Though the walrus spends roughly one third of its time on land, it eats organisms that live on the bottom of the ocean. The first in a series of five, the lesson uses a variety of plant and animal cards to have scholars build an arctic...

Middle schoolers design new insights into work tied into athletes. Students design a sports bag for athletes. Middle schoolers investigate varied sports. They interview people involved in varied sports. Students engage in active problem...

Students create an advertising campaign in which a candidate from Animal Farm will run for an upcoming election. In this follow-up activity to George Orwell's Animal Farm lesson, students explore propaganda, rhetoric, and satire as they...

Eleventh graders examine the challenges that faced United States as a new nation.  In this American History instructional activity, 11th graders study the chronology of events leading up to the expedition of Lewis and Clark. ...

Apply scientific principles to designing an experiment to study organisms living on the coral reef in our oceans. Through reading, individuals learn about the coral reef ecosystem and important factors that affect its function....

Young scholars explore the American landscape during fall. After viewing paintings of fall, learners imagine themselves there and what it would be like. They then build an understanding of the painter's use of detail and color...

Matching exercises can help learners build a functional vocabulary related to many different concepts. They match ten ideas and key players commonly associated with the Enlightenment to their definitions. Ben Franklin, Edward Gibbon, and...

Here's a guide designed to build safe, respectful learning environments, and to build understanding of the value of diversity through lessons packed with activities for specific grade levels.

Can a state government tax the federal government? The Supreme Court case McCullough v. Maryland explores different governments in the United States. Scholars research the court's decision with a video and discussion. They formulate...

Did you know every state in the U.S. has at least one observatory? During the lesson, scholars research the cost of building and maintaining an observatory. They must present their information in a proposal to build a new observatory,...

Learning how to read is a big challenge for young learners, but this series of lessons provides them with the extra support they need to succeed. With each lesson following the a clearly outlined format, children are introduced...

The final activity in a unit study of immigration and human rights asks class members to design a project for their school that builds support for immigrant classmates. To prepare for this project, individuals use what they have learned...

Young scholars identify and solve problems as they modify the design of an everyday household item. They gather and analyze information and work in collaborative teams to create a design plan for a new product.

What a fantastic project idea for discussing not only the history of America's expansion into the West, but for reviewing any major unit of history in your class. Pupils build stamp collections to visually represent themes of the...

New roads, new businesses, new developments, new mass transit systems. All growth has both positive and negative effects on communities. Government classes investigate the principles of Maryland's 1997 Smart Growth program and...

How do changes in DNA affect an organism? Scholars explore chromosomes, genes, DNA, and mutations by modeling the DNA of a strawberry. They build a DNA model, then manipulate it to show how changing the genes transforms the strawberry...

If you build it they can come. After reading a short article about the impact of western expansion, middle schoolers cite evidence from the article to explain how this expansion forced changes in transportation.

What can I use in space? The three-lesson unit has groups research what man-made or natural resources would be available during space exploration or habitation. Team members think of ways that resources can be reclaimed or reused in...

Young scholars explore the composition and practical application of parallel circuitry, compared to series circuitry. They design and build parallel circuits and investigate their characteristics, and apply Ohm's law. They recognize that...

The work of building and maintaining a democracy is, in the words of Justice William Hastie, "never finished." To better understand what Hastie sees as an ongoing building process, class members listen to a seven-minute podcast about two...

Give young scientists a new appreciation of fresh, clean drinking water. After learning about the ways astronauts recycle their air and water, your class will work in small groups creating and testing their very own water...

Add engaging new material to Harriet Tubman and Civil War curricula with a crisply designed, two-page reading about the famous abolitionist. The text details a military raid she led against the Confederate army, informs readers about Tom...

Do you like music? Have your youngsters read We Play Music, practicing select reading strategies, like using picture clues to determine new words. Then, after their first independent read, have them re-read the story to a...

Celebrate April's National Poetry Month or enrich a poetry unit with a wealth of language arts material. Class members develop an oral interpretation of a poem and/or develop a podcast interview with a poet.