“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” Ambrose Bierce’s short story, is used to model how structural moves, the decisions an author makes about setting, point of view, time order, etc., can be examined to reveal an author’s purpose. Groups...

How do scientists provide evidence to support the theories they put forth? What clues do they put together to create these theories? After watching West of the West's documentary Island Rotation class members engage in a series of...

Travel the world from the comfort of your classroom with a lesson plan that features Google Earth. High schoolers follow a series of steps to locate places all over the earth with sets of coordinates. Additionally, they measure the...

Students complete a variety of activities surrounding castle communities and fairy tales. They write a letter to a fairy tale character, write a fairy tale, create a model of a castle, and draw a map of a castle community.

Young geographers discover not only how to read and recognize coordinates on a map, but also gain a deeper understanding of latitude and longitude and how climate changes can vary significantly across latitudes.

Young geologists get a glimpse beneath the earth's surface in this plate tectonics investigation. After first learning about the different layers of the earth and the constant movement of its plates, young...

Learn how ocean currents are vital to humans and marine life. The eighth installment of a 23-part NOAA Enrichment in Marine sciences and Oceanography (NEMO) program, focuses on ocean currents and how they affect global climate. The...

Students are introduced to and experiment with the basic concepts of plate tectonic theory as well as assess the history of the theory of plate tectonics. They explain and illustrate the basic concepts through diagrams and models of...

Students describe the history of materials. They use the kinetic (particle) theory to explain changes of state in matter and trace the flow of heat during changes of state and chemical changes.

Students create multi-paragraph report using the researched information. Over several class periods, students research a topic of their choosing and create a one-two page report. Student reports are presented to the class using an...

Fifth graders observe a map that includes where the land bridge was located and that its name was Beringia and look in the Social Studies books to read about the Land Bridge Theory. The class then brainstorms reasons why they think...

Students engage in DNA manipulation using forensics techniques. Students investigate topics involved in forensics studies such as cloning, electrophoresis, gene mapping, replication, and transcription.

For this evolution crossword worksheet, 7th graders complete a crossword puzzle about evolution. Students read the definitions to fill in the puzzle with evolution terms.

Students use this activity as a logic problem that is based on real organisms and real data. The problem is to develop phylogenies for seven related populations of lizards living on the Canary Islands. Three phylogenetic charts are...

Learners compare and contrast the various types of rocks on each continent. In groups, the calculate the rock ages and types to determine if the continents, in their opinion, were joined at one time. They develop two imaginary...

In this urban geography worksheet, students respond to 20 short answer questions about urban geography after they have read a related article. The article is not included.

Students examine igneous and sedimentary rocks. They observe and identify geological formations in their community, analyze igneous and sedimentary geological layers using a geological map, and use GPS to locate geological formations.

The anticipatory set is clever: give groups five minutes to work on the puzzle and then discuss what strategies they used to match the few that connected. This introduces middle schoolers to the concept of continental drift. A portion of...

Students work in cooperative groups to create a theory about the origin of Stonehenge. Each member of the group has a specific role, responsibilities and tasks. The group work can be implemented as a scaffolding technique.

This unit focuses primarily on plate tectonics and plate boundaries surrounding continents. It contains pre- and post-lab sections that walk young geologists through plate movements in order to visualize what's going on inside Earth.

What's the link between lactase persistence and dairy farming? Biology scholars analyze data to find evidence of the connection, then relate this to human adaptation. Working individually and in small groups, learners view short video...

Students measure, weigh, and document the amount of trash and garbage generated by the school for one day. They brainstorm solutions for trash in the area and assist with the school-wide recycle program.

Sixth graders identify and describe the composition and physical properties of the layers of the Earth. They also explain how scientists used the scientific process to know about the center of the Earth. Finally, 6th graders read a...

Students examine shopping patterns in another community to develop a hypothesis on why there are more opportunities for goods and services in some neighborhoods while others lack these goods and services.