Handout
ProCon

Electoral College

For Students 9th - 12th Standards
The Electoral College's role in elections is sometimes confusing and controversial. Pupils use a debate topics website to research the pros and cons of the practice to debate whether the United States should still use the Electoral...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Wherefore Art Thou, Art?

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students analyze various perspectives on the controversial "Sensation: Young British Artists From the Saatchi Collection" art exhibit on display at the Brooklyn Museum of Art.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Prairie Voices

For Teachers 5th
Fifth graders compare and contrast a one room school house in Iowa in the past with how they go to school today. In this school lesson plan, 5th graders read about rural families and the controversies that they endured in the time of one...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Censorship in the Classroom: Understanding Controversial Issues

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers examine propaganda and media bias and explore a variety of banned and challenged books. Following this, students choose a side of the censorship issue and support their position by developing an ad campaign about the...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

"I Hear America Singing": Controversy and Music in the Mexican War

For Teachers 8th
Eighth graders examine the Mexican War and its outcome through music. In this primary source analysis instructional activity, 8th graders analyze the lyrics of selected songs to consider the 2 perspectives regarding U.S. involvement in...
Activity
Ed Change

Facilitating the Difficult Dialogue: Role Plays

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students share stories and role play about a time when they participated in, or facilitated, a discussion on racism, sexism, classism, heterosexism, or another form of oppression that took an unexpected turn and caused conflict that was...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Genome: Controversy for All Times

For Teachers 11th - 12th
Students examine the genome and discuss the ethical and moral issues surrounding it. In groups, they discover the differences between ethics and morals and discuss where the concepts of good and bad come from in society. After reading...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Science as a Source of Social Controversy

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers research the two opposing views and biographical information about Ptolemy and Copernicus in order to be familiar with the societal viewpoints that influenced the thinking of these two scientists. Students role-play...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Climate Change: Is there a Controversy

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Learners explore climate changes. In this climate changes activity, students research what causes changes. Learners search the Internet, summarize reports they find and create a poster with the information.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The 8th Amendment: The Death Penalty

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students take a closer look at the death penalty. In this U.S. government lesson, students watch a Discovery video about capital punishment in the United States and then compose letters to the editors of newspapers about their stance on...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Replicating Controversy

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Student act as a research scientists and investigate the development of animal and human cloning. They then report their findings, both orally and visually, to their "colleagues" at a symposium on cloning research. Students explore the...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Courting Controversy?

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students consider their own personal opinions on divisive issues. They examine the confirmation of Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. and investigate issues from different ideological and philosophical perspectives.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Nuclear Weapons Controversy

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Young scholars examine and discuss U.S. nuclear weapons policy.
Lesson Plan
Minnesota Center for Community Legal Education

Minnesota v. Hershberger

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Freedom of religion has been a controversial, yet fundamental, tenet of the United States since even before the nation's birth. In a well-constructed lesson plan, the class compares the Minnesota Constitution to the US Constitution as a...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Abraham Lincoln, the 1860 Election, and the Future of the American Union and Slavery

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers examine the political alternatives regarding the spread of slavery and the preservation of the American union facing the American people in the decade leading up to the 1860 presidential election.
Lesson Plan
Deliberating in a Democracy

Euthanasia

For Teachers 10th - 12th
Students analyze euthanasia as a possible way to die.  In this controversial lesson plan, students reflect and discuss euthanasia as a possible way to enter death.  Classroom discussion allows students to voice their opinion...
Worksheet
Curated OER

Cartoons for the Classroom: Syrian Government Censorship

For Students 9th - 12th
Approach censorship through the controversy of the Syrian government's violence against kidnapped cartoonist Ali Ferzat. Background information gives learners context of the issue, and a link offers further media coverage of the event....
Lesson Plan
Media Smarts

Media Awareness Network: Hate or Debate?

For Teachers 8th - 10th
Discuss the difference between legitimate debate on a political issue and arguments that are based on hate through a science-fiction scenario that shows how a controversial issue can be discussed in both ways. Then learn how purveyors of...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Individuality vs. Conformity

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Spark an animated debate in your class! Young adults consider some of the fads or trends that are prevalent at their school, as well as their own level of participation in them. Just how much of a role does popular culture play in their...
Activity
Digital Public Library of America

Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin has generated controversy since its publication in 1852. Here is a set of 12 primary sources that capture the controversies of the times while adding dimension and depth to any study of...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Food, Glorious Food?

For Teachers 6th - 12th
How are the reactions between American and European consumers different when it comes to genetically modified foods? Use the New York Times article "Consumers in Europe Resist Gene-Altered Foods" to inform your middle schoolers...
Unit Plan
Curated OER

Ballots, Bloomers and Boycotts

For Teachers 4th
Students compare a controversial issue or policy in need of reform in their classroom to the suffrage movement of the 1800's. They research important figures in the suffrage movement, produce written pieces and complete worksheets.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Presenting Ethical Dilemmas in the Classroom

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers explore the dilemma of bioethics. Students review a cast study on a bioethical topic. They research the facts, values, and stakemakers in the controversial debate. High schoolers consider the consequences and discuss their...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Pandora's Box

For Teachers 10th - 12th
Some of today's technologies are controversial, in vitro fertilization being one of them. Mature high school biology classes examine the technology involved in and dilemmas created by this procedure. They play different roles in an...

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