You walk each day over 20 blocks to school as a 9-year old because the color of your skin does not allow you to attend a school in your own neighborhood. Scholars use the 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education to investigate...

Human tissue for sale or rent? Scholars refer back to articles they read in the previous unit and make a claim as to whether they believe it's okay to sell human tissue. Learners talk with partners, complete an outline tool, and collect...

If you want an ice-breaker type activity, you should look at this resource. It introduces the idea and purpose of a press conference and then uses that concept for pupils to learn about one another. The teacher models the activity by...

Encourage your readers to make connections between texts with this resource. After compiling notes for each text read (you choose the texts), groups craft skits in which major characters from each text meet. There is a rubric for the...

Swim with the big fish. Using a similar simulation as Fish and Ladders: Grade 5-8, pupils model the migration of Chinook salmon. A large group of the learners play the role of fish, while others are fishers, predators, and hazards....

Why do we sweat? Scholars analyze data about body temperature, sweating, and other factors to better understand sweating. They note the changes after drinking ice water to sweating, skin temperature, and body temperature. Analysis...

Using the Constitutional Convention as a model, learners create their own governments. Other activities to explore the American Constitution include creating posters to help explain the Bill of Rights. 

The final lessons in this section of the Standing Up for Democracy unit ask class members to consider ways they can help create a "more humane, fair, and compassionate environment" in their communities. For context, learners study how...

Wouldn't it be lovely if we could all just get along! Fortunately, the skills needed to build and maintain healthy relationships can be learned. Two activities help high schoolers build these skills. First, a class member reads a series...

Empathy can be the glue that holds a society together. Learning how to see and appreciate a situation from another's point is key to developing empathy toward others. The two activities in this resource are designed to help teens...

Some habitats are more bio-diverse than others. Scholars examine an especially diverse environment as groups research different species in a specific ocean habitat. The class then uses their research to create three-dimensional bulletin...

Students are introduced to a basic characteristic and need of living things-the ability and need to reproduce. They investigate how birds (and people) attract mates. Students discover how to build a nest. They discuss the needs and...

High school is the time that many scholars get their first jobs. Help young entrepreneurs apply economic principles to crucial skills for their new jobs and for functioning in society in general. They use Excel to balance a checkbook by...

Certain behaviors make species vulnerable to extinction and others protect them. By studying species that are currently endangered, learners draw conclusions about these behaviors. They then apply their conclusions to healthy species and...

High schoolers explore the relationship between video games and actual population. Example: A 2005 study showed Latino youth play at higher rates than other groups, but there are no Latino playable characters. They watch a brief video...

Learn about the ancient Near East through a close examination of ancient artifacts. Lead your class into analysis by first observing an artifact as a class. Pupils can then work in pairs to analyze the other artifacts and compile a list...

The language of the Constitution can feel quite ominous to young learners, but there are a variety of strategies you can utilize to help your class grasp the important concepts and ideals in our nation's founding document. This lesson...

Learning math is so much more fun when it involves playing games. Following the rules of the classic game Memory, young mathematicians flip over two cards at a time as they look for numbers whose sum or difference is equal to the value...

Your learners will write quadratic functions whose graphs include specific points and explore how these graphs are related to each other.

Tropical fish make great art projects! Use paper plates to design, color, and assemble round and oval-shaped fish based on photographs of actual fish found along the Moorea Coral Reef. Kids learn about different fins- including the...

The history of math is fascinating! Utilize a woodcut primary source image from 1492 and posters from the 1930s to help geometers apply their volume-calculation skills to real-life questions. 

Triangle centers and the segments that create them easily become an exercise in memorization, without the help of engaging applications like this lesson. Here the class investigates the measure of center that is equidistant to the three...

Geometry gets an engineering treatment in an exercise involving a belt wrapped around two wheels of different dimensions. Along with the wheels, this belt problem connects concepts of right triangles, tangent lines, arc length, and...

Bring together a study of two major scientific topics with a instructional activity on the relationship between pollution and evolution. With the help of a PowerPoint presentation, hands-on activity. and class demonstration young...