Students discuss President Bush's goals for his second term in office. After reading an article, they identify the major themes of his second inaugural address. In groups, they brainstorm ideas and create murals to illustrate them...

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...

Discuss the differences in dialogue and debate when considering a controversial topic. Your class can work in small groups to complete a guided discussion of this controversial topic and then participate in a simulation of the Scopes...

Working in groups, middle and high schoolers describe and discuss photographs depicting working conditions experienced by child laborers in the 19th century. They then write a persuasive paragraph supporting an amendment to regulate the...

Young scholars get familiar with money during this series of engaging math activities. A game has class teams accumulating money and using symbol and number cards to display their total amount correctly on a pocket chart. All the symbol...

Imagine a lesson that models for learners how to separate facts from opinions. How to detect bias. How to evaluate a source of information. How to identify propaganda. Although designed for middle schoolers, the activities in this packet...

Small groups learn about a present-day nomadic culture in Mongolia and the threats to its existence by exploring a photo essay. The resource includes thoughtful discussion and writing prompts about cultural sustainability, the...

As your class reaches the end of the book Bullfrog at Magnolia Circle, the seventh lesson plan in this literary unit helps third graders transition from reading narrative to expository writing. Scholars develop their note-taking...

Birds help other birds find food? Scholars are placed into one of five groups of different birds. Each group then "feeds" on letters of paper in a field and gather five pieces per person. As each group plays, more food is exposed,...

Students solve math word problems. In this cool tools lesson plan, students are introduced to the K-N-W-S method.  Students work in groups and complete a worksheet using this method of learning. 

Eighth graders label and define geometrical lines and angles. They identify angles on the board as acute, obtuse, straight, or right. In groups, 8th graders build with masking tape on the wall a pair of parallel lines, and a transverse...

Combine art, math, language arts, drama, and delicious Jell-o with a instructional activity based on the African folktale Anansi and the Tug o' War. Kids make predictions and discuss plot points of the story before joining in...

Compare and contrast the Roman Empire and the Han Dynasty with this straightforward graphic organizer. Your young historians will consider the imperial institutions of each group, as well as how the empires were able to project military...

Clear water does not mean clean water. A collaborative lesson has groups play a board game to identify sources of water pollution and develop strategies for improving water quality. Their investigations include reference to the water...

Revolution and counterrevolution. Protest and counter-protest. Collaborators and bystanders. The focus of the fifth resource in the Reconstruction Era and Fragility of Democracy series is on the political violence that followed Radical...

Through an informative WebQuest and group work, learners explore the human body and cell structure. They create a cell diagram, research a disease, write a letter explaining the causes of human disease, and work in small groups to create...

Readers of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are directed to complete two projects as a part of their study of Mark Twain’s novel.  Individuals craft an organized notebook containing all their work during the study, and they...

Young learners distinguish statements as fact or fiction. After exploring a newspaper, they determine the type of information it contains. They read editorial articles and discuss the differences between the editorial page and the front...

Students read "Slavery's Past, Paved Over or Forgotten" from The New York Times and discuss as a class. This activity is the introduction for researching a topic on the history of slavery in the U.S. Student groups present their...

A cross-curricular lesson combines poetry and history for your middle and high schoolers. The class critically examines Kipling's poem, "White Man's Burden" as historical evidence of the Imperialist ideology popular during his time. The...

Enhance your middle and high schoolers' research skills with this lesson. After viewing a video clip about HIV and AIDS, high schoolers identify the facts and issues surrounding the disease. They work together to create a newspaper...

Investigate ethical issues surrounding the Decode project in Iceland. Middle and high schoolers take the positions of the Icelandic government, scientific researchers, and citizens and defend or refute the Decode project in a Reykjavik...

Does it actually exist? Consider the sighting of a giant squid, much like the one that appears in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Middle and high schoolers read the article One Legend Found, Many Still to Go, and research other mysterious...

A fun lesson that utilizes toys and persuasion! After reading the article, which was written in 2005, pull some advertisements for toys currently being sold. These will be more relevant to your middle and high schoolers. What toy is a...