Curated OER
Detective Fiction: Focus On Critical Thinking
Turn your 6th graders into detectives while growing their love of reading. Using critical thinking skills, they will be able to describe the five basic elements of detective fiction, read detective novels, make predictions, use the...
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Energy Detectives at Work
Young scholars are "Energy Detectives" working for an engineering firm that does energy evaluations at schools. In teams, they locate energy sources around the school, and record their findings on an Energy Detective Worksheet.
Curated OER
Playing Historical Detective: Great Grandmother's Dress and Other Clues to the Life and Times of Annie Steel
Students draw conclusions about an mystery person based on documents and artifacts provided. In this drawing conclusions lesson, students become detectives by reading and analyzing evidence provided. This lesson includes information on...
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Become a Word Detective
Students investigate the origin of words in the English language. In this language history lesson, students examine words by breaking them down and finding their roots. Students analyze words from a poem and complete a word detective...
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
How Much Water Do You Use?
Incorporate reading strategies, math, research, and the scientific method into one lesson about water conservation. After reading a story about a landlady trying to determine how many people are living in an apartment, learners develop a...
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Radiation Comparison Before and After 9-11
Using the NASA website, class members try to determine if changes could be detected in cloud cover, temperature, and/or radiation measurements due to the lack of contrails that resulted from the halt in air traffic after the attacks of...
Curated OER
Detectives
High schoolers research the respiratory system and the diseases that affect it.
They construct a model of a pair of working lungs and develop an experiment that will decrease lung inflation.in addition, they create a portfolio of their...
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History Detective: The Case of the Mysterious Trunk
Students role play as history detectives. In this historical inquiry lesson, students discuss what detectives do, analyze a trunk of "artifacts" and make conclusions about its fictional owner. Students complete six pages of related art,...
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What is Air?
Young scholars investigate air by participating in a class experiment. In this matter measurement lesson, students identify air as a gas which consists of mass. Young scholars utilize a windsock or balloon to measure oxygen and explore...
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Miss Nelson is Missing Lesson Plan
Second graders listen to the story Miss Nelson is Missing by Harry Allard and James Marshall. In this literature lesson, 2nd graders predict the story's ending with drawings and discussions within groups.
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Hands-On Investigation!
Students read, analyze, and solve a mystery using problem-solving skills. They explore the History Detective website, discuss the difference between clues and red herrings, complete a dot-to-dot sheet, take notes in a detective...
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Exploring Geometry in the Real World
Students find real-world examples of a variety of geometric shapes. They conduct research, record observations, and write descriptions. They create a classroom cityscape and highlight the information they gathered. They present an oral...
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Fire Safety Survey
Students collect data regarding fire safety and create a graph. Working in small groups, they administer a survey to family and friends regarding their attitudes toward fire safety. After data has been gathered, students graph their...
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Observing the Evidence
Fifth graders explore how to do research from a large group. They explore how to choose a representative sample and collect data from it.
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Focusing on Lenses
Students explore scientific observations by examining the parts of a microscope. In this optics lesson, students discuss the importance of a focal point and focal distance when utilizing an optical device such as a microscope. Students...
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Finding the Shape of a Web
Students examine spider webs they find as they explore outside. They make T-chart of the shapes found in two different webs and draw them on geoboard paper. Next, they measure length and width of a spider's web before checking to see if...
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Enigmas
Students research various "mysterious" elements of literature, math, science, technology and life itself.
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The Case of the Mysterious Red Light
Students investigate why some sunrises and sunsets are unusually bright red.
PBS
Inventions
Use this lesson plan to discuss inventions that have changed your class's world and have impacted society. Middle schoolers investigate important inventions of their time and design an invention in a simulated business atmosphere. Modify...
PBS
Home, Sweet, Home!
Students investigate the local history and architecture of their community. They draw maps, conduct Internet research, discuss varied architectural designs, take a walking tour of their town and work in teams to record their community's...
Curated OER
What Does Bird Flu Mean to Students?
Students consider the far-reaching effects of the avian flu. For this personal health lesson, students visit selected websites to discover information about the flu, viral infections, and intensive farming. Students contribute to a wiki...
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Human Fingerprints: No Two the Same
Sixth graders explore scientific observations by analyzing a group of data. In this fingerprint identification instructional activity, 6th graders identify the reasoning behind fingerprinting and create their own ink fingerprints....
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Using Newsprint as a UV Detector
Students investigate the effects of UV radiation. In this earth science instructional activity, students explain how the time of day relate to UV abundance on Earth. They determine if weather affects the amount of UV that Earth receives.
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Cardboard History
Pupils investigate the history of baseball and create baseball cards based on research they have collected about early baseball players.