Curated OER
Where Will It Go?
Students predict the path of a ball bouncing off an object. In this physics lesson, students conduct the rolling ball experiment to test their prediction. They perform several trials for accuracy.
Curated OER
Poets Got Them Blues
Contemplate what music learners listen to and why they listen. Can they find poetry within music lyrics? Specifically hone in on blues lyrics and ruminate upon the social issues prevalent in the themes. Particular song lyrics coincide...
Norwich Institute for Language Education
Simple Machines
Planning a unit on simple machines? Save some time and energy with this collection of lessons and activities that explores how these devices are used in the real world to make life a little easier.
Education Development Center
Distance, Rate, and Time—Walking Home
Dig into a classic math problem with your classes. Through an engaging task, learners work with rate and distance information to make conclusions. In the task, two people walk at different rates; one leaves first, and scholars calculate...
Education Development Center
Integer Combinations—Postage Stamps Problem (HS Version)
It seems the post office has run out of stamps! Learners build all the values of postage available if the post office only sells five- and seven-cent stamps. The task provides an opportunity to create an expression in two variables and...
Education Development Center
Creating Data Sets from Statistical Measures
Explore the measures of central tendency through a challenging task. Given values for the mean, median, mode, and range, collaborative groups create a set of data that would produce those values. They then critique other answers and...
Education Development Center
Interpreting Statistical Measures—Class Scores
Explore the effect of outliers through an analysis of mean, median, and standard deviation. Your classes examine and compare these measures for two groups. They must make sense of a group that has a higher mean but lower median compared...
Education Development Center
Creating a Polynomial Function to Fit a Table
Discover relationships between linear and nonlinear functions. Initially, a set of data seems linear, but upon further exploration, pupils realize the data can model an infinite number of functions. Scholars use multiple representations...
Education Development Center
Integer Combinations—Postage Stamps Problem (MS Version)
Number patterns can seem mysterious. Help your learners unravel these mysteries as they complete an intriguing task. Through examination, collaborative groups determine that they are able to produce all integers above a certain value by...
Education Development Center
Similar Triangles
Model geometric concepts through a hands-on approach. Learners apply similar triangle relationships to solve for an unknown side length. Before they find the solution, they describe the transformation to help identify corresponding sides.
Education Development Center
Choosing Samples
What makes a good sample? Your classes collaborate to answer this question through a task involving areas of rectangles. Given a set of 100 rectangles, they sample a set of five rectangles to estimate the average area of the figures. The...
Education Development Center
Absolute Value Reasoning
Teach solving absolute value inequalities through inquiry. Groups use their knowledge of absolute value and solving inequalities to find a solution set to an absolute value inequality. Working collaboratively encourages discussion,...
Education Development Center
Finding Triangle Vertices
Where in the world (or at least in the coordinate plane) is the third vertex? Given two coordinate points for the vertices of a triangle, individuals find the location of the third vertex. They read an account of fictional...
Education Development Center
Finding Parallelogram Vertices
Four is the perfect number—if you're talking about parallelograms. Scholars determine a possible fourth vertex of a parallelogram in the coordinate plane given the coordinates of three vertices. They read a conversation...
Education Development Center
Comparing Fractions
Three heads are better than one. After reading a conversation between three friends about how to compare fractions, scholars analyze and discuss each presented strategy. These include using unit fractions, using benchmark fractions,...
Education Development Center
Word Problem with Rational Numbers—Balancing Bars of Soap
Here's a resource teachers won't want to wash their hands of. Given a task where a full bar of soap is on one side of a balance and 3/4 of a bar of soup and a 3/4-ounce weight is on the other side, young mathematicians must determine the...
Education Development Center
Anita's Way to Add Fractions with Unlike Denominators
Could you develop your own way to add fractions with unlike denominators? An in-depth task has scholars examine a fictional conversation between several people in which they discuss a method of adding fractions with unlike denominators....
EngageNY
End-Of-Unit 2 Assessment: On-Demand Analytical Essay About How Esperanza Changes Over Time
Close the unit on Esperanza Rising with an in-class analytic essay on how Esperanza changes over the course of the novel. Writers can use any of their notes and work from the unit as well as their drafts of the first two paragraphs of...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Chief Executives Compared: The Federalist Papers
Delve into the responsibilities of the president by looking at President Hamilton's opinion of the presidential office in his own words. The second in a three-part series, the resource also offers an interesting compare-and-contrast...
BioEd Online
Bone Structure: Hollow vs. Solid
What is meant by the phrase "form follows function?" Allow your budding biologists to discover first-hand through two activities. In the first, groups work together to discover whether a solid cylinder or an empty cylinder can support...
BioEd Online
Good Stress for Your Body
Stress the importance of the different types of pressure our mind and body experience in a lesson about how certain types of stress are actually necessary and good for our bodies. As astronauts and people with injuries can attest, not...
BioEd Online
Muscle Fibers
What better way to learn about muscle than by dissecting one? Using cow muscle (beef), learners compare bundles of yarn to muscle fibers as they explore each. The supplemental reading about astronauts losing muscle mass in space and what...
Virginia Department of Education
Scientific Process and Experimental Design
The scientific method keeps you from believing only what you want to believe — it expands your mind. The lesson introduces the eight steps in the scientific process and how to design an experiment to biology scholars. Live insects...
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Investigating Evidence
Explore the scientific process through nature. Scholars become scientists as they develop a question, design an experiment, collect data, and analyze their results. A two-week lesson guides your classes through the process and provides...