School Improvement in Maryland
Smart Growth
New roads, new businesses, new developments, new mass transit systems. All growth has both positive and negative effects on communities. Government classes investigate the principles of Maryland's 1997 Smart Growth program and the...
Annenberg Foundation
Global America
It's not really a small world after all! The 21st lesson of a 22-part series on American history researches the impact of globalization on the United States. Using photographic and written references materials, as well as video sources,...
Stanford University
Civil Rights or Human Rights?
Young citizens consider the American civil rights movement as part of the global struggle for human rights. After using a timeline activity to learn about the major events in the civil rights movement, class members study Malcolm X's...
True Blue Schools
Now, We’re Cooking!
Practice nutritional cooking with a collection of fun meal preparation lessons. Each lesson includes a focus, objective, collaborative activity, and recipe to culminate what young cooks have learned about healthy eating.
Curated OER
Create a Cookbook
Trios write, design, and produce cookbooks. In a truly collaborative project, they choose what content to include, contribute recipes, and decide on formatting. Then, they reformat all recipes to ensure consistent style, publish the...
Smithsonian Institution
Students’ Response to 9/11—A Documentary Report
Young historians research the devastating attacks of 9/11 and use that information to script their own documentaries. The follow-up activity includes recording the documentary and conducting classmate interviews,
Advocates for Human Rights
The Rights of the Child
Don't be fooled by the size of the resource: these few pages provide the blueprint for a substantial, thoughtful unit on children's rights and the different philosophies and approaches that the United States and other countries have...
Curated OER
Turning the Tide on Trash: Marine Debris Curriculum
Seven pages of fascinating reading on marine debris preface the activities in this lesson plan. Four different activities are employed to simulate how the debris is distributed in the ocean and along beaches. Early ecology learners...
Curated OER
Hemispheres: People and Place
Here is an astounding series of lessons, designed for high schoolers, on environmental policy. By studying water conservation in rural India, the role of the government, and the reaction of the people, learners begin to formulate...
Constitutional Rights Foundation
Issues of Asylum in the U.S.
Who gets to come to the United States? Examine cases of individuals seeking asylum with an informative reading passage that includes examples, statistics, and representations of public opinion regarding asylum. Groups then go on to...
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum
Analyzing the Inaugural Address
Get high school historians to step outside their own shoes by responding to JFK's inaugural address from the perspective of a civil rights activist, a soviet diplomat, or a Cuban exile. After a class discussion about the address, the...
Smithsonian Institution
Cuban Missile Crisis
The United States—specifically John F. Kennedy—played a large role during the Cuban Missile Crisis. A history resource poses questions that encourage critical thinking as well as in-depth analysis of images from the time period.
Amnesty International
Respect My Rights, Respect My Dignity: Module One – Poverty and Human Rights
Creating an environment where learners feel both educated and empowered challenges any teacher when discussing a sometimes bleak topic. A respectful resource provides them with the details and permits them to make a plan of action....
School Improvement in Maryland
Are These Human Right Violations?
Using the Declaration of Human Rights and the United States Constitution as reference tools, class members examine 14 scenarios to decide if the situation represents a violation of human rights, and if these same rights are protected by...
Curated OER
Lesson New Museum: Exploring the Building
Explore the possibilities of buildings, public spaces, and architectural design. Learners examine the work of SANAA architects Sejima & Nishizawa through background information, images, and guided class discussion. This lesson...
Amnesty International
Human Rights and Service Learning (Part 1)
What better way is there to teach about human rights than by seeing them firsthand? Introduce your class or club to the spirit of service through a myriad of service project ideas. First in a series of human rights instructional...
Curated OER
Turning the Tide on Trash: Marine Debris Curriculum
Six different lessons comprise this unit on marine debris. Science, language arts, social studies, and art projects make this an ideal interdisciplinary unit. The result will be well-informed future citizens who can help make a...
Foreign Policy Association
Public Diplomacy Online Lesson Plan
To build an understanding that there are many perspectives of global issues and that an individual's perspective is influenced by background and experience, class members assume the identity of a person in the global community and...
Polar Bears International
Taking Action!
Motivate young scientists to stand up and take action with this environmental science instructional activity. To begin, the class works in small groups brainstorming actions that support the conservation of the earth before creating and...
University of California
Word Analysis Student Workbook
Seven strategies for deducing meaning (context clues and signal words, multiple-choice strategies, structural clues, direction, charge, word association, and deconstruction) are presented in a packet designed to develop word analysis...
Practical Action
Climate Change - Who's In Control?
How can both individuals and governments respond to climate change and take responsibility to reduce its effects on our environment? Here you will find three lessons filled with discussion, debate, and role-playing...
New York City Department of Education
Colonial America and The American Revolution
How did the founding of the American colonies lead to a revolution? Use the essential question and sample activities to guide learners through a series of history lessons. Additionally, the packet includes effective strategies to...
Curated OER
Teaching Social Studies in English
Case studies, an examination of images, and readings of passages from the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child are used to spark conversations in ESL/ELD social studies classes about this highly-charged topic. Using a variety of...
National Park Service
Same Colors, Different Flavors
Who says getting to know your neighbors has to be difficult? The first resource in a three-part series creates an engaging project that teaches your scholars about Canadian culture. A question-and-answer format takes place via e-mail and...