As a journalist, would you publish everything you heard or saw? Discuss the ethics of journalism with a lesson from PBS. Young reporters imagine themselves to be the editor of their school's newspaper, and as they read five scenarios,...

Bring the drama of Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea to class with a fun role-playing activity. Given a list of survival items, readers decide which items would be the most necessary for an adventure like...

Every political system has advantages and disadvantages. To gain an understanding of these differences, groups investigate the political system of another country—oligarchy, monarchy, dictatorship, parliamentary—and prepare a...

Has your class wondered how fast a human could run or how high they are capable of jumping? Help them understand these concepts as they explore acceleration and use an accelerometer to make semiquantitative measurements of acceleration...

Explore the habitats around you with an activity that takes kids out of the classroom to learn about the local variety of habitats and the living things that call them home. In small groups, scholars investigate their surroundings,...

You'll find everything but the kitchen sink here ... or just a carbon sink. In the activity, pairs or groups of middle school learners go outside and measure a tree's circumference and height to estimate its carbon storage potential and...

Dive into the power of the sun with a two-part activity. Budding scientists model the greenhouse effect in a hands-on activity, and then participate in a skit that explores the earth's energy balances and what really occurs in the...

The last activity in the series of four has individuals determine steps they can take to reduce their carbon footprints and then analyze their schools' recycling programs. Through a sustainability audit, they identify how and where their...

Stanley Nelson's acclaimed film, The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution uses interviews, archival footage, and images to document the story of the radical political party established in 1966 by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. A...

What is your interpretation? Scholars look at their Cascading Consequences Charts and interpret the information they have gathered. Learners match claims with evidence and then watch a video. At the end, they carry out a fishbowl...

What kinds of skills and attitudes are valued in a work environment? Using this set of worksheets and collaborative activities, your pupils will develop important life skills and consider what is necessary for getting and keeping a job.

Equip young campers with important survival knowledge with a set of engaging lessons. Teammates work together to complete three outdoor activities, which include building a shelter, starting a campfire, and finding directions in the...

How can December 21 be the shortest day of the year when all days are 24 hours long? Pupils see how to build a model showing the differences between winter and summer solstices and equinoxes. Using this model, classes can then discuss...

Stay or go? As part of a study of immigration and human rights, class members listen to the stories of several immigrants and must decide if the story was their own if they would stay in the United States as an undocumented...

Should driver's licenses be granted to unauthorized immigrants? That is the question class members grapple with in a instructional activity that asks them to first read a fact sheet that details the arguments for and against...

There are five methods of seed dispersal. They include gravity, mechanical, animal, water, and air. Scholars study seed dispersal in instructional activity five of the series of six. Through discussions, hands-on analysis of different...

How would you react to the Trunchbull if she was your teacher? This is the focus of an activity that has readers imagining and then acting out their reactions to various Trunchball scenarios in the story.

Before there can be peace, we have to understand conflict. Introduce the concept of conflict through a two-part activity that combines discussion, collaboration, and writing. The first in a 15-part series examines the multiple meanings...

Help language learners understand words and cultural concepts. The second installment in a series of three language development lessons designed to accompany Theme 4: Person to Person helps bridge the gap for language learners by...

Inclusion is the focus of a lesson that looks closely at how to make equal groups in cooperative settings. Using physical education activities, scholars are challenged to create groups quickly and inclusively. After several activities,...

One, two, three, go! Scholars gather in triads and number themselves one to three. Each number is responsible for sharing a section of the map homework completed the night before as learners discuss domain-specific vocabulary terms using...

Before your students reached your morning class to learn about persuasive writing, they probably saw dozens of examples of persuasive communication in the form of advertisements. A short, introductory lesson inspires class members to...

Explore the concepts of community and point of view with these activities complementing the children's book Voices in the Park by Anthony Browne. Following a class reading of the story, ask students to either draw a map of the...

You can prevent bullying in your classroom by addressing kindness, empathy, and acceptance with your littlest learners early on. After reading Don't Laugh at Me by Steve Seskin and Allen Shamblin, kids discuss the ways that words...