How much can you tell about a circle from its equation? This detailed lesson plan focuses on connecting equations and graphs of circles. Learners use equations to identify x- and y-intercepts, centers, and radii of circles. They also...

Students identify common elements found in folk tales and read a Togolese folk tale told by Fred Koehler. They analyze the folk tale for its elements and compare and contrast it with well-known Western folk tales.

U.S. immigration is the focus of a unit on social justice. Over the course of a school year, young historians read a variety of texts to learn about four waves of immigration that have occurred over time in the U.S. An emphasis on...

Celebrate Kwanzaa with a game of Kalah, also known as Mankala or Owara. Using an egg carton and a set of beans, players take all of the beans out of one of his or her cups and move to the right, dropping one bean into each of the...

Students discuss steps cases go through to reach Supreme Court, examine Bill of Rights, and rank rights in order of importance to them. Students then research Supreme Court case dealing with one of first ten amendments, and write about...

Pupils, through historic photographs and stories, discover the world of the one-room schoolhouse and compare it to their school experience.

Students are given a copy of the "The Universal Declaration of Human Rights" and read them together. In groups, they match the rights listed on a master list with the articles in the Declaration and research specific rights using the...

Making groups of groups can help to organize data. Classes use statistics to group themselves using descriptive adjectives. The objective is for learners to understand that grouping qualitative data is useful when the original groups are...

Public transportation is an important aspect of any growing city. Collaborative groups work to redesign a system for a city in need of restructuring. Young scholars design a route, create a timetable, and incorporate a quality control...

Is your class prepared to read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? Do they have the reading level necessary to truly comprehend the novel? Use the cloze procedure (detailed here) to determine if this text is appropriate for your class. The first...

When you're putting together a great story, you've got to consider the source! Scholars discover the dangers of errors in reporting during the 14th activity in a 16-part Social Media Toolbox series. Groups collaborate to create a source...

What do physicists and musicians have in common? A lot more than you might think. After first viewing a slide show presentation and completing a series of skills practice worksheets on the physics of light, sound, and...

Did the image I drew match the image you saw? By simulating a satellite and a ground station, teams of two transmit data in the form of pixels in order to recreate an image. They use four different levels of brightness, creating slightly...

You've heard of it raining cats and dogs ... but what about fish and frogs? It turns out, one scenario is much more likely than the other! Intrepid weather investigators examine the curious behavior of waterspouts using a leaf blower,...

What is satire, and what are its characteristics? A handy handout provides young satirists with all the information they need to analyze a satire or to craft their own.

Middle schoolers view segment of documentary, Swift: Eyes Through Time, explore famous scientists, their theories, places of origin, and culture, document scientific viewpoints of famous scientists throughout history, and discuss...

Science is magic that works. Magical color-changing beads and a coffee can that follows voice commands are just two examples of magic tricks that rely on science. After completing a hands-on activity and an experiment investigating the...

Pupils brainstorm and write arguments for Evolution and Intelligent Design. They research the history of each of these ideas. They also examine the controversy of teaching one or both ideas in schools.

Scholars discuss purpose of search engines, define World Wide Web, become familiar with website addresses, demonstrate understanding of site updating, create a list of topics about which they would like more information, and visit at...

Show your class the difference between primary sources and secondary sources. The first page provides a list of examples of each type of source. While they research, pupils can refer back to the list quickly to make sure they are reading...

For those enrolled in a college honors program, four years of hard work culminate in one paper—an honors thesis. A handout outlines the steps to writing the paper, beginning with a sample timetable and time management instructions. Once...

Who were some of the popular playwrights of Elizabethan England? Using the provided fact sheets, scholars research playwrights, explore three different types of plays, and learn about censorship in Elizabethan England. 

Historical illustrations reveal more than what they are meant to portray. After reading Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, high schoolers view a series of illustrations, movie posters, photographs, and book covers that exemplify...

Games are great for practicing any number of basic skills. Here is a set of wonderful instructions for making a braille version of a spinning game, where children win points by correctly reading/identifying the high-frequency words the...