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May The Best Character Win
Students examine the financial committment to running a campaign. They discuss the difference between electroal and popular votes. They realize how involved a political campaign is!
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Teach Text Features & Read Nonfiction
Elementary schoolers examine the components of reading nonfiction. They use think-alouds to help them complete reading the selected sections. They also identify text features as they read.
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Assessing the Traits: What is Good Writing?
Students examine samples of writing and discuss the score it received. They brainstorm what qualities make a good writer and stories.
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Walter Reed's Yellow Fever Studies
Middle schoolers and high schoolers examine the ethics of using human test subjects in scientific research. They do a simulation which focuses on yellow fever and how human subjects were used to develop a treatment/cure for the disease...
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The Debate Over Stem Cell Research
Young scholars complete a variety of activities as they examine the ethical issues behind stem cell research and cloning. They make their own ethical decisions on both subjects.
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Cycles and Starting Mealworms
Here is a fascinating lesson plan about the life cycles of plants and animals, and other cycles found in nature. Learners explore the cycle of the moon, the tides, and other sequences of events in every day life. The big activity is the...
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United States Entry into World War I: A Documentary Chronology of World War I
Students identify several important events that led to U.S. involvement in World War I. They examine different explanations, form an opinion about the evidence for each rationale and then create a slideshow to present their findings.
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Traditions and Languages of Three Native Cultures: Tlingit, Lakota, and Cherokee
Students explore the connections between tradition and language. They examine the environment, history and culture of the Tlingit, Lakota and Cherokee tribes and identify the importance of maintaining languages for oral traditions.
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Geography, Climate, and Community in the Dominican Republic
Students examine primary source materials on the Dominican Republic in an exploration of how environment influences lifestyles. They compare and contrast life in the Dominican Republic with life in the United States.
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Writing With Punch
High schoolers watch the series "Unforgiveable Blackness". They examine the media's response to Jack Johnson in the film. They role-play the role of reporters to compose poems of headlines.
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States and Mates
Discuss and reflect on the concept of allies and alliances. The class examines the competition between the United States and Venezuela. Using the New York Times, they search for examples of geopolitical alliances. In addition, they write...
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A Positive Spin
Study word choice and connotation in advertising. Readers examine campaign ads, both negative and positive, from the 2006 mid-term election before discussing an article and analyze a campaign of any candidate they choose. Finally,...
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Variation and Heredity
Junior geneticists tally eye color and height in their lab groups. They examine certain traits in soybean and corn seedlings. For each activity, they gather data and learn about continuous and discontinuous genetic variation. In another...
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Phase Changes of Water
A micro-unit on the phase changes of water includes three laboratory activities. Junior scientists compare the densities of ice and water, and then they do the same for cold and warm water. They examine freezing and boiling temperatures....
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Law of Conservation of Momentum
A suggested sequence of events lays out five hands-on activities and four creative assessments on the conservation of momentum. Using spring scales and mail scales, junior physicists examine Newton's Third Law. After you have taught the...
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Matter and Energy
Does the change in energy of matter lead to a change in mass? Upcoming chemists compare the mass of equal-volume, but different-temperature liquids and materials both before and after a chemical reaction has occurred. In another...
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Cell Structures and Their Functions
Life science learners investigate live cells. They examine wet mount slides of cyanobacteria and Elodea plants. They peer into the dynamic microscopic world of protists. Afterward, they construct a model of a cell, including rudimentary...
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Chemical Formulas for Molecules
Newcomers to chemistry compare hydrogen peroxide to water, realizing that the difference of one oxygen atom significantly affects the chemical properties. Other pairs of compounds and their formulas are also examined. A few chemical...
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Evolution and the Fossil Record
Engage young biologists with four laboratory activities that explore the fossil record. Learners examine fossil images, a fossil kit, the rock record, and geologic time scale. They even experiment with the oxygen production of an Elodea...
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Impulse, Momentum, and the Conservation of Momentum
What happens when two worlds collide? In the first of several activities, future physicists experiment with colliding ball bearings or Newton's cradle. Another activity requires the use of an air track with cars to examine collision....
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Air Resistance and Friction
Physics learners experiment with three laboratory activities to learn about air resistance and friction. First, they use a hair dryer to move different sized spheres to determine the relationship between cross-sectional area and air...
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Cell Size and Shape; Diffusion and Osmosis Processes
Use salmon eggs as a cell model for demonstrating the movement of water over concentration gradients. Junior scientists examine the same process microscopically with an onion cell. They use a thistle tube and a semipermeable membrane to...
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Carbon Bonds in Chemistry
Venture into the world of macromolecules with three exciting, distinct laboratory activities. Young chemists examine the forms of carbon and discover how they are associated with atomic arrangement, construct models of carbon-containing...
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Cellular Organelles
Wow! Separate organelles from the cells of dried peas. Observe vacuoles in beet cells. Watch protists in action. Examine SEM photographs. Beginning biologists get a complete exposure to the structure and function of cell organelles. Two...