Before graphing and finding distances, learners investigate the coordinate plane and look at patterns related to plotted points. Points are plotted and the goal is to look at the horizontal and vertical distances between coordinates and...

Introduce your class to the federal tax system through an algebraic lens. This resource asks pupils to examine the variable structure of the tax system based on income. Young accountants use equations, expressions, and inequalities to...

The spacecraft is drifting too far off course! Two games help explain how a spacecraft can use its thrusters to maintain its position. The games have pupils be the components of vectors in order to create and counteract the...

Develop a solid understanding of multiplication and division properties of exponents. Individuals expand exponential terms to discover the patterns and create the properties in the second installment in a series of 15. The activity...

Study the chemistry of mining! Through nine lessons in the unit, learners explore different concepts related to mining. Their study ranges from rock and mineral analysis to the environmental impact of dynamite and the chemical reaction...

Scholars examine, cut, paste, and sort 12 images featuring different types of movement in order to show what they know about energy—potential and kinetic. 

Ask not what the lesson here can do for you, but what you can do with the lesson. The answer is quite a lot! Young scholars revisit JFK's famous inaugural address with a focus on his plea for civic engagement. There's a...

Young historians investigate how voting patterns have changed by comparing the outcome of the 1960 election to the outcome of the recent election. A creative final assessment has participants making a news show wherein they provide...

What happens when you add negative and positive integers to one another? Do you add or subtract, and will the answer be positive or negative? Young mathematicians use blue and red polka dots to determine the value of an expression that...

Franklin learns about the world by making observations, and so do we! A short reading assignment prompts fourth graders to answer comprehension questions about a curious boy and what he notices.

How is your grandmother related to you? How is your cousin related to your grandmother? Learn about family relationships and pronouns with an activity that guides pupils to write two short narratives about members of their families.

Use the area of polygons to calculate the area between curves. Pupils calculate areas under income and expense curves by filling the space with squares and right triangles. Using that information, they determine the profit related to the...

The legend of a wise man who asks a king for rice as a reward presents a context to study exponential solutions to differential equations. Pupils move quantities of rice to a chessboard and calculate the amount of rice for each day. To...

Wind it up and let it go. Individuals build a basic spool racer in the second portion of a six-part unit on energy. After receiving three criteria, pupils modify their designs to meet the new challenge. Pairs compete against each other...

Make money disappear! Young scholars watch as a copier shrinks a dollar bill to 75 percent of its size. Learners are left to determine the size of the dollar bill after nine passes through the copier.

The incredibly shrinking meter—decimeters to centimeters, to millimeters, and now to nanometers! Learners may have a difficult time visualizing particles on a nanoscale. Help them see a little clearer using a well-designed lesson...

Can your classes solve the problem of the smelly sweat sock? Young scientists complete a lab investigation that begins by using electrochemistry to generate colloidal silver. They use their solutions to test the rate of microbial growth...

When it comes to writing, cliches are as old as dirt. A handout on tired phrases provides examples of cliches, as well as a description of the negative effects they have on a paper. Writers discover specific words and phrases to avoid,...

A lot of writers really struggle very much with adding a lot of qualifiers and intensifiers in their writing. Part of a larger series to improve writing skills, a handout on the topic provides tips to help reduce a reliance on these...

When researchers write a paper, they become curators of information. It's their job to determine the best sources of information on a topic and use those sources to inform their writing. As part of a larger series, a handout on annotated...

There's no better way to learn something than to hear it straight from the horse's mouth. A handout on oral history, part of a larger series on specific writing assignments, explains how to conduct interviews and use the information...

Inevitably, whenever you give an assignment, at least one person won't start until the last minute. As the 13th handout in the 24-part Writing the Paper series explains, procrastination sometimes brings consequences. It breaks down...

What was life like in America before Christopher Columbus discovered the New World? Scholars investigate life in the Americas through the eyes of Native Americans in the first lesson of a 22-part series covering America's history. Using...

Patterns in polygons lead to patterns in polynomials. Presented with a series of polygons, individuals create polynomial expressions to represent their patterns. The algebra project consists of nine problems that incorporate polynomial...