Aspiring aeronautical engineers demonstrate different forces as they construct and test paper airplanes. This lesson plan links you to a website that models the most effective paper airplane design, an animation describing the forces...

Explore contemporary American Indian art. After viewing a set of images, class members discuss the design elements of techniques present, as well as how these artists represent history and culture. Learners examine the parfleche and...

Students discuss the history of cacao and its use in the production of chocolate. They analyze actual cacao pods and record their observations. Finally they create a five minute contour drawing of the cacao pod and seeds.

Is there a difference between examining an original work of art and viewing a reproduction? Class members are asked to reflect on this question after researching a piece, study a reproduction of it, and the examining the original in an...

Students explain that while cities have unattractive features, the density of human life enables energy efficiency, mass transit, recycling, and other benefits which are difficult or impossible in rural areas. This is the fifth in an...

Young scholars explore the relationship between geometry and ancient American art. They see how to recognize geometric properties in specific works and explain how these properties contribute to their meaning and artistic merit.

Students perform square dancing steps. In this square dancing instructional activity, students view a video to learn the basic steps.  Students discuss the history of the dance and perform with partners. 

Even the littlest learners can become art historians if they have the right training. For the lesson plan, your preschoolers discuss the piece Long Jakes as they point out all the details they notice. They discuss what mountains and...

As part of a study of printmaking, class members study the works of Tara Donovan and Donald Sulta. They go on to build a printing plate using glue, textured paper, and found objects.

Take poetry off the page and put it into terms of movement, physical space and, finally, music with this series of three lessons from the Smithsonian Institution. This resource introduces students to two poetic forms that originated as...

Students explore the history of bark paintings in South America and produce their own version of these paintings.

Explore the history of immigration through photographs. Scholars will view and discuss photographs depicting the culture and lifestyle of late 19th and early 20th century immigrants. They take pictures of current examples of culture in...

Learners discover boats by researching 18th century ships.  In this Naval history lesson, students identify and describe the different components of an 18th century naval ship after researching information on the Internet....

Students explore expression in artwork. In this interdisciplinary lesson, students travel to ancient Egypt to examine abstract art of the Nile River valley through several hands-on activities.

Introduce young learners to the read-aloud process with a short biographical passage about Ray Charles. After listening to the passage, class members respond to factual, inferential, and evaluative questions, and then create a timeline...

Combine art and writing in a lesson about legends. After viewing Inuit art, class members examine their own cultural surroundings in order to write and visually represent a legend. Individuals are invited to take the creative reins when...

"Neuroscientists consider Cajal as important to their discipline as Einstein is to physics." The first of four lessons has scholars view Santiago Ramon y Cajal's drawings of neurons. They reflect and respond to the art through writing...

Students examine blues music. In this music genres lesson, students discover details about the history of the musical genre and compositional techniques. Students then compose melodies of their own with 12-bar blues chord progression.

Students investigate the physics of flight by experimenting in class.  In this history of flight lesson, students define terms such as gravity, lift, and drag in order to better understand how a plane is able to stay in the air....

Students discover visual arts by examining a wall mural. In this art appreciation lesson, students discuss the history of art after researching information on the Internet. Students view famous paintings which feature physical...

Students investigate cultural art from Canada by reading about Maud Lewis.  In this Canadian history lesson plan, students identify the work of Lewis by visiting her magazine website.  Students identify other heroes in Nova...

Third graders discover Ancient Rome through maps and worksheets.  In this world history lesson, 3rd graders locate Rome on a world map and identify the scope of the Roman Empire.  Students label an entire map of Italy after...

Travel back in American history to the era of slavery and abolition. After reading about the Underground Railroad, young historians examine a painting depicting the event, and write a narrative from the point of view of a person in the...

Sixth graders explore world history by participating in a class agriculture activity. In this wheat weaving instructional activity, 6th graders identify the different Mediterranean regions that adopted early agriculture methods and...