Youngsters are up and moving in an exciting relay race designed to help them better understand where common foods fall on the MyPlate nutritional guidelines. Working in teams, they identify images of foods and name what food groups...

As part of a study of the Civil Rights Movement from 1868 to the present, class members examine first person narratives, the Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education, and other significant events in civil rights history....

The flu or food poisoning? Middle schoolers learn how to safely prepare, cook, clean up, and store food with a lesson that has them first read articles about food safety. Partners create a video that shows them modeling these steps and...

Forty percent of food in the US goes uneaten while 14.5 percent of US households lack a secure supply of food. As part of the preparation for a performance task assessment, groups consider statistics such as these about food waste and...

Food poisoning, salmonellosis, E. Coli, shigellosis, tapeworms—all these words can strike fear into eaters. Alas, the five-second rule is not necessarily true! Two activities teach teens safety rules for food purchasing, preparation,...

Imagine an ecosystem without any light or oxygen, where living things convert carbon dioxide into food. This ecosystem is thriving and might just be the largest ecosystem on our planet, yet we know very little about it. The lesson...

Build up your gut. Groups up to four play a card game to learn more about the microbiome in the gut. Learners try to build a healthy gut with their cards. The player acquiring six microbes without any pathogens wins the game. 

If friendship were a soup, what ingredients would be in it? As part of a study of Marcus Pfister's Rainbow Fish and the Big Blue Whale, kids engage in a series of friendship-themed activities using materials contained in this richly...

Pupils make observations while eating food. They act out the process of food breaking down in the body and the roles of various chemical components, such as sugar and protein. It concludes with an activity illustrating the process and a...

How does locally grown produce sold at a farmer's market compare to a more complex industrial system in the way they each affect the environment, people, and the economy? Pupils explore the different types of food systems and how they...

When the sun's rays can't reach the producers in a food web, where does all the energy come from? Extreme environments call for extreme food sources. Young scientists investigate creatures that appear to get their energy from methane...

It's a jungle out there! Young biologists journey to Darien, Panama to examine the intricate relationships between the organisms that inhabit the jungle. Groups begin by demonstrating an understanding of energy flow in ecosystems, then...

Entangle your life science class in learning with this collaborative food web activity. Using pictures of the plants and animals native to a particular ecosystem, young biologists work in small groups to construct visual...

Which sports drink provides the best pick-me-up after the big game or grueling workout? It may not be the one you'd think! Food science is the focus in a surprising lab activity. Pupils use colorimetry to determine the amount of protein,...

How does nature's hierarchy relate to our local human environment? Answer this question, along with others, as the class visually depicts the natural hierarchy provided by nature. Pupils discuss each piece of the pyramid and its energy...

The Progressive Era brought about a word that often leads to turmoil—change! Learners research the late 1800s in American history to uncover societal issues gripping the nation back in the day. The 15th lesson of a 22-part series...

Eukaryotes include humans, animals, and plants. Scholars learn about the parts of eukaryotic cells. They design models of a store and match the correct function of each part to the function of a part of the cell. They review their...

How did the Great Depression affect children? Sometimes studying the Great Depression means only studying about how it affected adults, however, relating the experiences of children and peers their age to themselves may make the...

How much water should we drink every day? How can food preparation be both healthy and satisfying? Check out this great 10-lesson unit which not only covers the body's need for water, but also includes lessons on tasting and storing...

The saguaro is the focus of an examination of the importance of this stately cactus to the indigenous people in the Sonoran Desert.

Lines from Shakespeare and from hip-hop artists provide learners with an opportunity to examine the literary devices these artists use to express their ideas about love. Groups use the provided lines to craft found poems, and then the...

The focus of the fourth unit in the Youth Risk Behavior Survey Curriculum is on healthy eating and exercise. Class members examine healthy habits data from the YRBD Youth Online Tool, learn about the importance of a healthy diet and...

How do robots assist ocean explorers in collecting data and images? The final installment in a five-part series has science scholars examine underwater images collected by robots and identify the organisms shown. Groups then calculate...

Talk about healthy lifestyle choices... in Italian! Class members categorize food cutouts into a food pyramid and discuss why some items are healthier than others. The plan offers additional vocabulary reinforcement ideas for...