up to version 1 and a stand-alone activity. Learners practice setting parameters and deciding acceptable estimate precision, and...
Utah Education Network (UEN)
Utah Open Textbook: 8th Grade Science
The cycle of energy is important to many different systems on Earth. Scholars use questioning and observation to investigate the differences between renewable and non-renewable resources and how they relate to global changes. They...
Curated OER
Erosion
Young scholars design and conduct an open-ended investigation using a variety of earth materials to answer a questions posed by the teacher: How does the erosion of sand compare with the erosion of gravel? After producing evidence that...
University of California
The End of the Cold War (1979-1991)
Scholars use primary and secondary documents, as well as video evidence, to investigate the end of the Cold War. After completing the final installment of an eight-part series, class members better understand the issues surrounding the...
Nuffield Foundation
Investigating Anti-Microbial Action
Join the fight against bacteria. An open investigation shows pupils different aspects of antimicrobial substances, such as disinfectants, deodorants, or plant oils. They design and conduct their own experiments on the effectiveness of...
NASA
A Different Perspective
What can we learn from the data? Young scholars analyze actual solar data to answer specific questions. The activity presents an opportunity for an open-ended investigation of the data to conclude a five-part series on solar winds.
Illustrative Mathematics
Global Positioning System II
Intricate details of a modern technology that many of us take for granted in our phones, computers (and some cars) are laid bare in a short but deeply investigative activity. The math behind a seemingly simple GPS device is...
PBS
Crack the Case: History's Toughest Mysteries
Young sleuths don their trench coats, tip their fedoras, and grab their notepads to investigate one of four famous unsolved mysteries. After examining multiple primary and secondary sources related to their cold case, they propose a...
NASA
The Discovery of Jupiter Radio Waves
Lead your class on a journey to the planet Jupiter and provide them with fun facts in the process. Learners explore radio waves emitted by Jupiter to further understand how this data helps our daily lives. They conclude by discussing...
Concord Consortium
Broken Spreadsheet II
Work in reverse with the product becoming the given. Using a spreadsheet image of the graph of a trigonometric function, young scholars investigate methods of creating spreadsheet data that results in the given graph. The catch? The data...
Curated OER
Real-World Projects: Challenges from the Polymer Industry
Two scenarios are presented for chemistry detectives to decipher. Both require the use of an infrared spectrometer and focus on the examination of polymer materials. In the first, lumps in polyethylene bottles are analyzed. In the...
Curated OER
Open-Ended Scientific Method Lab
Learners inspect a given problem and come up with a hypothesis. In this investigative instructional activity students come up with a hypothesis for a problem, test each hypothesis and evaluate how successful each one was.
EngageNY
Rotations, Reflections, and Symmetry
Lead your high school class on a journey through the world of symmetry and reflections as you discuss geometric principles. Pupils differentiate between reflections and rotations, explore rotational symmetry, and investigate how to...
Southern Nevada Regional Professional Development Program
Focus: The Paideia Seminar
Compelling discussions are the result of open-ended, challenging questions. An introduction to Paideia discussions includes explicit directions about how to prepare readers and how to model the kinds of questions they should develop in...
K20 LEARN
More than Skin Deep
From crime to paternity, DNA fingerprinting has revolutionized how the world views inherited traits. Science sleuths investigate the facts about DNA profiling through a variety of activities. The Teacher's Guide includes printable...
Curated OER
Investigating Soil
Young scholars investigate soil contents. In this soil instructional activity, students gather samples of soil and record their findings on a graphic organizer. After analyzing the material in the soil, young scholars illustrate the...
Curated OER
Philosophical Investigations
In this online interactive philosophy learning exercise, students respond to 9 short answer and essay questions about Philosophical Investigations by Ludwig Wittgenstein.
Curated OER
Finding the Area of Shapes
In this area of shapes unit, upper graders participate in hands-on problem solving activities to find the formulas for the area of a parallelogram, a triangle, and a trapezoid. They manipulate the geoboard to explore relationships among...
Illustrative Mathematics
Tilt of Earth's Axis and the Four Seasons
Geometry meets earth science as high schoolers investigate the cause and features of the four seasons. The effects of Earth's axis tilt features prominently, along with both the rotation of the earth about the axis and its orbit about...
Concord Consortium
Boards II
Build spreadsheet skills while investigating decimal multiplication. An open-ended task asks learners to edit a spreadsheet to create a multiplication table for decimals. Provided with a specific interval, pupils create formulas that...
Curated OER
Guided Reading With Fish Print
Students investigate the concept of reading comprehension using Fish Print. They practice reading skills with using picture clues, using context clues, and sight word recognition for simple sentences. The teacher guides the lesson with...