Students attempt to put puzzle pieces together with no prior knowledge. This activity shows students at the beginning of the year that history is like a puzzle, there are often missing pieces, and many ways the pieces can turn to look...

High schoolers use rocks and fossils to interpret the geology of an area. They use prior knowledge and make recommendations about where to build a subdivision based on the rocks.

Students investigate protein electrophoresis in a lab setting. Full laboratory equipment is needed and safety should be taught. The level of prior knowledge needed to perform lab is high and is ideal for an honors class.

Students review their prior knowledge on topographical maps. Using a map, they examine the sea floor off the coast of San Diego, California. With a partner, they chart the sea floor of an area and use cutouts to create a visual...

High schoolers discuss the importance of guardian figures in Japanese Buddhist practices using prior knowledge and visual cues gathered from examples of Japanese art. This lesson can be extended to include a creative project.

Students create their own Chinese tangrams using in-class direction and prior knowledge in this two-day lesson plan for the early elementary classroom. Chinese toys are also explored.

Students review their prior knowledge on the topic of printmaking. Individually, they draw three ideas for their own print and watch a video about the techniques used by the Japanese. In groups, they move from station to station to make...

Sixth graders explore different geographic relationships in like drawing lines, rays, and parallelograms. This instructional activity could be used for review because it covers more than one concept. The students should have prior...

Ninth graders practice recognizing similarities and differences found in the graphing of inequalities and equations. Once observatioons are made they solve some of their own applying prior knowledge.

First graders discuss their prior knowledge of The Golden Rule and compare it to their school's Pledge of Excellence. They discuss the five parts to the pledge and discuss how to be a caring friend, how to do their personal best, how to...

Students apply basic communication and math skills to situations. They apply prior knowledge to list characteristics of different animals. They listen to music to engage multiple senses. Then images of animals are shared with them to...

Students review their prior knowledge on brine shrimp. In groups, they raise a group of brine shrimp and design an artificial environment in which they can live. They change the conditions of the environment to see how the shrimp react...

Ninth graders investigate the concept of bioluminescent. They break down the word phonetically for correct pronunciation. This is done as a warm up for learning. Then students create a list of the creatures from prior knowledge and...

Students discuss what they believe Supreme Court Justices should do while in office. As a class, they brainstorm a list of their prior knowledge about the justices and Supreme Court. In their journal, they write about the qualities of...

Students discuss prior knowledge about mice, and read a mouse poem. They listen to the teacher read "A Weekend With Wendell" and discuss Wendell's possible reaction when coming to visit the school media center. Students compose a class...

Students discuss prior knowledge of Haiku. They use computers with internet connection to find information about haiku. Students work in small groups to summarize their research and discuss Japanese culture. Students write and illustrate...

Students will define what a desert is through the creation of a KWL Chart. This will help students to tap prior knowledge and make new connections with the new curriculum being delivered in the lesson.

Young scholars investigate the coccept of promoting the campaign for more women to be involved in the community government in Turkey. They draw from prior knowledge of other women's movements to create context. Research is conducted into...

Third graders study the diet of the brine shrimp. This is an introduction to a math measurement of a micrometer because of the size of the food brine shrimp feed upon. They make predictions about the types of food shrimp eat based on...

Students practice trombone skills while playing the song "Mary Ann" in this Music lesson for the beginning trombone class. The lesson emphasizes the use of proper techniques and should be used with students who have prior knowledge of...

Students use a five-step process to write a persuasive essay about an issue that is related to the Mississippi River. Students build an argument based on prior knowledge and information from a variety of sources. Students base their...

Middle schoolers demonstrate their comprehension of PREDICTING AND HYPOTHESIZING by... ¿¿¿ Predicting a logical outcome to a situation, using prior knowledge, experience and/or evidence. AND ¿¿¿ Explaining reasons for that...

Seventh graders review previous reading of Rikki Tikki Tavi. They discuss prior knowledge of simile, metaphor, idiom, and hyperbole. Students practice using vocabulary words from the story by listing synonyms for them. Students read from...

Eighth graders, in pairs, use pasta, rice, and prior knowledge of the planets to construct multi-stage classification systems. While examining the bags of pasta and rice, they note the similarities and differences of the nine planets. ...