Curated OER
Greenhouse Effect ...Building Our Own
Pupils explore the greenhouse effect. They set up a simplified model of the earth and the greenhouse effect. Students compare temperatures inside a jar to temperatures outside the jar. Pupils collect information and create a line graph....
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Population Pyramids
Students explain the significance of population trends on world regions. They define relevant population vocabulary and examine age-gender patterns at various scales.
Curated OER
Give Yourself Some Credit
Eighth graders identify information and skills necessary to transition to high school. They complete a graphic organizer comparing middle school and high school. They discuss earning credits and specific requirements for graduation from...
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Investigating an Enzyme-controlled Reaction: Catalase and Hydrogen Peroxide Concentration
Are you looking for a way to measure cellular respiration? Try it with pureed potatoes. With some standard high school science equipment, biologists can perform an investigation and collect data surrounding byproducts of respiration. You...
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Organizing our Favorite Books
Students identify the title and author of stories. They create a database that supplies both graphic and written information to identify a book.
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Adding and Subtracting Algebraic Expressions (Combining Like Terms)
Everyone loves math when it includes food! This instructional activity tries to take the notion of combining like terms in algebra and comparing it to sorting apples and oranges. It takes a step-by-step approach to helping young scholars...
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An Introduction to Microbes and Microbes Are Everywhere
Seventh graders define the term microbe. They identify the five main groups of microbes. Students give examples of ways in which microbes have impacted or currently impact human life. They create a hypotheses for where they expect to...
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Discovering Dinosaurs
Third graders use an online database to gather information about five dinosaurs that are of interest to them. Using a chart, they record their length, height and two interesting facts for each dinosaur. They draw a picture of the...
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Food & Science - How Healthy is Your Diet?
Learners experiment with various foods to determine fat and starch content. They rub jam, peanut butter, bananas, and other foods in a small circle on a piece of paper, and observe the results. If there is a high fat content in the...
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Practical GPS Applications in Forestry & Agriculture
An explanation of the Global Positioning System (GPS) and the Geographic Information System (GIS) is given in this presentation. Uses and applications are considered. How it works and sources of error are also touched upon. A large...
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Jazz in America
Eleventh graders explore Jazz in America. They examine greats in Jazz, such as Duke Ellington. They are also to discuss the cultural implications of the music itself.
Illinois State Board of Education
Solar System
Aspiring astronomers solve problems involving mixed units of the same attribute, including time, money, length, and area. They convert large numbers into scientific notation, then compute and compare ratios to explain why drawing...
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Campaign Signs and Pranksters
Students collect campaign literature and investigate what signs local candidates are using. Students contact local politicians/candidates and interview them about the concepts and creation of their campaign literature. Students compare...
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Does Sunlight Effect Leaf Size?
Students make estimates and then measure leaves for accuracy. They calculate the area of the leaves by drawing an outline on graph paper and counting the squares. They compare the leaves exposed to sunlight to those that are in constant...
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Graphs and Functions
Use this series of activities to introduce learners to graphing functions. They graph both linear and quadratic equations by hand and with a Graph Sketcher Tool. Several imbedded links and handouts are included in the lesson.
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Art or Junk? Discovering the Triangle Inequality
Middle schoolers study the triangle inequality. They will identify, compare, and analyze attributes of two and three-dimensional shapes. Then they develop vocabulary to describe the attributes. They also use manipulatives to analyze the...
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Akron: This City Reads
High schoolers write their thoughts about the value of reading and of Akron launching a city wide reading campaign. Students also research literacy in their own community, finding out how it compares to Akron's statistics where it has...
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Multimedia Book Report
Young readers plan and draft a book report focusing on the five key components of a novel: plot, character, setting, conflict, and theme. After completing a story board, pupils then prepare a PowerPoint book report that is shown to the...
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Personal Travel Guide to a Chinese City
Scholars become travel guides in this group research project to investigate a Chinese city or region for a presentation. Heavily based on Internet research, the activity requires participants to jigsaw the final project, so each team...
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Adaptation and Diversity on Sheffield Island
Written for an exploration of shoreline ecosystems on Sheffield Island, this gives ecology or marine biology buffs a hands-on experience. Using GPS or visual triangulation techniques, they lay transect lines on a high and a low energy...
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From Restriction Maps to Cladograms
Biology aces analyze restriction maps to determine the relationships among different primate species and then complete a cladogram. Preface this lesson with an explanation of how restriction enzymes are used to create the DNA maps....
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Animal Categories
Students sort animal picture cards into classification groups such as mammals, reptiles, amphibians, insects and fish. They discuss the characteristics that each group of animals shares then arrange the pictures into a clasificatioon...
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Quilting Geometry
Study geometry through the concept of quilt design. High schoolers examine the geometric shapes in various quilts and then create their own quilts using geometric shapes that fit together. In the end, they write a paragraph to...
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Problem Solving and the Sports Page
The use of box scores from baseball games is the foundation of this math lesson. Organize your class into groups of four, and give identical box scores from a baseball game that was just played. Have them create word problems from the...