Cover the field. Pairs investigate two different rolls of astroturf to cover a football field. The learners determine which type of roll is the most cost effective. Scholars write letters to the athletic director explaining their...

What was it like to live through the Civil War? Learners investigate the question by creating multimedia presentations. With a scaffolded approach that includes research, creating a biopic poem, storyboard, and then polished multimedia...

A social justice lesson focuses on the Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia which struck down laws that prohibited marriages between African Americans and white Americans. The lesson begins with class members examining a photograph of...

Using a home-built hydrophone, pupils investigate how things sound in water. Learners listen to sounds created in air and then compare that to the same sound picked up by the hydrophone. Individuals compare the loudness and the pitch of...

There sure are a lot of single-parent households in the country. After selecting one of four US regions to investigate, pupils create dot plots and box plots on the percentage of single-parent households with male parents and female...

Combine functions for the first time. Pupils investigate composition of functions using a function table and then function machines in the 17th installment in a 23-part Precalculus series. Scholars learn the two notations for composition...

After reading candidate biographies, class members select one candidate to research. They craft a report on the candidate's book, their position on issues, and the image the candidate wants to project.

Internet suffers could drown in the volume of information available on line. Here's an activity that can be a lifeline and buoy confidence in middle schoolers' ability to find reliable information and credible sources. After reading...

A unit study of the importance of a free press in a democracy begins with class members listening to a podcast featuring two journalists, one from a United States public radio station and one from Capetown, South Africa. The...

Revolution and counterrevolution. Protest and counter-protest. Collaborators and bystanders. The focus of the fifth resource in the Reconstruction Era and Fragility of Democracy series is on the political violence that followed Radical...

Keep the tension up in the classroom. The class first observes as the teacher creates a dome of water above a glass by adding paperclips into an already full glass. Classmates then work in pairs to see how many drops of water can fit...

You are a diplomat during the Age of Empire: prepare a briefing about your country. Young scholars take on the challenge using a role-play exercise to examine various empires during the rise of global interconnectedness. Materials...

To conclude a unit study of Jason Reynold's Ghost, class members examine how Castle's feeling about his bedroom change over the course of the novel. Groups use the provided graphic organizer to identify the plot of the novel and then use...

Animals save lives. In small groups pupils research the role of animals in the development of vaccines. Each team investigates one disease to find out how the vaccine was developed and how animals played a role n the research. Groups...

Test the limits of one's knowledge on continuity. The last of 18 installments in Unit 1 - Limits and Continuity is an end-of-unit review learning exercise. Individuals identify and classify discontinuities, investigate continuity at a...

Suffragettes, suffragists, and anti-suffragists. A two-day, richly detailed lesson plan has young historians investigate the twentieth-century suffrage movement. Groups examine primary and secondary source materials about Jane Addams and...

The power to learn about AC and DC power lies within everyone. The fifth of seven installments in the Off the Grid unit continues the investigation of the efficiency of a USB charger. Individuals use an inverter that converts DC power to...

Trick out mathematical expressions. Scholars participate in a computerized magic trick where the computer guesses the final answer to a series of operations. Pupils investigate the trick to determine what is happening. Individuals then...

Where did the water go? Learners conduct an experiment to see how the difference in temperature affects evaporation rates. Scholars continue to investigate evaporation by comparing water and alcohol evaporation rates. Pupils experiment...

Uncover the building blocks of the universe as budding chemists explore atoms and molecules in an exciting inquiry-based activity. Investigators view an interactive video describing the chemical structure of six molecules. Using...

Timothy Steele's poem, "Toward the Winter Solstice," offers scholars an opportunity to consider what poets and scientists could learn from each other's work. First, learners examine a NASA image of a star-forming region in the Orion...

Bundle up to stay warm! A fun-filled investigation opens with a group discussion about heat loss and using materials to prevent it. Young scientists then view an animation about thermometers and the Celsius scale and practice reading...

Jump into the action and help antibodies defend against an antigen attack! Investigators match antibodies with antigens to model the body's identification and recall of specific pathogens. Young biologists also recognize that each...

Lather up! That's the takeaway from two activities that focus on skin cancer. To begin, class members read articles to gather information about sun exposure, tanning, and skin cancer. They use this information to design a pamphlet to...