December writing activities galore! With everything from poetry to research to descriptive writing to writing about things that represent December, there's no way you will run out of options.

Convey your interest in conveyor belts. By considering different size tubes, groups create a conveyor belt that can transport boxes of candy at least four feet. Also, the conveyor belt must make a 90-degree turn—quite a difficult task!

Train your pupils to be master engineers. Young learners design a train that travels along a fishing line. The train needs to safely carry pennies as passengers without falling out.

Here's a instructional activity that's not for the birds! Scholars design and build packaging for soda cans that is environmentally friendly. These packages must be durable, easy to carry, and have no environmental impact.

If a ski lift had rockets, imagine how fast it would be! Scholars let their imaginations take flight as they build models for such a ski lift. Rather than using a rocket, though, they'll use a much safer balloon as the power source.

A lever comes in handy when scholars build a launcher for a ping-pong ball. They test the launcher and redesign it to send the ball higher or to accommodate a tennis ball. This is the third lesson in a five-part unit.

It's imperative to be as precise as possible. Future engineers learn about precision by building a cardboard machine. The base, corners, handles, and paddles must all be assembled with precision or the machine won't work.

Have women always had the same educational opportunities as their male counterparts? Young historians read an 1819 essay by Emma Willard on the state of female education in the 19th century before discussing their views regarding women's...

Where did the pH scale come from? Take a deeper look at a most important measure of ion concentration using a simulated physical determination. Young chemists prepare a series of dilutions after determining a dilution factor for the...

Don't waste any more energy trying to find a great resource on energy. The third installment of a 25-part Energy Systems and Solutions unit focuses on energy use in pupils' lives. They consider how their daily routines consume energy and...

Do you separate your trail mix before eating it? Then you've been separating mixtures your whole life! Scholars model a contaminated soil sample using trail mix and estimate the percentage of each component. They consider how to clean up...

Prescription drugs may start out with legitimate usage, but lately they are finding their way to high school and college party life. Have a discussion with the teenagers in your class on prescription drug abuse with a PowerPoint...

February is Marijuana Awareness Month, and a set of interdisciplinary activities can make your class aware of the social, medical, legal, and psychological effects of marijuana. With writing prompts, research opportunities, and...

Can marijuana really hurt you? Three medical facts and three discussion questions prompt teenagers to consider the ramifications of using marijuana recreationally.

Tenzing Norgay, the Sherpa man who made history when he reached the summit of Mount Everest with Sir Edmund Hillary, is the focus of an informative article. Class members read about Norgay's perspective on the way up the mountain, the...

Telling young people to just say no can be difficult in a world that inundates them with messages to just say yes. A lesson on media messages encourages teenagers to analyze song lyrics and advertisements that mention drugs...

Milk the resource for all it's worth. Young biologists perform assay techniques to test the digestion of protein. They place bacterial samples, fungal samples, trypsin solution, and distilled water on a milk-agar plate to see the effects...

Surface area certainly surfaces as a variable for chemical reaction rates. Scholars perform an experiment to discover how the size of catalysts affect the rate of a chemical reaction. They record their results in tables and graphs to...

Build teamwork skills while building a bridge. Scholars work together in groups to create a bridge out of 20 straws and tape. There is a minimum span length of 25 centimeters, but otherwise, let creativity run wild.

What role does trust play in diffusing a tense situation? Young social scientists explore trust on a personal and global level during a instructional activity on peace and conflict. After participating in a trust sit, participants work...

What was life like during the Victorian era? Images of crowded factories and lavish palaces may come to mind—and both would be accurate. Learn more about Britain during the 64-year reign of Queen Victoria with a series of informational...

The conditions are ripe to learn about conditionals. Young computer scientists consider conditionals in their daily lives, then apply their knowledge to computer coding. The fifth of nine parts in the Intro to CS with MakeCode uses...

The greasers and Socs, both gangs in S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders, came from opposite sides of the tracks, yet seemed to live in two different worlds. Scholars answer comprehension questions, create alliterations, and work with...

While every family's immigration story is unique, patterns emerge when looking at individual narratives. Using clips from the PBS video series, "Latino Americans," learners look at commonalities among immigrant experiences. A chart helps...