Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Learning from Letters and Other Mail

For Teachers Pre-K - 3rd
Pupils explore the history of our mail system. In this postal lesson plan, students evaluate mail as a means of communication, create a mail system in their classroom where they can send and receive mail. Once the pupils receive their...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Playing Historical Detective: Great Grandmother's Dress and Other Clues to the Life and Times of Annie Steel

For Teachers Pre-K - 8th
Students draw conclusions about an mystery person based on documents and artifacts provided. In this drawing conclusions lesson, students become detectives by reading and analyzing evidence provided. This lesson includes information on...
Worksheet
Curated OER

Cattledrives & Barbed Wire

For Students 6th - 8th
In this United States history worksheet, students utilize a word bank of 10 terms or phrases to answer 10 fill in the blank questions about the development of the West. A short answer question is included as well.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Achievers Club

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students research a person, present or past, who has accomplished great goals. They report on their person to the class.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Baga Drum

For Teachers K - 6th
Students examine a Baga Drum in order to explore the history of the Baga people of West Africa. In this art history lesson, students recognize figures used in Baga Drum design that represent aspects of Baga culture. They also design and...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lewis and Clark: The Language of Discovery

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students replicate some of the trailblazing methods of Lewis and Clark on a fifteen-minute "writing journey" through the school or neighborhood.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Animal Encounters

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students use their visualizing and interpreting skills to produce original writings and artwork.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

How Things Fly

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students observe photographs of selected twentieth-century aircraft at the National Air and Space Museum and note differences in the design of aircraft wings, fuselages, and engines.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

How Things Fly

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Students, by drawing on their own experiences, discuss and examine the basic physics of flight. They participate in a variety of activities regarding flight.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Stories of the Wrights' Flight

For Teachers 4th - 12th
Students examine and compare primary and secondary source accounts of the Wright brothers' first flights on December 17, 1903.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Rocky Shore

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students compare a realistic landscape painting with a photograph of the same place.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Spy on a Spider

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Students view slides or live specimens to name and describe the distinguishing features of groups of arthropods, especially spiders and insects. They complete worksheets, observe webs and then search for and record where spiders can be...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Creatures from Planet X: Spiders

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Students are given a description of some fascinating animals from "Planet X". They follow the descriptions given to illustrate one of these animals paying careful attention to introduced vocabulary such as 'appendages', 'receptors', and...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Facts, Feats and Folklore: Spiders

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Students review and discuss a variety of sayings, folklore and superstitions about spiders. They discuss this information and choose either an interesting fact or appealing foklore tradition to illustrate.
Handout
Other

African American Inventors and Their Inventions: Granville T. Woods

For Students 9th - 10th
Here is a thorough biography of inventor Granville T. Woods, who is credited with improving railway safety for bot the trains and trainmen. Find out what concepts in railroad safety are still being used today.
Website
Library of Congress

Loc: America's Story: Amazing Americans

For Students Pre-K - 1st
Checklist of inventors, politicians, performers, activists and ordinary people who made America. Meet Harry Houdini, Langston Hughes, Buffalo Bill Cody and dozens of other famous and interesting American adventurers, presidents,...
Website
Library of Congress

Loc: America's Story: Amazing Americans

For Students 3rd - 8th
Checklist of inventors, politicians, performers, activists, and ordinary people who made America. Meet Harry Houdini, Langston Hughes, Buffalo Bill Cody and dozens of other famous and interesting American adventurers, presidents,...
Website
National Inventors Hall of Fame

National Inventors Hall of Fame Inductees

For Students 9th - 10th
The National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF) recognizes the enduring legacies of exceptional U.S. patent holders. Inventors not only create new inventions, but they can create new industries that employ millions of people. Their...
Graphic
Smithsonian Institution

National Postal Museum: Famous Americans: Alexander Graham Bell

For Students 9th - 10th
Learn brief information from the National Postal Museum on Alexander Graham Bell, American inventor of the telephone, who was featured on the ten cent postage stamp.
Handout
Other

Ohio Trek: African Americans in Cleveland 1809 1925

For Students 9th - 10th
Cleveland's famous African Americans - Garrett Morgan, George Peake, Charles Chestnutt, and others - are discussed here in the context of general information about African American history in Ohio.
Website
Great Idea Finder

Great Idea Finder: Lewis Howard Latimer

For Students 9th - 10th
An extensive biography of the life of African-American inventor, Lewis Latimer. Find out about his primary claim to fame in the development of an incandescent light bulb, but be sure to read about his many patents, and his importance to...
Website
Curated OER

National Park Service: American Visionaries: George Washington Carver

For Students 9th - 10th
Despite being born a slave, read how Dr. Carver persevered so that he could become successful.
Graphic
Smithsonian Institution

National Postal Museum: Famous Americans: Samuel Morse

For Students 9th - 10th
Learn brief information concerning Samuel Morse, inventor of the telegraph, who was featured on the two cent postage stamp.
Handout
Smithsonian Institution

Lemelson Center: Invention Features: Lewis Latimer

For Students 9th - 10th
Smithsonian site features the life and many accomplishments of Lewis Latimer, the famous African-American inventor.