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Deep Thoughts
Students examine what lies within the Earth. They research and create scale models illustrating the layers of the Earth and write skits advocating a travel plan to send a probe into the Earth's mantle.
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Hungry for History
Learners examine what their diets would be like without the inclusion of staple crops such as corn, wheat and sugar, and discover the value that chocolate had for the Mayan people. They create display boards for a food festival.
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Imperial Notions
Students research how and why different parts of the world were colonized, considering the pros and cons for both the rulers and the ruled.
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The Eyes Have It
Students explore the health risks associated with wearing decorative contact lenses. They research other cosmetic modes of expression that can pose health risks and debate whether these practices should remain legal.
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Organic Feud
Young scholars examine possible pesticide exposure in their fruit and vegetable consumption. They compile fact sheets exploring various organic food issues and interview their parents about the food choices they make for their Students.
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Word Play
Students define the steps of the formal writing process, consider the value and quality of the work done by Anne Frank in her personal diary, and create their own diary entries using the writing process outlined in class.
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A Weighty Task
Students aim to explain the need for standardization of units of measurement. They pose their own standards for the value of a kilogram and compare them with the currently used standard.
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Cooking Up an Explanation
Students pose scientific questions about food items and research their explanations. They then create recipe cards with the answers and present their findings in a cooking show format.
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Shedding New Light
Students consider why photographs in space might not show stars and research the importance of light in this phenomenon. They research other scientific processes related to light or its absence and create "How It Works" posters about them.
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Think Small
Learners explore current applications of nanotechnology in various industries, including medicine, space development, environmental protection, and defense.
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Growing Pains
Learners compare common food items with the parts of a plant. They grow their own plants to assess the difficulties in assisting a plant's growth and reproduction.
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Industrial Light and Magic
Students investigate early mass production in various industries, and then create presentation posters outlining how a typical 19th-century factory, mill or refinery worked.
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What's New?
Students act as teams of product managers for personal electronics companies. Each team evaluate new electronic devices in different product categories (such as handheld devices and portable music devices), and create product...
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Can I Get A Witness?
Students consider difficulties involved in students testifying in criminal trials. Through first-hand experience in the position of either a witness to a crime or an investigator, students explain how various factors shape a person's...
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Playing with History
Students consider the elements that make computer games compelling, then use these elements to develop game 'narratives' based on historic events.
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Bringing Facts Into Science Fiction
Learners develop a setting, plot and characters for a science fiction story based on current news themes, and then individually write drafts of the story.
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Is All Well in Welfare?
Students explore current welfare reform issues and create plans of action to improve welfare reform laws in the United States. They predict what President Bush's "Working Towards Independence" welfare reform program might entail and...
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Radio Free School
Students explore radio news formats, styles, and sequences, and then write segments for a student-centered news radio program. In small groups, students develop and write news segments for a student-centered radio program.
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Safety Up in the Air
Students explore the controversy over a bill giving pilots the option to become armed federal law enforcement officers. They brainstorm other possible security measures for airplanes and airports.
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Comic Renditions
Young scholars explore the intersection between popular and high art by recreating comic strips in various artistic styles and then famous works of art as comics. Through this exploration, students come to conclusions about what art is...
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Van Gogh-Getters
Students explore the lives of famous artists and examine ways in which an artist's life affects his or her creations. Each student creates an original work of art in the style of a famous artist.
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Power to the People
Learners explore the pros and cons of government structures, then decide whether or not African countries accept the new African Union based on a variety of categories.
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Where the Wild Things Are
Learners explore the role of gargoyles in New York City architecture as a starting point to considering architectural structures in their city. They create designs that illustrate ways in which those local structures may be enhanced by...
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Fear Factors
Young scholars explore their own childhood fears. Then, by reversing the scenario and considering how the objects of their fears might in turn also be afraid of them, students confront these fears and create a student books that help...