A sign that washed away from Hurricane Sandy in 2012 beached itself 3,595 miles away in France. This artifact and others from around the world help scientists understand water currents and the far-reaching impact of hurricanes. Scholars...

How did the Voting Rights Act affect the daily lives of American citizens? A document-based instructional activity developed by the Student Non-Violent Coordinating committee (SNCC) presents a case study of the impact of the Voting...

What can we do to make our school community more aware of cyberbullying? From The Social Media Toolbox, activity 10 of 16 takes on the tough topic of bullying. Learners research cyberbullying through online research, then create an...

The Battle of Fort Sumter was both the first and the least deadly battle of the American Civil War, with no soldiers lost during the lengthy bombardment. Learn more about the first shots of the Civil War with a short reading passage and...

The Civil War made slavery illegal, but all ex-slaves were not totally free. Scholars visit eight different classroom stations to uncover life during the Reconstruction Era in America. Groups discover items such as Black Codes, 13th,...

Who were the Anti-Federalists and what do primary sources tell young historians about their beliefs? Learners read Paper No. 3 to understand their values in relation to government, such as their discussion on foreign policy and the pros...

Compose a Valentine's Day poem! Practicing their rhyming skills, scholars follow the traditional format to create a happy poem for a friend or family member. 

A virtual field trip takes enthusiastic travelers to the pyramids of Giza. Using Google, scholars explore the grounds of the ancient pyramids found in Egypt then complete three worksheets: a photo analysis page, a reflection sheet, and a...

Differentiated instruction through leveled learning contracts boosts scholars' knowledge of volume and capacity. Participants split into three groups based on ability and interest before choosing three activities from their learning...

Some assignments are great, some can become great, and some have greatness thrust upon them. This one is great. After completing Joseph Heller's classic satire, Catch-22, groups craft and present their own political satire.

How well do pupils play the role of geologist? Test their abilities in the first installment of a two-part series. Presented with a series of rock formation diagrams, learners write stories to match what they see in the diagrams. The...

Positive and negative thinking is the focus of a instructional activity that boost self-awareness. Beginning with a whole-class discussion, scholars brainstorm what positive thinking looks and sounds like then compares and contrast the...

Use fractions to estimate candy counts. After watching a video of emptying a bag of candies into a glass, individuals estimate the number of candies of each color. The teacher provides the class with additional information to help answer...

Timothy Steele's poem, "Toward the Winter Solstice," offers scholars an opportunity to consider what poets and scientists could learn from each other's work. First, learners examine a NASA image of a star-forming region in the Orion...

Learners give examples to indicate how the franchise was extended and limited in the first half of the 19th century, and cite some differences in the newly enfranchised population that could affect the way they would vote.

Pupils record temperatures at different locations around campus. They examine the results and draw conclusions about how materials and colors affect the amount of heat produced. They also analyze Los Angeles' temperature records over a...

Begin your next class with a BANG! Pupils discuss the formation of our universe and its expansion before proceeding with an activity designed to demonstrate what most likely occurred billions of years ago. They conclude with a discussion...

Poets write love letters, but how often do the objects of their love write back? Compare Christopher Marlowe's "A Passionate Shepard to His Love" to Sir Walter Raleigh's response, "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd," with an engaging...

Express division using different expressions. Individuals learn to write division expressions both with and without the division symbol in the 13th lesson of a 36-part series. They consider both numerical and algebraic expressions...

Lights, camera, action. Scholars use page 33 of The Most Beautiful Roof in the World to create a readers theater. They work in triads and use sticky notes to mark and create their own speaking parts from sections of the text. They...

What is the difference between chemistry and green chemistry? The first instructional activity of the 24-part green chemistry series introduces scholars to its 12 principles. The tendency is toward nontoxic materials and sustainability.

The engineering design process meets laparoscopic surgical robots with an activity that is the last part in a series of 10 and brings all the lessons of the unit together. Teams design and build a remotely controlled laparoscopic device....

Students write and illustrate a story on cloud formation and classification. They research cloud information on the internet to discuss the different types of clouds and when they form. They use this information to write a story about...

Students investigate U.S. geography by exploring it's bodies of water. In this river formation lesson, students identify the reasons rivers are needed in our country by reading assigned text. Students examine a diagram which explains how...