Center for History and New Media
A Look at Virginians During Reconstruction, 1865-1877
The transition between rebellion to reunification was not smooth after the Civil War. Young historians compare primary and secondary source documents in a study of the Reconstruction era in Virginia, noting the rights that were not...
Facing History and Ourselves
Us and Them: Confronting Labels and Lies
Stereotyping and discrimination based on religion catalyze many atrocities in the world. Explain the awful treatment of Jews and the lies Nazis spread by using an informative yet sensitive resource. Learners participate in a warm-up and...
Illustrative Mathematics
Congruent Triangles
Geometers prove that triangle PQR is congruent to triangle ABC by describing any combination of rotations, reflections, and translations that would prove it so. There is only this single task on the handout, but a detailed explanation of...
Curated OER
No Title
Sixth graders explore, analyze and explain self concept and five ways that alcohol harms the body. They assess the relationship between positive health behaviors and the prevention of injury, illness, disease, and other health problems.
Apple
GarageBand
Imagine there's a recording studio on your smart phone or tablet. Its easy if you try this tool. Imagine all the instruments you can play. Imagine there's no charge. You may say it's a dream, but you can join this band with just a touch.
Curated OER
Magnetism
This set of seven activities attracts physical science stars to concepts concerning magnetism. Pupils play with a lodestone, magnets, needles, and iron filings to understand magnetic forces, fields, and applications. If you are new to...
Curated OER
Sun, Spectra, and Stars
Get ready to spark interest in electromagnetic radiation! This resource shares nine indelible inquiries that you can choose from to ignite understanding of spectra and the relationship between light and heat. The assessments that follow...
Curated OER
Starlight
An introductory exploration of the nature of light is provided via activities and demonstrations. Science superstars observe various light sources, learn how to apply inverse square law, and practice using a light meter. Follow-up...
Curated OER
Limiting Factors for Populations
The "Bottled Bacteria" activity instructions are a bit unclear, but the remaining activities investigating limiting factors in ecosystems are well-written. Learners model the exosystem of a bear and a herd of deer. They set up a...
Curated OER
Oils and Plastic
Peruse the properties of polymers with your materials engineers, chemistry aces, or emerging ecologists. The inquiries in this resource include puncturing polyethylene plastic bags, dissolving polystyrene cups, creating a polymer...
Curated OER
Oxidation
For an introductory physical class, you can use these vivid activities to introduce learners to chemical reactions. Spontaneous combustion, melting and burning, tarnishing and rusting all are evidence that a chemical reaction has...
Curated OER
An Introduction to Acids and Bases
Investigating pH is intriguing, especially with these activities designed for an introductory chemistry or physical science class. Pupils use litmus paper to distinguish acids and bases and then make indicators from food products....
Curated OER
Factors that Affect Reaction Rates
Collaborating chemistry pupils observe that temperatrue increases the movement of dye throughout water, stirring increases the dissolving rate of sugar cubes, and concentration of solutions increases the chemical reaction rates. These...
Curated OER
Catalysts and Enzymes
Biochemists experiment with the oxothermic decomposition of hydrogen dioxide by adding manganese dioxide. They observe how pepsin enhances the action of acid on the digestion of egg white proteins. They use yeast to make bread rise. All...
Curated OER
Fractions and Recipes
Learners, working with their parents in real world situations, calculate to complete three word problems associated with multiplying and dividing fractions.
Curated OER
The Hamsterdance
It's unbelievable that there really is a dance that goes with a song called "The Hamsterdance!" This is not a lesson plan per se, but rather steps to the dance. They include head bobs, slide steps, thigh slaps, and clapping. Short dances...
Curated OER
Interaction as Analysis: Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson’s “Hope is a thing with feathers” is the focus of a series of activities that model for learners how close reading can lead to understanding. The whole class plays with the metaphor, groups talk about the author’s...
Virginia Department of Education
Writing and Research Using Counterclaims
Introduce your high school scholars as to how to use counterclaims in argument writing. Learners explore this skill with collaborative efforts and technology. Together they explore the pros and cons of homework and develop a thesis for...
University of Arizona
Fusing Firecrackers with Narrative
Improve your youngsters' descriptive writing. They study an object and write about what they see as a warm-up, then they read an excerpt from Paul Guest's memoir, One More Theory about Happiness. The next part of the...
Virginia Department of Education
Persuasive Writing
Grab a debatable (or controversial) moment from your current reading, and use this task to progress the persuasive writing skills of your high school scholars. Divide your learners into four small groups and let them collaborate, debate,...
Curated OER
Bringing Household Items to Life
Use folk tales as inspiration for learning about and using personification in creative writing. Learners brainstorm together in order to practice personification before writing their own poems or paragraphs about a household object.
Curated OER
Poetic Elements
Poetry is all about sound and rhythm. The sound of the words, the rhythm of the lines, and the emotional atmosphere created by these elements and the literary devices poets use, compress whole stories into a few stanzas. The specialized...
Google
Adventure on the High Seas
Ahoy there! A fun computer science lesson challenges pupils to write a program that creates an ocean wave. They then develop stories to accompany their projects. All of this takes place within the Scratch coding program.
Curated OER
Great Gatsby's Jazz
As Nick wanders the grounds of Gatsby's mansion, he observes the behaviors of the rowdy guests and listens to the music pouring over the lawn. Bring the music of the jazz age into the classroom with Louis Armstrong's "West End Blues,"...