Curated OER
Barge Building: What Floats Your Boat?
Students construct aluminum foil boats that float while holding the greatest number of pennies. They investigate the concept of water displacement, record their results, and watch a Bill Nye video on buoyancy.
Curated OER
It's Not All Greek to Me
Learners find out the meaning for prefixes used in math vocabulary. By dissecting words used in everyday math, they figure out what the prefix indicates and what the word means. A variety of well-organized worksheets and activities...
Curated OER
Bye, Bye, Bye, Fraction Phobia!
Young mathematicians utilize video, the internet, and hands-on learning experiences in order to recognize that fractions aren't as "scary" as they first appear, and that we use them every day in our lives. The hands-on activities in this...
National Security Agency
A Balancing Act: Solving Multi-Step Equations
Wow! Put on that thinking cap and solve multi-step equations. To solve equations, learners review the use of the distributive property and combining like terms. This three-day lesson plan comes with about 20 pages of worksheets,...
National Endowment for the Humanities
The House Un-American Activities Committee
Was the House Un-American Activities Committee justified in investigating subversive influences in the entertainment industry? Part two of the three-part series of lessons that examine the anti-communism movement after World War II,...
Journey Through the Universe
Is There Anyone Out There?
What is an alien's favorite game? All-star baseball! Scholars start defining living and non-living. Then, they conduct experiments to research if life exists, keeping in mind that life could be in many forms, not just human.
NTTI
Putting Together Ten
Groups explore sets of 10 items in two varieties (i.e. 3 white buttons and 7 black ones, or 5 bears and 5 bunnies). They brainstorm about their objects, write math sentences to represent what they have, and report their discoveries to...
Curated OER
Miras, Mirrors, and Kaleidoscopes!
Students use hands-on activities to explore transformations. They view a video segment that demonstrate how M. C. Escher employed geometry and transformations to create so many of his famous drawings.
Curated OER
Expert Estimators
A rich and well-designed lesson on estimation is here for you. The lesson utilizes a video; ITV Series: The Eddie Files 'Estimation: Going to the Dogs,' along with many websites. Several fantastic learning activities are...
Curated OER
Real-World Projects: Challenges from the Polymer Industry
Two scenarios are presented for chemistry detectives to decipher. Both require the use of an infrared spectrometer and focus on the examination of polymer materials. In the first, lumps in polyethylene bottles are analyzed. In the...
Smithsonian Institution
Two Perspectives on the Battle of Little Bighorn/Greasy Grass
Learners understand why historians conduct research and the importance of perception when it comes to studying history. The resource covers The Wars of Expansion and the Battle of Little Bighorn/Greasy Grass through group work, debate,...
Curated OER
Exploring Equivalent Fractions
An extensive activity explores equivalent fractions and is intended for three 60-minute periods. Young mathematicians compare and order fractions with like and unlike denominators. Included are worksheets, assessments, and answer sheets;...
National Security Agency
Let's Party With Place Value
Put on your math caps and explore place value and ways to represent numbers. Learners read, write, and represent whole numbers. They interact with numbers as they read and explore a teacher-created story, play games, and practice their...
NOAA
Come on Down!
What do we do when a dive is too dangerous for humans to accomplish? Send in the robots! Middle school scientists get acquainted with several different models of submersible robots in the second lesson of six from NOAA. Lab groups then...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Comparing Fuel Economy
Compute fuel economy and gas mileage. Why? So you can teach rates and ratios, of course! Middle schoolers calculate the rate of miles per gallon for various vehicles. They research each vehicle, its mileage per gallon, and cost per...
Curated OER
Interesting Integers and Exciting Equations
An 80-page resource provides four lessons and all associated worksheets to teach middle schoolers about expressions and equations. The lessons are hands-on, using games, "integer chips," a balance and cubes, and cut and paste activities....
Workforce Solutions
Evacuate!
After a hurricane touches down on an area, locals begin the clean-up process. The Cynergy Plant requires cleaning, a blood drive is underway, temporary homes are needed for those that evacuated, and toiletries are rationed. Five lessons...
Curated OER
Patterns in Pascal's Triangle
Students examine the patterns in Pascal's Triangle. In this recognizing instructional activity, students view a model of Pascal's Triangle and describe the patterns of the multiples. Students identify the shapes that are made within...
Inside Mathematics
Hexagons
Scholars find a pattern from a geometric sequence and write the formula for extending it. The learning exercise includes a table to complete plus four analysis questions. It concludes with instructional implications for the teacher.
Curated OER
Noncombatancy and the Seventh day Adventist Church
Upper graders investigate how the Seventh Day Adventists are objectors to the practice of war. The instructional activity covers the Civil War and examines the church's position about the practice of war. The research extends to modern...
Arizona Department of Education
Area and Perimeter of Regular and Irregular Polygons
Extend young mathematicians' understanding of area with a geometry lesson on trapezoids. Building on their prior knowledge of rectangles and triangles, students learn how to calculate the area of trapezoids and other irregular...
Curated OER
Algebraic Thinking - Equations
Fifth graders explore equality and inequality by participating in a Tilt/Balance activity. The students listen to the story "Lemonade for Sale" by Stuart J. Murphy and use equations to graph lemonade sale profits.
Kent State University
How Does that Work?
Sixth and seventh graders explore algebra word problems. They work with a partner to solve word problems distributed by e-mail. Learners simplify mathematical expressions following a "think aloud" algebra strategy modeled by the teacher....
Code.org
Public Key Cryptography
Investigate how public key cryptography works. Scholars continue their study of one-way functions and asymmetric keys and apply this information to public key cryptography. They use an app to explore public key cryptography and its...