National Wildlife Federation
Get Your Techno On
Desert regions are hotter for multiple reasons; the lack of vegetation causes the sun's heat to go straight into the surface and the lack of moisture means none of the heat is being transferred into evaporation. This concept, and other...
Curated OER
Alicia Keys, Songs in A Minor
Need a musical lesson for your drama or performing arts class? VH1 has put together a really neat lesson, in which learners use biographical information about Alicia Keys to write and perform a one-act musical related to her life. This...
Mathalicious
On Your Mark
With many factors leading to a great athlete, does height make Usain Bolt unfairly fast? Middle schoolers conduct analysis to change the running distance of the Olympic races to be proportional to the height of the participants. They...
Chicago Botanic Garden
Micro-GEEBITT Climate Activity
A truly hands-on and inquiry based learning activity bridges all the lessons in the series together. Beginning with a discussion on average global temperatures, young meteorologists use real-world data to analyze climate trends in order...
National History Day
Heroes Who Made a Difference: Memorializing a Distinguished Service Cross Award Recipient
Ever wonder how to memorialize World War I heroes in the classroom? Activities in a high-quality social studies resource prompt middle schoolers to research Internet sources, complete a graphic organizer, and write an editorial feature...
Project Maths
Probability and Relative Frequency
It's all relatively simple once you get the gist. Young mathematicians learn about sample spaces and simple probability by conducting an activity with dice. To complete the second of six parts in the Statistics and Probability unit, they...
Project Maths
Outcomes of Coin Tosses
Flip a coin: heads, use the resource; tails, use the resource. The fourth of six installments of the Statistics & Probability unit looks at coin tosses and probability. The class conducts an experiment and sees that the outcomes of...
Project Maths
Introduction to Trigonometry
The topic of trigonometric ratios is often covered with loads of rote memorization baked into the activity. This activity set, however, leans more on using similar triangles and discovery learning to help young geometers develop a deeper...
Project Maths
Complex Number Operations
What do animated videos have to do with mathematics? Using operations of complex numbers and their representations on the complex plane, high schoolers observe how mathematics could be used to move animations. The lesson provides an...
Project Maths
Introduction to Playing Cards
A fun, engaging lesson plan is definitely in the cards for your future. Pupils explore a deck of playing cards in the fifth of six parts in the Statistics and Probability series to learn about its suits and the number of each card type....
Bantam Books
The Tempest: Linked Text Set (Pre-Reading)
Before you begin your unit on William Shakespeare's The Tempest, introduce the themes of the play with a lesson based on the biblical story of Joseph. Taking your high schoolers through selected text from Genesis 17-44, the lesson...
Project Maths
Inequalities
Which number is bigger? Using a variety of activity sheets, this unit starts with the basics of inequalities and progresses through solving compound linear inequalities. Problems cover the range of inequalities including inequality word...
Project Maths
Introduction to Probability
Take a chance with an activity sure to improve your class's skills. An introductory instructional activity focuses on probability and chance. It shows how probability is always a value between zero and one, i.e., the probability of an...
Project Maths
Fair Trials with Two Dice
Life's not fair, but dice games should be. After playing a two-person game with a pair of dice, scholars investigate the fairness of the game. They consider the number of possible outcomes using the fundamental counting principle and...
Curated OER
California Here We Come!
A highly relevant and great cross-curricular project! In teams, your class will plot a course from the East Coast to Sacramento, California passing through all of the state capital cities along the way. As part of the journey, teams will...
Curated OER
Human Origins: The Prehistoric Human Race
When it comes to the origin of the human species high schoolers are full of misconceptions. Clear up the hominid confusion with this evolutionary activity focused on assisting students in understanding prehistoric man and his family...
Curated OER
Our Town: Using Song Lyrics in the Classroom
Bruce Springsteen’s “My Hometown” and Billy Joel’s “Allentown” motivate young lyricists to craft poems about their own home town. Groups compare the two songs, identifying details, symbols, and conflicts. Individuals then picture a place...
National Council of Teachers of English
Timelines and Texts: Motivating Students to Read Nonfiction
With the emphasis on incorporating more nonfiction in language arts classes the question arises about how to design activities that motivate kids to engage with informational text. How about an assignment that asks class members to...
Curated OER
Dragonwings: Explore Chapters 1-5
If you are beginning Laurence Yep's Dragonwings, this will provide activities for the first five chapters. The objectives include making connections to oneself and the world, organizing information and events, vocabulary acquisition,...
Curated OER
Compare and Contrast Timelines of the World
Seventh graders create a classroom timeline of important world events. This lesson is meant to be used during the entire school year. As the school year goes along, events are added to the timeline as chosen by the class. The events are...
San Francisco Symphony
Music Reflects History
Exploring the baroque era can be exciting and fun when it's done thorugh the arts. Middle schoolers examine the music and art history of the baroque era through research. They use their findings and class notes to create an expository...
Canadian Civil Liberties Education Trust
Seeking Refuge: Then and Now
Participants examine refugee law and policies and read several case studies to prepare for a discussion of this hot-button issue. The packet includes a wide range of materials representing a variety perspectives.
NASA
Suit Yourself: Fitted for Space
If he keeps this up, will he have enough air? After watching a video about spacewalks, groups of four brainstorm aspects of spacesuit design and present it to the rest of the class. Groups create mathematical models of oxygen use for two...
NASA
The NBL Pool
That is a lot of water. Class groups explore the size of the NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Pool and calculate the volume of water needed to fill it. They then compare that volume to the amount of water needed to fill a pool the size of a...