Beyond Benign
Plastic Bags
Paper or plastic? Explore the environmental effects of using plastic bags through mathematics. Learners manipulate worldwide data on plastic bag consumption to draw conclusions.
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Promoting Disability Awareness and Acceptance in Childhood
Create a safe and respectful school environment with the help of this special education teaching guide. Offering dozens of instructional ideas and activities for raising awareness and acceptance of children with disabilities, this is a...
National Wildlife Federation
When It Rains It Pours More Drought and More Heavy Rainfall
Which is worse — drought or flooding? Neither is helpful to the environment, and both are increasing due to climate change. The 16th lesson plan in a series of 21 covers the average precipitation trends for two different climates within...
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One Survivor Remembers: A Call to Action
Learners participate in service learning projects within their community. In this community service lesson, students study the action steps for a hunger service learning project and discuss the project. Learners use the model to help...
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Biology Biographies
Students create a project about a famous Biologist in order to appreciate the humanity of the people involved in doing science. They create scientist biography "cards" roughly modeled after baseball cards or create a scrapbook of a...
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The Earth in Space
Young scholars use computer images to explain why the Earth has seasons and examine the phases of the moon. They create 3-D images and present them to the class. They answer a series of questions at the end of the lesson.
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How We Elect a President in the United States
In this United States government instructional activity, students learn how a president is elected in the United States. They then answer the 11 definition questions and complete an activity in which they create a platform for a...
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Artist Mice Art Nice
Students help create "Art picture frames" that display their own artwork throughout the year in this exciting lesson for the pre-Kindergarten classroom. The "frames" are then decorated with small mouse cutouts and pictures of each student.
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Classroom Meteorologists: An Experiential Approach to Learning about Seasons and Weather
Students examine several concepts about weather in the seven lessons of this unit. This year long activity helps students to gather data seasonally about wind, clouds, precipitation, and temperature. Earth's three climate zones are...
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The Urban Explosion
Students investigate the uncontrolled development of the world's major cities. They define key vocabulary terms, view and discuss video excerpts, and complete a project that involves drawing a "perfect city," developing a plan to...
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Long Island Sound
Learners use the Internet to research the history of Long Island Sound. In groups, they identify the sources of point and nonpoint pollution and how humans are impacting the area. After watching a video, they discuss the role of...
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Earth is Round?
Third graders discuss how Aristotle concluded that the Earth was round. As a class, they review theories about the Earth's shape and describe how life on Earth would be different if it were flat. Individually, they make a moon book in...
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The Environment
Students, while engaged in a group discussion, collaborate a mini-project on environmental issues at home and/or in the classroom as well as incorporating environmentally related words and expressions within their daily diary writing...
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Echo, Echo, Echo, Each can help others
Learners discuss and research arguments about philanthropy. In this persuasive speech writing lesson, students choose a needed project for the community and present the reasons for the project through an original persuasive speech....
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Privacy in the Age of Video Surveillance: This Is Not Your Father's Candid Camera
Eighth graders examine the use of video surveillance in the corporate world and other life situations. In groups, they determine how many times and in what situations they believe they are being watched. They use the Constitution to...
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Trait Variations for Survival
Young learners examine how different traits could give one organism an advantage over another. In groups, they view two different organisms in different environments. To end the lesson, they complete a Venn Diagram on the two organisms...
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Trash: Past, Present and Future
Students explore how much trash they create. In this recycling instructional activity, students define stewardship and conduct an experiment to see how much trash the class produces in a week. At the end of the week the students...
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Observing Trees
Students create a timeline of a tree in a given time span. In this life cycle lesson, students observe one particular tree at the beginning of the year, and continue their observations for several weeks to create a timeline of the...
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Shoebox Dig
Students participate in a simulation in which they dig for artifacts in a shoebox filled with objects. In groups, they record the types of material and artifacts found in each layer. To end the instructional activity, they answer...
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Monsters, Monsters, Monsters
Young scholars are introduced to how to use the internet and send emails. In groups, they work together to send emails to other students around the world. To end the lesson, they read their emails to the class and respond to their...
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When Dinosaurs Ruled
Students research about plants and animals during Triassic period. For this earth science lesson, students draw pictures of their chosen plants and plants for the bulletin board. They present their project in class.
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Lesson Plan 1: Introducing NaNo and Novels
Did you know that November is Novel Writing Month? In the first of a series of lessons, class members are introduced to the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) project.
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Seasons
Third graders draw a picture. In this seasons lesson, 3rd graders name the seasons of the year, discuss what happens during each season, read a poem for each season and draw a picture for each season.
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Money Management
Students explore money management skills and economics thru a creative project where students earn "money" for their assigned "jobs." They keep track of their income and expenses in a transaction record and explore the Excel money...