Curated OER
The Whole Story
Students collect and convey information about a current event. By focusing on who, what, when, where, why, and how questions, students study to thoroughly analyze and report on important world events.
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Slanted Sentences
Students examine biased words in news articles, suggest synonyms, then rewrite the sentences to demonstrate how word choice can alter meaning.
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Unmasking the Middle East
Students explore many of the countries in the Middle East, developing research-based posters and a spider web illustrating the relationships among the countries. They write letters to fictional peers in Middle Eastern countries.
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Do You Dread the Spread?
Students explore the increased reports of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in China. They hold a mock emergency health summit to address concerns and possible solutions on behalf of the affected countries and international health...
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That Was Then, This is Now
Students read about the effect of strict fur trading laws on the lives of the Inuit people in Canada, then use print and digital resources to compare past and present-day ways of life of several indigenous peoples around the world.
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Playing With Your Food
Students discover about the form and function of traditional musical instruments, then use this knowledge to create non-traditional instruments that replicate the sounds of traditional instruments. They use vegetables to create their...
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Where the Spirit Moves You
Students explore the spiritual significance of locations throughout the world. After studying the historical and mystical importance of these places, students write about a spiritual place that is special to them.
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Sense-itive Issues
Students consider the difficulties of adapting to the loss of different senses. They work in small groups, each developing a fictional superhero who experiences a loss of one of sense and must compensate for it with his or her other senses.
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Performance Poppers
Students examine the controversies surrounding the use of performance-enhancing supplements in sports by interviewing athletes and writing feature articles that compare the skills required to compete in different sports.
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Healthy Hearts
Students focus on advanced technologies used to treat disease impacting the cardiopulmonary system; they then reflect on the experiences of having and overcoming illnesses.
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A Weighty Task
Students aim to explain the need for standardization of units of measurement. They pose their own standards for the value of a kilogram and compare them with the currently used standard.
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Shedding New Light
Young scholars consider why photographs in space might not show stars and research the importance of light in this phenomenon. They research other scientific processes related to light or its absence and create "How It Works" posters...
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Growing Pains
Students compare common food items with the parts of a plant. They grow their own plants to assess the difficulties in assisting a plant's growth and reproduction.
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The Persuasive Art of Portraiture
Students first explore the power of the visual image to convey a message by examining the portrait of George Washington on American dollar bills. They next use, 'Prolific Chinese Painter Is Anonymous No More,' to explore a famous...
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Of Electron Bondage
Students create models of ionic and covalent electronic bonds to demonstrate their understanding of these chemistry concepts. They explain how both ionic bonds and covalent bonds work so that younger students can understand.
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Cyber Skills
Students, in groups, design and develop Web sites dedicated to special skills traditionally taught by humans rather than by technology. They write Web site reviews that describe and assess their group's envisioned Internet site.
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Prize-Winning Prose
Learners develop criteria for 'Kids' Pulitzers,' awards in categories of writing determined by Students. Each student then bestow a 'Kids' Pulitzer' upon a piece of writing which they deem to be distinguished based on the established...
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Species for Sale
Students explore wildlife conservation by investigating animal species that are near extinction due to their value as commodities. They defend the protection of an endangered species researched in class by creating an informational poster.
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Both Home And School On The Range
Students investigate the notion of home-schooling and the use of technology as an instructional tool while comparing these ideas to their own school experiences. They develop and conduct a survey centering around home-schooling and...
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Revealing Untold Stories
Students explore how and why various historical resources present information about slavery differently. They work in pairs to examine written texts to interpret the objectives, points of view, and depictions of slavery in these resources.
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Caste In Stone?
Students examine India's caste system. After learning about the history and development of the caste system, students discuss how new political power granted to women in lower castes is affecting the political and social climate of India.
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Has the Wall Truly Tumbled Down?
Students examine the events behind the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the continued struggles to truly unify the former East Germany and West Germany.
The New York Times
A Worker's Compensation
Middle schoolers read about the history of Labor Day in a newspaper article. They discuss difficulties American employees of the past had to face, learn about labor rallies, and conduct Internet research. Part of the intention of this...
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The Roots of American Culture
Students explore the notion of culture and the influence of Latino culture on the U.S. They work in small groups to identify ways that Latino and non-Latino U.S. cultures have engaged in cultural 'cross-fertilization.'