How do you know if your pupils have a deep understanding of proportional relationships? Assessment is key! A helpful series starts with questions on proportional relationships modeled after the Smarter Balanced Assessment items....

Connect proportional linear equations and systems. The seven-question assessment is the last installment in a 33-part series. The items cover comparing proportional relationships, slope concepts, and simultaneous linear...

Asses the class to determine their knowledge of proportional relationships involving percents. Class members work through the nine-question assessment with a variety of percent problems. The multi-step problems involve simple interest,...

Students research and discuss the Graduated Driver Licensing program, and examine reasons that contribute or cause automobile accidents. They prepare a speech from the perspective of a lobbyist either for or against the AAA plan.

Learners use relevant evidence and logical reasoning to construct theories for dinosaur behavior. They examine recent evidence that challenges a prevailing dinosaur theory.

Students investigate reasons why James Madison is called the "Father of the Constitution." They discuss three events during his presidency that raised constitutional questions and look at Madison's opinions of those questions. They...

Study opposing viewpoints with this activity, which examines President Bush's September 2004 address at the United Nations. Middle schoolers study the text of the address, and then stage formal debates arguing for or against the reasons...

Students identify and experiment with dendrochronology (the study of tree rings to answer ecological questions about the recent past) and come up with conclusions as to what possible climatic conditions might affect tree growth in their...

Students are able to name one kind of harmful bacteria and why it hurts us and also name one kind of helpful bacteria and how we use it. They describe the process of growing bacterial cultures in a lab. Students create a reasonable...

  Wake up, sleepy head! High schoolers craft a creative presentation that represents how they feel when they wake up on a school morning. After the presentations, a reading of Academic Sleep Times and Academic Performance launches a...

Students, while working in groups, recognize how to use a decision making process to make positive and healthy decisions concerning health issues. They brainstorm reasons for choosing drugs, witness a decision making power point and...

Fourth graders make a detailed observations about non-native and native grasses. They define reasonable policies that they expect to follow while working in the CRWA. Students list, in small groups, two treatments that have been used in...

Students discover the relationship between the circumference of a circle and its diameter. They find the length of an arc of a circle.Students use estimation strategies in real-world applications to predict results (i.e., interpolation...

Does practice really make perfect? What is perfect, and how is it measured? Your aspiring writers will respond to the adage "Practice makes perfect." There's an example answer provided, but consider removing it to see what reasoning they...

Young historians explore the reason American colonists were unhappy under British rule. Class members complete hands-on activities and participate in a group discussions to understand why colonists drafted the Declaration of Independence.

The epic clash of reason and emotion comes to life in this informative presentation. Detailing the period of Romanticism in 19th century Europe, these slides contain pictures of the most famous pieces of art during this period. Viewers...

Commas can be complicated. Help learners achieve a greater understanding of comma usage with this handout, which includes two different comma activities. Following given directions, young writers punctuate provided sentences and combine...

Explore United States history with this lesson on George Washington and the Revolutionary War. After reading biographical information about George Washington, learners make a list of ten reasons for the revolution. They create a timeline...

What happened first? Learners examine four sets of images to sequence events using ordinal numbers. There is an example to get them started, and the first two have three pictures to organize. The final story is more challenging with four...

“A primary reason for communication is to reach UNDERSTANDING — not necessarily AGREEMENT.” Black Tiger Academy’s final martial arts instructional activity of 20 is bringing it all together to review what has been learned in the previous...

This problem involving rates may look simple at first, but it is actually quite challenging. Two different sized fields are harvested by a team of workers and learners must use different rates to calculate the number of workers on the...

In an open-ended problem, learners calculate costs involved in driving an ice cream van. Is it better to park in one place or drive through different neighborhoods? Learners look at these and other factors and must make reasonable...

How many cars would be involved in a traffic jam 12 miles long? A slightly ambiguous writing prompt gives learners the opportunity to practice making reasonable assumptions to tackle a real-life problem. Few details are given, so they...