Examine trends in student-to-teacher ratios over time. Building from the first task in the two-part series, classes now explore the pattern of student-to-teacher ratios using a non-linear function. After trying to connect the pattern to...

Did you know light can decrease visibility? Light pollution absolutely makes it more difficult to see stars. Scholars build a simple magnitude reader to determine the magnitude of stars. They use these data to estimate the impact of...

It's that time of year to consider how Shakespeare selects his images and structures his Sonnet 73 to develop the meaning of the poem. Class members examine the rhyme scheme, the indented lines, the conceit, and the images used in each...

Budding poets create two acrostic poems, one for their name and another using a word of their choice. Over the course of five days, scholars compose, revise, publish, and share their work with their peers.

When it comes to writing effective arguments, writers must do more than simply make a claim, counterarguments must be considered. Aspiring writers analyze counterarguments in editorials, and then learn how to write counterarguments in...

See what you cannot see by getting a little creative. An intriguing lesson has learners use lasers to explore X-ray diffraction. Given a box with unknown structures, they shine a laser through the box and interpret the results....

It's easy to miss the beauty of nature when one's focus is on technology. Don't make that mistake with help from a two-page reference sheet that provides eight tips for staying present when exploring the world around you.  

Historical events do not occur in a vacuum. Such is the case of the Dreyfus Affair, where the connection between Captain Alfred Dreyfus, Emile Zola, and Hannah Arendt is fused by the events of the early 20th century. The informative...

Learners respond to multiple choice, short answer, and essay questions to demonstrate their understanding of global history and geography.

Most species of animals include a variety of fur or hair color, but why? Scholars watch a video about a changing environment for mice. As the rocks around them change hues, different colors of mice begin to thrive. Discussion questions...

Match the length in more than one way. Pupils work in pairs to create equal lengths using different combinations of rods. The quick activity allows learners to develop a physical understanding of equality and realize there is more than...

While Juneteenth was more than 150 years ago, today Americans debate whether it should be a national holiday. Using a military declaration proclaiming the last of the enslaved people in Texas free, individuals look at the significance of...

Reinforce comprehension of informational text. This is a one-on-one instructional activity intended to build an internal dialogue the reader can use to boost overall comprehension. They work independently with a tutor or teacher to read...

Design a public information campaign to improve understanding of the coral reef crisis. Read about and discuss the biology and threats to the coral reef. The class creates a public information program about the problems facing the coral...

A reader's journal can help pupils comprehend, connect to, and remember a text. Have them follow the prompts here to write journal entries for any literary text.

A puzzle isn't about the individual pieces, but how they work together. Scholars assemble a puzzle and discover missing pieces. They write a description of what they expect these pieces to look like, including as many details as...

In this adding integers worksheet, 5th graders solve and complete 6 different problems that include using number lines. First, they create 6 arcs in column B connecting two integers that can be added together to equal the integers in...

I or me? Are your middle school grammarians struggling with pronoun case? Try this trick. Instruct your learners to look right before or right after the pronoun choice for the words and, or, nor. Have them cover the conjunction and the...

It can be difficult to begin a novel when you don't know what it's about. Take the opportunity to begin S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders slowly, making predictions and answering questions about the book's first nine pages.

Sixth graders are introduced to artifacts and explore an online archaeological site to  connect clues about how people once lived. In this deductive reasoning lesson, 6th graders participate in the stratigraphy game on Kids Dig...

Singing is a great way to reinforce memorization and reading skills. Read the song while showing the associated images, talk about each picture, show the image while the song is playing to reinforce the word to sound connection. This...

Students create a three dimensional animal sculpture. In this sculpting lesson, students use white art clay, gloss glaze, brushes, and wooden tools to create an animal sculpture.

Students practice plotting functions on the Cartesian coordinate plane while participating in a discussion about the Possible Or Not worksheet/activity. Students also use the Impossible Graphs worksheet to practice reading a graph,...

Make discussing quotation marks interesting by using this presentation. Each Disneyland themed slide includes an example, punctuation rule, and Micky Mouse style sound effects. Each example has a context which is important for making...