As the final lesson plan in a larger beginning-of-the-year unit to establish routines and teach close reading skills, this plan is designed as an assessment piece. Using the story, The Librarian of Basra, learners independently...

It's all a matter of opinion! Pupils take Part II of the mid-unit assessment, in which they continue organizing their notes in preparation for writing an opinion speech. Using the resource, they add reasons, evidence, and a concluding...

Stretch your teaching repertoire with an experiment on the elongation (stretching) and failure (break) of several materials. The point of the experiment is to design a composite material for chair webbing.

Students gather important information about a historical figure. They write a short biography, including illustrations. Students collect songs from the time period when the person lived. They create a play list in iTunes. Students...

Harness the power of bacteria. Scholars see how using organisms that exist in nature can help solve human problems in the process known as bioremediation. They research and discuss several successful examples, such as using oil-eating...

You can eat a solar cell? A unit on solar energy begins with a discussion about organic solar cells, followed by directions on how to build your own. After following the teacher's directions to build an anthocyanin...

Work on shapes and body parts at the same time with a fun set of activities. Kids sing and read about Mr. Shape Head, who has shapes on his face, before making their own Mr. Shape Head.

Getting water to a tap requires an understanding the fundamentals of fluid flow. Groups design, build, and test a piping system to get water from the source — a five gallon bucket — to a tippy tap. The objective is to be able to...

Pairs use an online simulation to determine the epicenter and magnitude of an earthquake. Using real data about the earthquake's maximum S wave amplitudes, they then determine the magnitude. The resource provides a great career...

Forget your local meteorologist — build your own barometer and keep track of the weather with an activity that provides directions to build a barometer out of a narrow necked bottle, a glass, and some water. Using their barometer,...

Class members create their own social networks by collecting signatures before graphing the interactions with their fellow classmates. The degree distribution of the simulated social network is determined by calculating the degree of...

What do electrical currents have to do with an MRI? Using a simple wire setup and a magnet, class members explore forces used in an MRI by investigating the magnetic force acting on a wire carrying a current. 

It's a small (nanotechnology) world after all! The first segment of a six-part series gives an overview of nanotechnology, its principles and applications, and shares some of the engineering applications of nanotechnology. A...

Slopes are not just for skiing. Instructors introduce class members to the concept of slope and teach them how to calculate the slope from a graph or from points. The instructional activity also includes the discussion of slopes of...

Groups use alcohol and chromatography paper to separate the color components of black ink. The purpose of the activity is to allow the class to become aware that mixtures exist in hidden places. 

Strive to think outside of the quadrilateral parallelogram. Worksheet includes two problems applying prior knowledge of area and perimeter to parallelograms and trapezoids. The focus is on finding and utilizing the proper formula and...