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Mission Possible
Students create blueprints for imaginary inventions based on real-world technological principles. They write explanations of how their inventions work in the form of movie dialogues.
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Race Toward a Cure
Students come to explain how the presence of a mutation in the BRCA-1 or BRCA-2 gene, along with another acquired sometime after birth, affect the chances developing breast cancer.
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Musical Imagery
Students experience musical imagery. They link this musical concept to literary imagery to gain an understanding of the use of imagery in both genres. After listening to a varriety of sounds, students will compose and perform a melody.
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Death Be Not Proud
Students consider various opinions concerning the execution of Timothy McVeigh. They formulate, and share in writing, their own perspectives on his execution and on the lasting impact of the Oklahoma City bombing.
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Smiles Change the World
Students explore ways to notice when others are sad, happy, calm, or angry. They act out feelings and have others try to identify them. The listen to The Brand New Kid, focusing on plot, characterization, and illustrations. They create a...
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Art as Therapy
Learners explore how they connect with artwork on an emotional level through writing and the creation of an original piece of art.
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Won't You Be My (E-)Neighbor?
Students explore the concepts of community, belonging and human relationships through an Internet application designed to foster neighborly relations and write a persuasive statement to recruit others to join their community.
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Occupational Oxymoron
Students consider their own notions of poverty, examine the life of a woman classified as "working poor" from a variety of perspectives, and present their findings to the class. Then, students synthesize their knowledge in a paper.
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Trial By Wire
Students identify the arguments on both sides of the new Medicare policy debate over claim hearings. They participate in a mock trial to adjudicate the fairness of the new policy.
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Desert Cinquains
Students use the cinquain structure and correct parts of speech to write a poem with a desert theme.
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E-tiquette
Students develop appropriate ways to communicate via e-mail. They evaluate examples of inappropriate e-mails and create preferable alternatives.
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Cookie Topography
Young scholars construct a cross section diagram showing elevation changes on a "cookie island." Using a chocolate chip cookie for an island, they locate the highest point in centimeters on the cookie and create a scale in feet. After...
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If I Could Have Lived in Another Time or Culture
Third graders develop multi-paragraph compositions. They include an introduction, first and second level support, and a conclusion. They use a variety of sentence structures (e.g., simple, compound/complex) and sentence types (i.e.,...
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Nature in a Flick of the Eye
Students explore the visual information a diorama artist provides by thinking of all the details for the background of a location described by their teacher. They investigate diorama artists and their importance in creating the illusion...
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Thinking About Life in Geological Time Scales
Students create a large (classroom-sized) timeline showing the history of life on Earth for the last 5 billion years. They are able to identify the events that are relevant to their taxonomic projects (the Origins and important...
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Discovering the Properties of Matter
Young scholars identify the properties of the three states of matter and observe the movement of Oobleck and be able to compare its movement to that of solids and liquids. They record in their Science Journal what they discovered about...
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Language Arts: Creating Multimedia Reports
Ninth graders create multimedia presentations about their backgrounds and family heritage. They discover how to use the necessary computer skills and practice them in pairs. Students present their projects to the class and have a general...
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A Day on the Farm
First graders, with a collection of various art supplies, plant a seed to observe it growing and record specific data on a data record sheet. They create a collage from various magazines of ten different foods farm animals eat and make a...
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Brief Encounters (Building Bridges)
Students experience what it is like to confront and deal with a culture highly different from their own. They gain skills in observing and describing behaviors and develop an understanding of how our cultural values influence the way we...
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Fifty Years: From the Little Rock Nine to the Jena Six
Students discuss how the issues surrounding school integration have changed since the Little Rock Nine entered Central High School. They discuss the recent events in Jena, Louisiana. Students write a letter to a school administrator...
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A Problem with Authority?
Students consider the prospect of inviting a controversial leader to speak in their community. They analyze the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's controversial invitation to speak at Columbia University. Students create...
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A Place for the Birds
Students reflect on bird migrations and develop a project to collect data on bird species from across North America to further investigate the ranges and migrations of common birds. They create a field guide of North American birds.
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Seashell Homes
Pupils listen to a story about seashells. They discuss shelled animals. Learners describe the function of seashell. Pupils relate the function of a seashell to their own dwelling. They differentiate between shelled animals that make...
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Straight Talk On Tough Issues
Learners engage in a instructional activity that is focused upon the concept of breast cancer and research is conducted using a variety of reference sources. They reflect upon how different people deal with the tragedy of cancer and then...