Virginia Department of Education
Revising Writing
Junior high writers investigate other student’s sample writing and critique on how it could be improved. Skill emphasis is place on elaboration, voice, and sentence variety. The student writing is provided, but the checklist for revision...
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The Digestive System
Discover how the human body's digestive system works with a brain and stomach friendly activity. Scholars taste test a variety of foods to find out how they behave once in the mouth. Class members then play a game called Move That...
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Discovery Research of Quadratics
Students investigate the properties behind the quadratic equation. In this algebra lesson, students identify quadratic equation in the real world. They graph the parabola and identify the vertex and intercepts.
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Who Wants to Be a Millionaire in the U.S.A.?
Students research the states, gathering information and creating questions and answers. They play a form of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? using the student-generated questions and answers.
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Investigating Evolutionary Questions: Bats, Whales, Reptiles, Birds, Animal Classification
Students are guided through a process in which three questions are addressed by retrieving beta hemoglobin sequences from online databases, and using online tools to compare those sequences in student-selected animals.
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Travel Agent Presentation
Students participate in a role play as an employee of a country's tourism bureau. They research their country using a variety of resources and create a travel brochure encouraging travel to their country.
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Do You Haiku? We Do!
Third graders try their hands at writing Haiku, a form of Japanese poetry. Haiku is usually 17 syllables in three-line form. This engaging lesson has many excellent worksheets and website imbedded in the plan. They share their finished...
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The Effects of Limited Space on a Culture
Young scholars predict the impact of population density on shelter, transportation, recreation, land use, and social skills and then research that impact on Japan. They write a response about the impact of population density on...
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Voyage to the New World
Students take notes as they listen to a segment from Discoverers of the New World, the Darkness of the Sea. In this Christopher Columbus instructional activity, students write questions based on the material read and then research...
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Life Cycle of a Salamander
Third graders examine the life cycle of a salamander. For this life cycles lesson, 3rd graders view a PowerPoint presentation about the life cycle of a salamander. Students take the temperature of a toy salamander with a thermometer and...
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Flow of Information
Learners examine how information follows a linear path. They identify types of sources they need to consult and where it falls in the information flow, simulate the role of historians, and generate a list of sources for a topic.
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What's in a Word?
Students complete a unit on words, their origins, and their usage. They explore various websites, create a word ladder online, develop a list of anagrams, write a story using homonyms, and create a list of vocabulary words.
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Weapons of World War I
Ninth graders discover the weapons of World War I. They compare and contrast the weapons used during that time period with the weapons that are used in warfare today. They create a digital slide show with the history, uses, and...
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History of Chemistry: The Alchemists
Students research alchemy and the history of chemistry. In this chemistry history instructional activity, students examine laboratory apparatus and compare it to those used by the Alchemists. Students complete a research paper on an...
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Why Do Art?
Middle schoolers examine the purposes of art and view examples of art created by artists, designers, and craftspeople. They write a report describing the various purposes for creating works of art.
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Explore the Animal World
Third graders use a variety of resources to do research on an animal. Their final project is a graphic organizer for display and an informative multimedia slide show.
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Family Search We All Came To America
Eighth graders participate in a computer based Family Search Unit. They use multimedia resources to research their country of origin, conduct interviews, and use software to produce narratives, databases, spreadsheets and graphs in this...
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Visiting the Medical Fields
Students act as medical pioneers to establish a clinic in an under served area.t They work in teams of two to complete a portfolio about their clinic and examine new treatments in various area of medicine.
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Range, Mean, Median, and Mode
Eighth graders find the range, median, mean, and mode of a data set. In this finding the range, median, mean, and mode of a data set lesson, 8th graders collect data about the high and low temperature for 10 different cities. ...
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Bizarre Food
Students research foods from other countries. In this multicultural food activity, students view a list of foods that kings and queens ate on an overhead transparency and go to the website www.jamessolheim.com/teachers1.htm to read about...
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Medical Pioneers
High schoolers use research skills to take notes over fifteen current medical innovators or innovations. They prepare a PowerPoint presentation over their chosen fifteen medical innovators and innovations. Students show a correlation...
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In Search of Truce
Students explore the relationship between a country's political and social history and its position today. They study 8 African countries immersed in the present conflict in Congo. They present their findings.
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Ladies Taking Over the Labs
Students explore the lives and accomplishments of the many women who have made tremendous strides in the various fields of science.
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Environmental Harmony
High schoolers use information from a variety of media to evaluate different artists' views on the human relationship to nature. From these sources, class discussion, and personal experience, students will synthesize a thoughtful,...