Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Colonizing the Stars

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students compare and contrast the size, composition and surface features of the nine planets of our solar system with the possible sizes and compositions of extra -solar planets.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Converting Metric Units and Prefixes

For Teachers 10th - 12th
Students investigate the length of various objects. In this measurement instructional activity, students convert one metric unit to another. They explain the importance of a uniform system of measurement.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Classifying Matter Game

For Teachers 10th - 12th
Students identify the different states of matter. In this chemistry lesson, students differentiate the physical properties of the three states. They apply what they learned by playing a team game at the end of the lesson.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Surface Water Supplies And The Texas Settlements

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students engage in a lesson that is concerned with the allocation and finding of water resources. The location of different settlement areas is considered as one looks how the water is distributed. They map some of the early Spanish and...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Alaska Trade

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students spend two days traveling throughout Alaska, trading as they go. They explore universal principles related to trade and commerce while studying about Alaska's geography and indigenous people. At the end of the lesson plan,...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Transformation With A Firefly Gene

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers understand the process of bacterial transformation through experimentation. They describe the function of two important genes of the pBestLuc plasmid. They explain how to induce competence in E. coli cells.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Using several learning modalities to teach about the Periodic Table.

For Teachers 10th - 11th
Students identify how to relate the position of an element in the periodic table to its atomic number and atomic mass. They identify how to use the periodic table to identify metals, semimetals, nonmetals, and halogens, and also,...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

How Can You Study Things You Can’t See Like: Atoms?

For Teachers 10th - 12th
Students simulate how scientists studied things they can't see like atoms. In this chemistry lesson, students predict what is inside the numbered obsertainers. They design a way to investigate what's inside without opening it.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

VH1 Road to Fame: Harry Connick Jr. - Lesson 3

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students sing a vocal improvisation on a 12-bar blues progression. After watching a video on Harry Connick Jr., students try their own scat singing on the two-measure break.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Mapping Your Local Community

For Teachers 1st
First graders take a walking tour of their community to discover the names of numbered locations on a premade map. They then, create their own map of the community on the computer using Kidspiration software.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Primary Documents: The President and African Americans

For Teachers 5th - 12th
Students examine the efforts of the federal government to address discrimination in the U.S. before and after WWII. They read and discuss two executive orders, complete a worksheet, and answer discussion questions.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Strategies for Economic Development

For Teachers 10th - 12th
Students develop some suggested strategies that are used to help reduce poverty. The skill of development is the focus. The incorporation of theories and strategies are learned in a problem solving exercise. The political issues are...
Lesson Plan
Historical Thinking Matters

Scopes Trial: 3 Day Lesson

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
Was the Scopes trial more complicated than a simple debate between evolutionists and creationists? As part of a structured academic controversy (SAC) activity, pupils consider multiple perspectives of the Butler Act and engage in close...
Lesson Plan
ReadWriteThink

Martin Luther King, Jr. and Me: Identifying with a Hero

For Teachers K - 2nd
Here, young historians compare their early lives to that of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s. They listen to a read aloud of a story by Dr. King's sister, and then write in the provided reflective journal template. Lastly, they share their...
Lesson Plan
National Council of Teachers of English

Writing Acrostic Poems with Thematically Related Texts in the Content Areas

For Teachers 2nd - 5th Standards
Scholars scour thematically aligned texts to gather a bank of words they can use in an original acrostic poem. 
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Word Adaptation

For Teachers 7th
Seventh graders differentiate evolution and adaptation. In this biology lesson, 7th graders make new words from a given word by adding or changing a letter. They set up a T-chart and enumerate how adaptation is like or unlike evolution.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Primate Characteristics and Exaptation

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers compare the features of gorilla to humans. In this biology activity, students simulate adaptation using materials found in the classroom. They explain what exaptation means.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Evolution of Canis pedatus

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students examine the given characteristics of a previously unknown dog-like creature, Canis pedatus, to decide if the creatures would survive when relocated to a new environment. They work in small groups to decide whether or not the...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Evolution of Canis pedatus

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Pupils, in groups, examine the given characteristics of a previously unknown dog-like creature, Canis pedatus. They discuss whether or not this species would show adaptations and survive if it were relocated to a new environment.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Luisa's Steller Evolution Lab

For Teachers 7th - 10th
Students examine stars and constellations in the night sky. They complete a KWL chart and calculate the mass of stars. They also discuss how a star is formed.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

What Killed the Dinosaurs?

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students demonstrate how scientists use evidence to formulate hypotheses. They write an essay describing the Cretaceous and Paleocene time periods from the point of view of someone living in that time. In addition, they formulate...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Blocks And Screws (or "screwy Contrivances")

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students, given a block of wood and a screw or nail, are asked to put that screw or nail into a block. They examine how many contrivances and other imperfections found in living things are best explained by the process of evolution.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Build a Bug

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students design an ideally adapted macroinvertebrate to live in a water habitat. They illustrate their animal, name it and specify the adaptations it has that enable it to survive.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

A Tree Full of Ancestors

For Teachers 10th - 12th
Students study human evolution and the scientific process. They complete the Origins of Humankind Web activity to become familiar with the hominid species as well as the associated evidence found, in the form of fossils and artifacts.