Lesson Plan
American Psychological Association

Counting Fidgets: Teaching the Complexity of Naturalistic Observation

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Why do psychologists conduct experiments in controlled laboratory settings? High schoolers gain an understanding of the importance of controls with an activity that involves naturalistic observations with no imposed controls.
Activity
News Literacy Project

Critical Observation Challenge: Was Elsa Really Arrested?

For Teachers 4th - 6th Standards
A 14-slide presentation showcases a social media post featuring Disney's Elsa from the movie, Frozen. The seemingly harmless post received lots of attention, raising the question, how do we know posts are factual? Scholars go through...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Observing Weather

For Teachers All
Students investigate the weather by reading children stories.  In this weather observation lesson, students read Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and several other stories about weather before they create a KWL chart....
Lesson Plan
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Social Media Toolbox

Twitter Time

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Tweet all about it! Junior journalists explore the Twittersphere to determine its effectiveness as a news broadcasting tool in the 12th installment of the 16-part Social Media Toolbox. Participants follow and record their observations of...
Lesson Plan
John Wiley & Sons

It's the Little Things That Count

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Encourage your young leaders to acknowledge small victories and the unique abilities and strengths of others. Class members are assigned to observe a classmate and note their talents and interests, concluding in an "awards...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

What in the World..?!?

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students photograph mystery images. In this observation skills lesson, students gather everyday objects and place them under a digital microscope. They magnify the image and take a photograph of it. The image is then displayed on the...
Lesson Plan
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Social Media Toolbox

About Facebook

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
If everyone is on Facebook, should the school's news publication be as well? Scholars study a social media giant in the 11th lesson from The Social Media Toolbox's 16-part series. The activity combines individual study and collaboration...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

"Finding Your Sweet Tooth"--An Introduction to the Dichotomous Key

For Teachers 6th
Sixth graders classify candy according to observable characteristics. They use a dichotomous key to identify their bag of "treats." Thus, describe how dichotomous keys help to the identifying of organisms. Design a self-generated...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Meeting an Earthworm

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Learners inspect the anatomy of earthworms. In this earthworm lesson, students participate in a hands-on experiment as they analyze the structure of earthworms. Learners demonstrate mastery through differentiated products. Lesson...
Lesson Plan
Media Smarts

Perceptions of Youth and Crime

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Explore the potential for bias in the news and in scholars' own attitudes and opinions. Begin with a quiz on youth crime to see how learners perceive crime among their peers. After looking at the correct answers, put individuals in...
Lesson Plan
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Facing History and Ourselves

How Journalists Minimize Bias

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Class members are challenged to write a neutral news story about the events they observe in a short video. After sharing their stories in groups and discussing the different perceptions, the class concludes with a video of...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

"Who am I?"

For Teachers K - 5th
Pupils of all ages work in pairs to find information about themselves and record a digital "Who am I?" They observe and measure each other, write clues, and illustrate before having others guess who is described.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

"Living in the Limelight The Universal Dream"

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students, using Leo's Lyrics, investigate common themes in popular music. They create a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that analyzes their findings along with a 200 word paragraph stating their observations, conclusions and hypotheses about...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Ocean Observations

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students examine a coastal ocean. In this physical science/earth science lesson, students generate a list of questions about how researchers study the ocean. In addition, students investigate, through research on the computer, to answer...
Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Conducting Research: Analyzing a Variety of Sources to Capture Information about My Insect

For Teachers 5th Standards
From picture to words. Scholars analyze a picture of an ant and then list two facts they observed and any questions that may arise. Expert groups from the previous instructional activity then look at a diagram about either an ant or...
Unit Plan
ReadWriteThink

Let It Grow: An Inquiry-Based Organic Gardening Research Project

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
How does your garden grow? An inquiry-based, organic gardening unit asks young scientists to research a vegetable or flower, create an environment for it, and then plant and tend to the seedling. Gardeners develop their own research...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Plagiarism: Avoiding Accidental Internet Plagiarism

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Demonstrate how to cite information from Internet sources without plagiarizing. If your class is working on an Internet research paper, and you have observed learners cutting and pasting directly from the Internet, the activities and...
Lesson Plan
Middle Tennessee State University

The Invention of the Telephone

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
All of the people in your class would agree that life would be different without the invention of the telephone! Study Alexander Graham Bell's most famous and influential invention through the primary source document of his...
Lesson Plan
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ReadWriteThink

Critical Media Literacy: Commercial Advertising

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Commercial advertising—we can't get away from it, but do we realize just how often we are being advertised to? With this lesson, scholars analyze mass media to identify how its techniques influence our daily lives. Learners browse...
Lesson Plan
Media Smarts

Bias

For Teachers 10th - 12th
See how bias operates firsthand. Half of the class reads one article while the other half reads another article on the same event. The obvious differences emerge when the two sides talk about their observations though. Several handouts...
Lesson Plan
Media Smarts

The Broadcast Project

For Teachers K - 8th
As part of a unit on media studies, kids are asked to chart their viewing habits, observe the advertising that sponsors their favorite shows, and then to imagine what they would broadcast if given a block of airtime.
Worksheet
Curated OER

Dictionaries

For Students K - 1st Standards
Introduce your budding readers to the dictionary. They read a brief introduction on dictionary features, observing pictures and examples of one-syllable words they could find in a dictionary. Using the word list, they determine which...
Worksheet
Curated OER

Contents and Index

For Students 1st - 2nd Standards
It's important for your readers to understand features of informational text such as index and table of contents, so give them this visual activity to get started. They read a brief explanation of informational text, then look at an...
Lesson Plan
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PBS

Broadcast News

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
Just because a story is on the news doesn't mean it's being presented fairly. Analyze news broadcasts with a lesson focused on evaluating television journalism. At home, kids watch a news show and note the stories presented, including...

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