University of Minnesota
Beautiful Brain: Brain Inspiration
"Neuroscientists consider Cajal as important to their discipline as Einstein is to physics." The first of four lessons has scholars view Santiago Ramon y Cajal's drawings of neurons. They reflect and respond to the art through writing...
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Wright Again: 100 Years of Flight
Aspiring aeronautical engineers demonstrate different forces as they construct and test paper airplanes. This lesson plan links you to a website that models the most effective paper airplane design, an animation describing the forces...
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The Is No Such Thing as a Perfect Pumpkin
Students explore using descriptive words to describe physical appearance. In this appearance lesson, students look at pumpkins and discuss how there is not a perfect pumpkin. Students also hypothesize about what the perfect pumpkin's...
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Paint's Family Tree
Students sort and classify the genetic traits of horses. In this heredity and genetics instructional activity, students read dialogue in a skit in which specific physical traits of several horses are described and a horse family tree is...
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Theobroma - Food of the Gods
Students discuss the history of cacao and its use in the production of chocolate. They analyze actual cacao pods and record their observations. Finally they create a five minute contour drawing of the cacao pod and seeds.
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Ship of the Line
Students discover boats by researching 18th century ships. In this Naval history lesson, students identify and describe the different components of an 18th century naval ship after researching information on the Internet. Students...
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Artifacts 2: Artifacts in Context
Students explore world history by completing artifact worksheets. For this archaeology lesson, students identify the importance of finding clues when researching historical information by utilizing artifacts. Students research the...
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Under the Spell of Spiders
Young scholars examine spiders. In these spider lessons, students will view spider images and live spiders to determine physical characteristics, habits, and habitats. Young scholars will examine fantasy and folklore about spiders to...
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Flight Dreams - Flight Factors
Young scholars investigate the physics of flight by experimenting in class. In this history of flight lesson, students define terms such as gravity, lift, and drag in order to better understand how a plane is able to stay in the air....
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Religion and Ethics: Living with Special Needs
Students explore human behavior by exploring mental and physical disabilities. In this learning disability lesson plan, students identify the different disabilities students have which prevent them from working at the same pace as the...
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California Poppy Postcards
What a great lesson! Learners discuss California history, including the state flower, the poppy, and then engage in an art activity. For the activity, they learn about value, shading, layering, blending etc. to produce a realistic...
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Moving Objects
Students discover the history of the United States by examining the Great Migration. In this U.S. History lesson, students research the immigration movement on the Internet and complete a worksheet about the large population shift. ...
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Unit Plan Template
Use this U.S. History unit plan as a template for creating your own! Simply download the resource and edit the text fields with your own customized unit plan. This is a great jumping-off step, especially for newer teachers.
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Balloons: Math with the Montgolfier Balloon
Students discover the history of hot air balloons by watching one ascent. In this physics lesson, students utilize a Montgolfier Hot Air Balloon from an earlier lesson and record the temperature, rate of ascent and the volume. Students...
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Baga Drum
Students examine a Baga Drum in order to explore the history of the Baga people of West Africa. In this art history lesson, students recognize figures used in Baga Drum design that represent aspects of Baga culture. They also design and...
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1,000 Cranes
Students improve motor skills through careful folding, a discipline necessary in the practice of origami. They develop multicultural awareness by exploring Japanese history.
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Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Students participate in a recycling campaign. In this recycling lesson, students create an Earth Day display for a local store. Students design a mural as a reminder to people of ways to reduce, reuse and recycle.
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1,000 Cranes Lesson Plan
Students improve their motor skills through cafeful folding, a discipline necessary in the practice of origami. They develop multicultural awareness by exploring Japanese history. Students improve their ability to follow directions...
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Kites: Patang - The Indian Fighter Kite
Students investigate the history of fighter kites and build their own. In this aeronautics lesson, students discover how other countries utilize fighter kites and where they originated. Students create their own fighter kites in class...
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Letters from the Japanese American Internment
Students examine letters of Japanese-American children during internment in World War II. They discover what it was like in the camps and how they were treated once they were released. They also view photographs of the camps.
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Facts, Feats and Folklore: Spiders
Students review and discuss a variety of sayings, folklore and superstitions about spiders. They discuss this information and choose either an interesting fact or appealing foklore tradition to illustrate.
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Make a Rain Stick
Students create a rain stick to imitate the nature sounds in a rainforest habitat. In this rainforest habitat lesson, students create a rain stick to mimic the cultural tools used in the South American rainforest. Students use paper...
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The "Wright" Puzzle
A crossword puzzle based on the lives of the Wright brothers. Students research on their own or in small groups several brief biographies of the Wright brothers.They complete a crossword puzzle based on their reading.
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Welcome to My World
Elementary schoolers discuss what a community is, and what their community has to offer them. They create posters, or flyers for the different businesses or places in their community to place around their school. After the learners have...