As Ken Jennings said, "There's just something hypnotic about maps." Certainly, the longer you look at them the more you can learn. In this project-based learning lesson, individuals study both historic and present-day maps of...

Which will make it fly better? Individuals build paper rockets with fins that are launched using straws. After determining an average flight distance, they make adjustments, such as size and location of fins, and try again. A second...

A simple tweak in the equation can mean big things for a quadratic graph. High school mathematicians look at the parent graph of a quadratic and incorporate three different changes to the function. The problems require explanations of...

Need some activities to go along with your unit? A collection of hands-on activities from PBS offers opportunities to add to your electricity, sound, and force units. The electricity activities revolve around building a...

What features mark a building as belonging to a particular culture, time, and place? Class members investigate the architectural movements represented in structures built in Forsyth County, North Carolina from 1880-1980 by examining...

Pronouns are the most helpful parts of speech! Model the ways that interrogative, indefinite, personal, and demonstrative pronouns can specify meaning and enhance writing with a hands-on activity.

Build a soccer field through a little mathematical analysis. Individuals manipulate the dimensions of a soccer field as they drag points to new positions. The simulation shows the corresponding intercepts and area. As pupils explore the...

Starting from a view of cells, a constructive simulation shows every step of building a new protein. It walks through transcription, translation, building amino acids, and folding the protein. Viewers control if it plays as a video or...

E is for economics, environment, and social equity. The fifth installment of a 15-part series has scholars first considering ecological impacts, such as determining how much water it takes to produce a can of soda. They then use decision...

Should bottled water be sold in schools, or should they only provide tap water? The summative unit in the six-part series encourages scholars debating this topic. The lessons teach how to build an argument, how to gain background...

Solar energy is an amazing alternative ... but, not always particularly portable! Challenge young scientists to a folding solar panel build-off with an easy-to-execute activity. Scholars brainstorm around specific design needs, construct...

How do you describe a jellyfish? Individuals write adjectives for Nomura's jellyfish, take notes, and check understanding with a formative assessment. Notes include the definition for adjectives, guiding questions to help writers...

One way to study the microscopic is to make it macroscopic. Each slide of the lesson presentation presents a different molecular model along with a brief description of the compound's function. Learners use the information to build...

Class members build a machine to demonstrate Lenz's law and help this scientific principle come to life. After building a ring fling machine, instructions for properly operating the machine and a few thought-provoking questions lead to...

Strive for gold with an informative resource. A short task challenges learners to investigate the thickness of a box made from a given volume of gold. The box must have specific dimensions, so setting up and solving a literal equation is...

The stories of the Silver People, the West Indies immigrants hired to work on the Panama Canal, come to life in a lesson about the building of the Panama Canal. Groups research why the canal was built, how it was build, the working...

Build numbers with place value to save the day. Pupils use the keyboard to control the digits in the hundredths through hundreds place to create target numbers to destroy shadows. As participants build the numbers, a number line shows...

It's the encore to a wave unit. Individuals build either a slap tube, flute, or xylophone as a culminating activity for a physics unit on waves. Scholars calculate the lengths of pipes needed to produce the specific notes for their...

Engage creative minds with an exciting activity about the power of wind. Investigators participate in class discussions while viewing images and animations of air and wind. Scholars test the relationship between wind speed and an...

It may not be 4 o'clock in the morning when you have ended these labors, but it's still time to work on textual analysis. Study the resolution of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" through the thematic lens of guilt and confession,...

Introduce a new type of function through discovery. Math learners build an understanding of rational expressions by creating tables and graphing the result. 

Build a solid understanding of trigonometric transformations through exploration. Learners work in teams to analyze the effects of different algebraic components on the graph of a sine function. 

How are systems related? Build on your pupils' previous knowledge of solving systems of equations by introducing systems of inequalities. Learners explore similarities between systems of equations and inequalities to make a strong...

Build a definition of congruence from an understanding of rigid transformations. The lesson asks pupils to explain congruence through a series of transformations. Properties of congruence emerge as they make comparisons to these...