New York Public Library
What's for Lunch?: New York City Restaurant Menus
Do you remember the days when a cup of coffee cost five cents? At A.W. Dennett restaurant in 1894, you could buy a five-cent cup of coffee and as well as a five-cent slice of pie to accompany it. The menu from that year is a primary...
Curated OER
Using Poetry in Teaching Reading to Special Education Students
A series of well-written activities, these lessons prompt middle schoolers reading below grade level (at a second, third, or fourth grade level) to use poetry to practice basic reading skills. They rhyme, build words, make inferences,...
Curated OER
Louisiana Crafts and Domestic Arts
Discuss with the class the reasons for identifying and defining the term material culture as refering to a vast array of objects and activities that people make and do traditionally. Your class can identify diverse crafts and decorative...
MENSA Education & Research Foundation
Probably Probability
Reinforce the concept of probability with a series of lessons highlighting the idea of likelihood, probability formulas, relative frequency, outcomes, and event predictions. The collection is made up of four lessons offering informative...
EngageNY
TASC Transition Curriculum: Workshop 8
Lights, camera, action! Math educators consider how to improve their instruction by examining a model of the five-practice problem-solving model involving a movie theater. Participants examine cognitive demand in relation to problem...
Curated OER
"L" Stands for Elevated
Students play a trivia game to learn more about the Chicago public transportation system. In this transportation lesson plan, students also create an "L" car, and write advertising slogans for Chicago's elevated trains.
Curated OER
TE Activity: Space Shelter
Students simulate that they need to develop a new home on a different planet. They design a shelter that will ensure their survival after researching the characteristics of the other planet. They write an essay about their home design.
Curated OER
Active Citizenship: The Civil Rights Work of Bob Moses
Students discuss and describe the impact of Bob Moses as an activist, compare and contrast the work of Bob Moses in the 1960's and today and develop an action plan regarding an issue they feel strongly about.
Curated OER
Personalities, Perspectives and Agendas
Students debate the causes of the American Revolution. In this American history instructional activity, students conduct research to determine how bias and perspective have made their way into historical documents....
Curated OER
Our Changing View of the Earth
Students explore the theory of Plate Tectonics. They participate in a simulation in which they re-enact the debate over Plate Tectonics vs. traditional beliefs of stationary continents that were widely accepted during the 1800's and...
Curated OER
Bioethics: Debates in Human Genetics
Students, in groups, research and prepare a debate regarding various bioethical situations. After the debates, each student prepares a ortfolio outlining their own personal opinions.
Curated OER
Who Started World War I?
Young scholars debate which power was responsible for the outbreak of World War I. In this cause and effects lesson plan, students research the causes of the outbreak of World War I on ProQuest in preparation for a (limited) reenactment...
Curated OER
Magnetic Field Activities
Students explore the idea of magnetic field through investigations of magnetic fields as produced by various common magnetic materials and direct currents. They study the vector nature of fields, the ubiquity of field sources in the...
Curated OER
The Last Abortion Clinic: Key Constitutional Issues of the Abortion Debate
Students discuss the Constitution of the United States and its amendments, then apply this discussion by creating a "Who should Decide What?" list, based upon their ideas about whether controversial issues such as abortion and medical...
Curated OER
Recommended Reading?
Students examine and defend various positions in the argument over a book ban in the Miami-Dade school system and then write a letter to the Miami-Dade school board expressing their opinion about the issues raised in the debate.
Curated OER
It's Up for Debate
In this instructional activity, students investigate the different platforms of each of the Presidential hopefuls for the 2000 election. Small groups each carefully research the platforms of an assigned candidate and then create a...
National First Ladies' Library
Statehood for Puerto Rico? You Decide!
Students discuss the legal status of territories, commonwealths, and other jurisdictions and examine the process of moving to statehood. Groups conduct research about the question of statehood for Puerto Rico and share their research in...
Curated OER
Topic: Persuasive Speech
Students examine what makes a speech persuasive. In this speech lesson, students recognizes what is needed to make a good persuasive speech and create their own persuasive speech about something related to the human body.
Curated OER
The Role of Affirmative Action in the Civil Rights Movement
Learners debate Affirmative Action. In this Civil Rights lesson students examine the development of affirmative action. Learners discuss whether affirmative action is advancing equality and civil rights or not.
Wild Screen
Evolution and Adaptation
The lesson on adaptation and evolution included here is a bit difficult to navigate using the teacher notes, but if you start with the handout, there are directions to guide you through the lesson. The link to the scrapbook within the...
Curated OER
STS Biology - Teaching Controversial Topics
Each of the three activities submitted presents difficult science topics in the context of the human experience. The activities focus on real-world problems, which have science components, from the students' perspectives.
Curated OER
Girls Speak Out
Students discuss "education" and gender equity. They examine primary sources (video clips) of women/girls who do not have the privilege of an education. They create a pamphlet that will be used to publicize the issue of girls' education...
Curated OER
: "Synthesizing Content on a Continuum" Activity: Developing Effective Communication
Young scholars express their opinions on the danger from HIV. They study appropriate speaking techniques and become aware what it feels like to learn that they have been infected with an incurable, fatal disease. The share personal...
Curated OER
Coast-to-Coast Book Design-Part 4: Let's Create the Pages!
Students work in groups to share their lists of A-B-C ideas they came up with from the previous activity. They review page layouts taught during lesson two. Students complete a rough draft of their page. They create a colored...