Can your class help the people of Nepal? Scholars take an in-depth look into the social injustices and struggling economy of a country in turmoil during a multi-day role-playing exercise. After reviewing information on the problems...

Explore Apple's spaceship office building. Built in the shape of a circle, the office building offers a unique floor plan challenge. Young scholars use the dimensions of the building to estimate the square footage for each employee. 

It's important to protect yourself online. An online game has pupils imagine themselves as cybersecurity specialists at a social networking company. They learn about ways to protect data online through a series of challenges.

Physics is like music—practice makes perfect! Challenge your class using an interactive that builds harmonic skills. The engaging lesson from a playlist exploring sounds and waves revolves around wave behavior in closed-end air columns....

A three-part assessment challenges scholars to write opinion essays covering the topic of the student council. After reading three passages, writers complete a chart, work with peers to complete a mini-research project, answer...

Substitute teaching can be challenging. You never know what you're going to find. Never fear, help is here in the form of a toolkit packed with great advice and practical suggestions.

Parallel circuits often provide less of a challenge for teens than parallel parking. An installment of a series on parallel electric circuits requires learners to solve increasingly difficult  levels of calculations. Each level...

Five questions challenge scholars to make inferences after reading a poem, "Picture-Books in Winter" by Robert Louis Stevenson. 

West Side Story and Romeo & Juliet—two classics in their own rights that help young literature lovers better analyze different works. Learners research and compare the characters and story elements of West Side Story and Romeo...

Accompany a reading of Dr. Seuss' tale, The Lorax, with a five-item worksheet. Questions challenge scholars to list characters' names, use text details to answer inquiries, and describe the moral of the story. 

Create a personal tree. By visiting an exhibit at the National Museum of Mathematics, the resource introduces the idea of fractals. The exhibit takes an image of the person and creates a tree by repeating scaled images on the shoulders...

Old, ild, ind, and ost may sound like a foreign language, but they actually represent common final consonant blends. Help learners recognize and pronounce consonant blends with step-by-step instructions, including scripted conversations....

As the saying goes, you are what you eat. A useful set of lesson plans encourage young readers to take a second look at their eating habits. Pre- and post-reading questions bring in reflective writing and discussion while extension...

A five-item learning exercise challenges scholars to write two sentences using the same verb in two different ways—as a noun and a verb.

Lessons about advertising slogans are GR-R-REAT! Using the resource, pupils engage in an interactive activity to match advertisement blurbs with their corresponding product names. Next, they discuss famous slogans and identify where to...

What's got 60 eyes, 150 fingers, and an endless number of ideas? Your language arts class! Challenge young writers to come up with clever riddles with an online poetry lesson.

Was bombing German cities an effective means to an end, or was it a war crime? Could it be both? Young historians ponder these questions with an activity that prompts them to use primary sources to summarize the debate surrounding RAF...

Match the length in more than one way. Pupils work in pairs to create equal lengths using different combinations of rods. The quick activity allows learners to develop a physical understanding of equality and realize there is more than...

The Harlem Renaissance if the focus of a carefully crafted, interdisciplinary unit designed to introduce middle schoolers to the contributions key figures made to American art and culture during the period. Class members select...

Find quadratics in the world. Learners select ways to compare and contrast linear and quadratic functions and how to demonstrate knowledge of parabolas in the world. Teachers assign a third task challenging individuals to find equations...

Patterns and polynomials go hand in hand. Budding mathematicians analyze sequences of dot diagrams to discover the patterns in the number of white dots and black dots. They use the identified patterns to write and simplify a polynomial...

Different shape, same volume—that's quite a challenge! Scholars design a pool for an imaginary client using three-dimensional figures. They must then create a second pool for another client with the same volume, but using different shapes.

Make a big deal out of things the class can't see. Young scientists get an introduction to nanoscience in the fourth installment of a five-part series on scale. The instructional activity discusses current innovations in nanotechnology...

Fireflies are more than just mobile twinkle lights. An online interactive lesson teaches individuals about the light patterns fireflies use to communicate with each other. After they practice the patterns themselves, they could be...