National Library of Medicine
Your Environment, Your Health: The Great Debate—Bottled Water vs. Tap Water in Our School
Should bottled water be sold in schools, or should they only provide tap water? The summative unit in the six-part series encourages scholars debating this topic. The lessons teach how to build an argument, how to gain background...
PBS
Lessons in Leadership, Roosevelt Style
It's easy to criticize those in power until you're sitting at their desk, faced with the same decisions. A history lesson prompts secondary learners to research the Roosevelt presidencies through the lens of leadership and...
Albert Shanker Institute
Dream Under Development
As part of their study of the 1963 March on Washington, class members do a side-by-side comparison of the original text of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream Speech" with a transcript of the speech he delivered. The take away from the...
PBS
Evaluating Conflicting Evidence: Sultana
What sunk the Sultana? Scholars become investigators to uncover the facts behind the 1865 sinking just after the end of the Civil War. Through group work, videos, and primary documents, they research and analyze why 1,800 men died....
California Department of Education
Ready, Set, Test!
Ready to prepare young scholars for their first placement test experience? Give them the support they need using a test-focused instructional activity. Fifth in a series of six junior-level college and career readiness instructional...
Scholastic
The First Thanksgiving Feast for Grades 3-5
Scholars examine the first Thanksgiving through books and interviews while they complete a KWL chart. Pretending they are part of the feast, learners craft a scrapbook page that features images related to their experience. Pupils reflect...
Center for History Education
To What Extent Were Women's Contributions to World War II Industries Valued?
Women rose to the challenge when the nation's war effort called them—but were sent home when the GIs came back from World War II. Young historians consider whether the United States valued women's contributions during the war using a...
National Endowment for the Humanities
The Monroe Doctrine: A Close Reading
Learners identify specific passages in the Monroe Doctrine to events in early U.S. diplomacy.
Curated OER
How Toxic Is It?
Learners participate in an activity in which they investigate the scientific method and seed germination as well as practice graphing and metric measuring skills. Students examine toxicity by exposing Wisconsin Fast Plants seeds to toxic...
Curated OER
Measurable You!
Conduct guided experiments and discussions while collecting anthropometric measurements. Your class will explore impact of experimental errors in a scientific system, and explain their observations/findings in writing. An introduction to...
Curated OER
Sentence Completion 14: High-Intermediate Level
Part of a series of exercises, this sentence completion instructional activity could be used as an assessment, as extra practice, as the basis of small group discussion, or as homework. The extensive answer key explains how to approach...
Curated OER
Quinoa Pasta 2
Learners discover that a system of linear equations models this mixture of quinoa and corn in a collaborative task. Your learners receive all the relevant information in this second of three variants of tasks that ask them to find...
Chicago Botanic Garden
Recognizing Change (Observation vs. Inference)
What is the difference between making inferences and making observations? Young climatologists refer to a PowerPoint to make observations on each slide. They record their observations in a provided worksheet before drawing a...
National Constitution Center
Creating Your Own Town Hall Poster
Middle and high schoolers are walking into a world rife with strong political viewpoints and vocal opinions. Help to prepare them for controversial discussions with a instructional activity in which they choose, research, and learn more...
PBS
Stories of Painkiller Addiction: Prescription Drug Abuse Awareness Campaign
The I-STOP law was designed to regulate the distribution and tracking of prescription drugs. After reading an article about its signing and implementation, middle and high schoolers work together to come up with their own ideas for an...
American Statistical Association
How Random Is the iPod’s Shuffle?
Shuffle the resource into your activity repertoire. Scholars use randomly-generated iPod Shuffle playlists to develop ideas about randomness. They use a new set of playlists to confirm their ideas, and then decide whether the iPod...
Curated OER
Wonderful Watermelons
First graders explore watermelons and collect and sort their seeds. In this watermelons lesson plan, 1st graders read the story Down By The Bay and then weigh, measure, collect seeds, sort, and eat their watermelon.
Curated OER
Sampling Rocks
Students examine sampling by investigating rocks found in the schoolyard. In this sampling rocks lesson students collect and analyze a sample of rocks.
Curated OER
Is Organic Food Worth the Extra Cost?
Students calculate the amount of pesticide residue in selected foods for two
pesticides and determine if these levels are safe. They read an article about a
research study looking for metabolites of these pesticides in children. Finally,...
Curated OER
Water Regulation
High schoolers use their basic knowledge of physiology to analyze graphical data of paramecia under diverse conditions. From the data analysis, Students develop explanations of the animal's response to the concentration of different...
Curated OER
Barometer Investigation
Learners construct a barometer to use in an experiment that they design to measure the air pressure on a daily basis. These observations of air pressure allow students to determine how weather is affected when a storm is approaching and...
Curated OER
Temperature Bar Graph
Students explore mean, median and mode. In this math lesson, students analyze temperature data and figure the mean, median, and mode of the data. Students graph the data in a bar graph.
Curated OER
Blindfolded Building
Students build a Lego design and then work with a partner to reproduce that design. They guide the building of the reproduction by description only and then check their work.
Curated OER
The Distributive Property
Students review how to solve problems using the Distributive Property of Mathematics. They solve problems using the paper and pencil method and then use the graphing calculator to discover the property over addition while making a visual...