Penguin Books
An Educator’s Guide to Chraisma by Jeanne Ryan
Often, science fiction makes a lot of connections to real life. An educator's guide for the novel Charisma by Jeanne Ryan, has readers discuss many of the real-life issues that come in the text. A brief summary helps garner interest in...
PBS
Climate Change as a Scientific Theory
Get your class thinking about climate change as a scientific theory. Guided by a handout, emerging earth scientists read articles and take notes about glaciers and sea ice. To conclude, they write an evaluation of the evidence for...
Prestwick House
Frankenstein
Science Fiction? Gothic Novel? Romance? No matter the label, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein has captured the imagination of readers for over 200 years. Whether used to test how well readers remember the key events and characters in...
Curated OER
Creature Seekers
Does it actually exist? Consider the sighting of a giant squid, much like the one that appears in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Middle and high schoolers read the article One Legend Found, Many Still to Go, and research other mysterious...
Curated OER
Showdown in the New Wild West
What is the root of the conflict between ranchers and environmentalists? Middle schoolers write their impressions of what an environmentalist is and does. They read the New York Times article "In New Wild West, It's Cowboys vs. Radical...
US Environmental Protection Agency
A Mock Town Meeting on a Proposed Tank Farm
Intended as a follow up to the Protecting Your Drinking Water activity, young environmentalists use their assessment of the a hypothetical town's water supply to debate the installation of underground chemical storage tanks. With the...
Curated OER
Fruitful Questions
Students examine a fruit-related Q & A Science Times article. They write their own food science questions and answer them in the same format as the article. For homework, they analyze their fruit consumption according to U.S....
Curated OER
But I'm Not a Writing Teacher!
How teaching writing skills in the science classroom will benefit your students as they transition to Common Core.
Curated OER
Old Solutions - New Solutions
High schoolers examine descriptions of a mining company's land-reclamation project. They share information to analyze the environmental impact of the project. Independently, they answer questions on environmental and economic issues...
Curated OER
Scientists Create Energy-Making Artificial Leaf (29th March, 2011)
Students read an article about alternative energy and complete the associated worksheets. In this ESL/ELL alternative energy lesson, students read or listen an article about research at MIT in which scientists designed a energy-making...
Curated OER
Dream Big
Students discuss the success of privately built and flown space crafts by reading and discussing a news article. They develop adventure trip proposals to present to Sir Richard Branson. Students write essays reflecting on the importance...
Curated OER
In Vitro Fertilization
A possible option for infertile couples is in-vitro fertilization and implantation. Through this two-part lesson, the class learns about this process by teacher lecture and internet research. A case study is given to read as a take-home...
Curated OER
Is That a Fact?
Investigate popular scientific claims and gather evidence to defend or argue against an author's stance. Writers synthesize information and compose their own "Really?" columns modeled after those found in the weekly "Science Times"...
Curated OER
The Science of Aging
Students reflect on the lives of older people they know, then research and debate the key issues surrounding scientific experimentation in anti-aging. They write a short story that reflects their own philosophical beliefs on aging and...
Curated OER
Health Conscious?
What is your attitude on health and illness? By considering their own experiences, students will reflect on and discuss their attitudes toward health and illness while educating each other by researching illnesses in small groups,...
Curated OER
Vocabulary Building
Use primary text documents to learn word roots. Learners listen to a reading of the Declaration of Independence and highlight words they don't know. They compile these words and guess their meanings. They discuss roots, prefixes,...
Fluence Learning
Writing About Informational Text: Political Parties
To demonstrate their ability to craft an analysis of informational text, class members read excerpts from James Madison's "The Federalist No. 10," from George Washington's Farewell Address, and from Thomas Jefferson's First Inaugural...
Curated OER
Alexander Graham Bell's Patent for the Telephone and Thomas Edison's Patent for the Electric Lamp
High schoolers read a short biographical account about Bell and student B about Edison. Ask each pair to exchange information and determine what qualities these inventors shared. Ask students if they think all inventors share these...
Curated OER
Is Evolution Just Monkey Business?
Learners examine the presentation of the theory of evolution in the science classroom. They define and discuss aspects of evolution, evaluate the presentation of evolutionary theory, and write a persuasive essay.
Curated OER
How Do They Know That
Students explore methods for reconstructing the past. In this forest succession lesson, students examine forest succession and how to read the land in order to predict patterns of change. Students will visit a historical site, act as an...
Curated OER
I Want to Believe: Astrologers and Sceptics in King Lear
Young scholars examine two conflicting writings on solar eclipse that occurred on Black Monday and discuss them in the context of Shakespeare's King Lear. In this Shakespeare activity, students discuss astrology and read the speeches...
Curated OER
Chew on This: Worksheets 1 - 5
In this fast food activity, students answer 21 questions pertaining to the fast food industry. It appears as though they should read the Chew on This article, but it is not included in this packet. This packet contains worksheets 1...
Curated OER
Using the Internet - Art and Design
An interesting resource that might work best in an upper level art course, this handout provides a list of nine websites where young artists can read and study about all forms of art. These online resources range from a dictionary of...
Curated OER
Perceiving the Prairie
Twelfth graders explore the changing concept of "prairie" through written and artistic works. They write their own poem or essay describing the prairie after discussing how differently people perceive the prairie.