What is reflectivity, and what does it have to do with the Earth's climate? As reflectivity is measured by albedo, scientists can gather information on Earth's energy balances that relate to global warming or climate change. Budding...

Do you separate your trail mix before eating it? Then you've been separating mixtures your whole life! Scholars model a contaminated soil sample using trail mix and estimate the percentage of each component. They consider how to clean up...

Analyze the depth and beauty of American Literature by reading Emily Dickinson's letters and poems. The class analyzes Dickinson's poetic style and discusses Thomas Wentworth Higginson's editorial relationship with Dickinson. They pay...

Students compare graphs of their data that was generated on a NASA website.  For this seasons lesson students complete a lab activity. 

Do your young grammarians have a hard time keeping their point of view consistent in writing? Use this resource to help them keep their point of view straight. After reading the reference sheet and instructions, learners rewrite eight...

Explore the connection of surface area to bonding within atoms. Learners complete lab investigations to model changing surface area with different sizes and concentrations of atoms. A flour fireball demonstration follows the labs to...

Just how confident can we be with statistics calculated from a sample? Learners take this into account as they look at data from a sample of petroleum engineer salaries. They analyze the effect sample size has on a margin of error and...

Students make sets of nautical signal flags and use them to communicate in the classroom.

Junior geographers explore the region through which the Mekong flows, its pathway, the landscape, how people depend on the Mekong, and future uncertainties. They apply the five themes of geography to examine the region. They create a...

Looking for a fun way to teach grammar concepts and terms to your elementary schoolers? Learners create their own grammar reference books with this resource! After cutting out each box and stapling them together to create booklets, young...

Use a hot dog as a metaphor for good reading, and make your class drool! Writers identify the parts of a paragraph, linking them to parts of a hot dog. Then, they translate this knowledge into a well-written paragraph. While a check-list...

Here is a geology lesson plan which invites learners to explore a variety of rocks. They find rocks in the schoolyard and classify them according to size, color, and weight, then read the book Everybody Needs a Rock. Good lesson plan!

Students classify and compare plants using specific information, observations, and numbers. In this mathematical inquiry lesson, students use plant characteristics to describe, compare, and classify them. They attempt to develop a system...

As part of their study of the influence of TV and films, class members consider how music, lighting, costumes, camera angles, etc. are used to influence the response of viewers.

Find out just how enticing learning about neurons can be by creating models with sugar cookies, icing, and candy. With great background information for you and an easy procedure for the kids, studying cells has never been more fun or...

An interesting way to look at the kitchen floor is to count the number of tiles in the border. Fred starts with four white floor tiles and writes an expression for the number of tiles needed for the colored border. Algebra learners are...

Readers of Nineteen Eighty-Four engage in a close reading exercise that directs their focus to the key details Orwell provides in the opening paragraphs to introduce his dystopian society. The included worksheeet is divided into three...

Should the standard deviation be used for all distributions? Pupils know that the median is a better description of the center for skewed distributions; therefore, they will need a variability measure about the median for those...

Using PVC pipe and aquarium tubing, build an altitude tracker. Pupils then use the altitude tracker, along with a tangent table, to calculate the altitude of a launched rocket using the included data collection sheet.

After completing the first five lessons from the series, scholars assemble their quilt pieces to create a family history quilt. They then rate their experience of learning about their families by conducting interviews, creating family...

Parallelograms are pairs of triangles all the way around. Pupils measure to determine the area and perimeter of a parallelogram. They then find the area of the tirangles formed by drawing a diagonal of the parallelogram and compare their...

How can December 21 be the shortest day of the year when all days are 24 hours long? Pupils see how to build a model showing the differences between winter and summer solstices and equinoxes. Using this model, classes can then discuss...

How much does the sun heat up a lake or ocean? Scholars use a cup and a strong lamp to investigate the heat transfer and thermal layers in the ocean to come up with the answer. They collect data and graph it in order to better understand...