Civil War Trust
Creating a Historic Site
A historic site marks a place where a relevant historical event occurred, no matter how many people know about it. Small groups choose their own historical sites, including a place where a class member was born, or even a football field...
Computer Science Unplugged
Tourist Town—Dominating Sets
As an introduction to using a network to determine the fewest number of nodes that meet a given condition, small groups work together to determine the fewest number of ice cream vans, and their locations, to be able to serve the people...
Gobal Oneness Project
Sports for Social Change
After watching a short online film about a soccer player Nolusindiso Plaatje and his help with the Grassroot Soccer program, a community education effort aimed at spreading awareness about HIV/AIDS prevention, use a lesson plan to prompt...
State Bar of Texas
Mendez v. Westminster and Delgado v. Bastrop ISD
You arrive at school only to be told you have no place there. Scholars research the Supreme Court cases Mendez v. Westminster and Delgado v. Bastrop ISD, both dealing with school segregation. Two short video clips as well as small group...
Missouri Department of Elementary
My Feelings
Encourage self-awareness with a lesson plan that challenges scholars to identify feelings—happy, sad, mad, and scared. Using a feelings thermometer, similar to that of a bar graph, pupils discuss how they would feel in specific scenarios...
University of Minnesota
Memory Items
Ready to have an "unforgettable" time in science class? Try a fun and insightful activity, suitable for a wide age group of learners. Explore how human memory works when pupils try to remember objects they've seen before comparing the...
Curated OER
Designing a Crew Exploration Vehicle
Take your class on an out-of-this-world adventure with this fun engineering design lesson. Working in small groups, young scientists design, build, and test crew exploration vehicles using some creativity, teamwork, and an assortment of...
Curated OER
Childhood Lost: Child Labor in the United States, 1830-1930
Working in groups, middle and high schoolers describe and discuss photographs depicting working conditions experienced by child laborers in the 19th century. They then write a persuasive paragraph supporting an amendment to regulate the...
Malibu High School
Create a Game – Extra Credit Chemistry Project
What a fun way to review the year's learning! Working in small groups, learners select a major concept covered in class then create a game about it. The type of game is up to each group, but the expectations of what should be included...
Phantom of Opera
The Phantom of the Opera: Ideas for Research and Discussion
You could spend a full day discussing The Phantom of the Opera and not scratch the surface, but a set of lessons about the literary elements and themes of the musical production is a great start. Young thespians build upon the background...
Gobal Oneness Project
Passionate Pursuits
Not all technology is digital. Teach learners about the low-tech maker movement with a photo essay about six artisans from California and two articles about the local creator movement. After tackling the photo essay in small groups,...
National History Day
Helping Life and Aiding Death: Science, Technology, and Engineering at Work during World War I
Science, engineering, and United States history? Pupils research collections of artifacts from the Smithsonian to learn about historical scientific innovations. At the end of the lesson, they write an essay to discuss technology's...
Curated OER
Working Backwards
Sixth graders make up their own math problems. There is only one restriction. That is, the answer has to be the one you are going to give them in a sealed envelope. The problems that they make up can be anything they like. Let Students...
Curated OER
How Photocells Work
Give small groups of physical scientists tokens that represent electrons in a photovoltaic cell. They play a dice game in which they move the tokens around, representing the flow of electrons through the p-n junction of a semiconductor...
Carnegie Mellon University
How Power Plants Work 2
In this second of three lessons on power plants, future engineers find out how we generate electricity and how coal-powered plants operate. They work in small groups to make electromagnet generators to light LED bulbs. A set of...
Foundation for Water & Energy Education
What is the Water Cycle? Activity A
Hydrologists create a concept map about how water is used and a sentence strip defining water and describing its unique properties. Small groups work together to fill a small milk carton and compute the mass of water inside. The next...
Curated OER
Vocabulary Game
Help scholars discover new ways to build their vocabulary. Groups create a game involving their vocabulary words. Using the jigsaw model, the groups shuffle and play the games of the other groups. Save the games and use them for other...
Curated OER
Sunflower Measuring and Counting
Youngsters improve their measuring and counting skills using sunflowers. They view pictures painted by Van Gogh. Everyone works in groups to measure sunflowers and record their findings, and they all use sunflower seeds to create...
Curated OER
The Box
Learners of any age can participate in this imagination and improve development activity. With the use of a small box, they work through a series of questions or situations posed by the teacher. Each group uses the box to create short...
Curated OER
Round-Robin Reading Quiz
Small groups of learners read text round-robin style, and then work individually to answer three questions based on the text. Next, they share their questions and responses and add ideas from the group. The reading strategies detailed...
Acoustical Society of America
Generalizing How Musical Instruments Work
Sound, vibrations, resonance, and frequency are explored as learners use music to foster scientific inquiry. They engage in three different sound experiments and follow up discussions to foster a better understanding of how musical...
Fluence Learning
Writing About Literature: Comparing and Contrasting Characters in Heidi
Scholars read excerpts from the story, Heidi, in a three-part assessment that focuses on comparing and contrasting characters. Each part contains three tasks that challenge learners to discuss, answer comprehension questions,...
Fluence Learning
Writing Informative Text: School Days
A three-part writing assessment challenges scholars to think critically about schools of the past and present. Learners read informative texts, answer questions to prepare for a discussion, research in small groups, complete a Venn...
EngageNY
Reading Maps: Locating the Countries We Have Been Reading About
Show your class how to read a map and decipher all of the markings and features. Start out by connecting maps to their homework from the night before and their current reading, in this case That Book Woman, and a related informational...