A group of teachers attended a picnic; ten became sick and another four died. Young scholars must solve the mystery of what happened. They research the river, waste water treatment plant, each food that was served, and environmental...

Construction leads to habitat loss and local wildlife suffers. Scholars must build a reptile egg incubation device that meets many constraints. Various experiments help them discover the chemical reaction needed to reach...

Learners cooperate within a small group, review materials covered in previous lessons, use higher level thinking skills and gain positive feedback through competition.

In the second lesson plan in a series that revolves around the story, Thank You, Mr. Falker, learners practice the skill of answering direct questions from the text while using complete sentences. After a teacher-led review of how to...

As part of a study of Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, class members respond to, and craft, higher-level comprehension questions based on passages from the text. 

How well do your pupils know My Antonia by Willa Cather? Take some time to create questions about the text. After examining a teacher model, individuals write questions that match each level of Bloom's Taxonomy and draft answers to these...

Before continuing to read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, learners need to understand why and how this document was written. First, show and discuss a video from UNICEF to demonstrate the need for such a document. Then...

Learners apply higher level thinking skills to determine rules for sorting and classification. In this pre-algebra lesson, students nominate classmates who they think satisfy the unspoken "rule" established by the leader. As learners are...

Lots of questions arise when reading Cold Sassy Tree. As your class encounters the twentieth chapter, encourage a rich discussion with some of the questions provided here. Then, either independently, or for homework, ask your readers to...

Some data just doesn't follow a straight path. Learners use line graphs to represent data that changes over time. They use the graphs to analyze the data and make conclusions.

Historians believe the first vertical water wheel was invented in Rome during the Augustan Age. The sixth instructional activity in the series of 10 has scholars experiment with designing their own water wheels. Through testing various...

You might not be able to learn through osmosis, but you sure can observe it! Scholars observe and measure osmosis using chicken eggs. They control for multiple variables to determine which variables have an impact and how the impact...

"Help Wanted: A Supreme Court Justice." What should be included in the ad? Learners ponder the question during a lively activity that asks them to examine the qualifications for various federal offices and then create job postings....

Patterns in math emerge from seemingly random places. Learners explore the patterns for factoring the sum and differences of perfect roots. Analyzing these patterns helps young mathematicians develop the polynomial identities.

Fifth graders compare and contrast two early colonies and make a T chart. They list examples of worked well and what did not, and significant historical events. They use higher order thinking skills by deducing how different scenarios...

Learners locate, access and listen to a variety of radio and audio samples found on the Internet. They discuss the material in small groups and identify areas of interest for further discussion.

The toss of a die determines what questions your pupils will answer in this lesson. Learners respond to questions based on Bloom's taxonomy, discussing The Adventures of Tom Sawyer with classmates along the way. They finish by writing up...

Students listen to the story The True Story  of the Three Little Pigs and explore a variety of questions related to conflict resolution. In this trade book activity activity, students listen to the teacher ask a variety of higher...

Can you disprove the law of conservation of mass? Pupils observe the teacher weigh each part of a reaction. Then, the teacher weighs the result of the reaction and everyone sees that the products do not equal the reactants. Then they...

Many types of cancer treatments now depend on nanotechnology—a big "little" discovery. Scholars begin by removing "malignant" tissue from simulated brains, one using fluorescent markers thanks to nanotechnology and one without. This...

Learners are given a science reading assignment outside the text followed by a discussion on the content. The reading is augmented with a series of thought questions for students to consider prior to class discussion. They direst the...

"How might multiple perspectives of standardized testing impact me as a student?" is an example of an essential question that a researcher might use as a basis for this lesson on how to research and present a written stance on a...

This unit introduces book clubs/literature circles to lower elementary classes, but could be adapted to higher grades. It outlines the anticipatory activity that includes a WebQuest, a discussion to clarify questions about the unit,...

Challenge readers to read closer in an activity based on the Socratic questioning strategy. As kids read Antoine de Saint Éxupery's The Little Prince, they use sentence starters to ask deeper questions about the text, and...