The British and Spanish both had footholds in the New World, yet they had different approaches. Scholars explore the dynamics, along with the reasons behind immigration to the United States and business practices of the Gilded Age in a...

Not all colonials supported the American Revolution. A resource from the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown ask young historians to investigate the reasons why some colonial Virginians were loyalist and continued to support King...

Almost every American is familiar with the Supreme Court case of Brown vs. Board of Education. Far fewer understand the constitutional reasoning or the wide-ranging consequences of the ruling in the field of criminology. The interesting...

Young history sleuths examine an inventory of the belongings of a Virginia colonist and use deductive reasoning to determine what the document reveals about colonial life. They then use a Venn diagram to compare the inventory with a...

The core ideas of the Enlightenment—reason, knowledge, and freedom—represented a rebellion against the despotic control of absolute monarchs. As part of the study of the movement, class members assume the voice or either a monarch or an...

Don't be a drag. Learners work in groups to design boats that move slowly. The provided reason for the activity is that a fish caught on a fishing reel is pulling the boat, causing it to move too fast. The STEM activity teaches the class...

Is the Fourth of July a celebration for all Americans? Scholars carry out a close read of What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? Readers talk with partners about the speaker's point of view, the author's debate, reasoning, and...

The Chinese Exclusion Act—the first race-based immigration restriction—is echoed in today's debates on the topic. Using graphic organizers and structured discussions, historians consider the reasons behind the act and compare the...

Using data from the Census Bureau, learners discover the growth in minority-owned businesses over time. After crunching numbers, analytical questions probe the reasons behind the shift. 

In an age of inflamed politics, who votes, who doesn't vote, and why are the questions everyone is trying to answer. Pupils listen to scholars, journalists and data crunchers on voting statistics to make their own conclusions. A chart...

Each presidential election year, the debate about the electoral college rages. Michael C. Maibach's "A Defense of the Electoral College" offers young political scientists an opportunity to examine a reasoned argument for why the...

Mass incarceration: A result of a tough stance on crime or racial discrimination, you decide. Academics explore the history and reasons behind mass incarcerations in the United States and its impact on ethnic communities. The...

It's called a removable discontinuity for a reason. After reviewing the conditions for a removable discontinuity to exist, scholars watch an informative video to learn how to remove the discontinuity. They look at several examples...

No taxation without representation may have been the battle cry of the American Revolution, but women used the same argument when demanding their right to vote in the late 1800 and early 1900s. Young historians examine petitions from...

Differentiate everyone's knowledge. Pupils work through nine review questions to highlight key concepts from Unit 7. Items range from finding slope fields and reasoning with them to finding general and particular solutions of...

Take the next step in separating. Pupils pick up from the previous lesson to now find the particular solution of a differential equation at a given point. Scholars watch three examples of finding the particular solution and hear the...

Differentiate between models. Pupils watch as the video works through three examples of creating a differential equation to model a situation. Scholars use their knowledge of proportional relationships to set up the equations and to...

Ironically, science was the reason why the Civil War was so deadly. Despite the use of medical practices now considered barbaric—such as conducting surgery with bare, dirty hands—developments in weaponry meant that more men died on and...

Prove the best way to keep up in Geometry. Scholars first review algebraic properties from Algebra. Learners then use the properties to create two-column proofs to solve linear equations before completing algebraic proofs by providing...

Proofs may be as easy as 1, 2, 3 ... maybe. Pupils participate in creating four example proofs. The presentation uses a list of geometric properties to develop the proofs by filling in both the statements and reasons. Scholars practice...

Make a structure too sturdy to fail. Scholars first watch a video and consider the reasons for the Tacoma Narrows bridge collapse. They take part in two engineering challenges, one using newspapers and the other using spaghetti sticks...

Do not try this at home! At school! Or any other place! Groups of young journalists discuss the ethics of publishing photos of school peers performing dangerous stunts. They share their decision with the class and explain their reasoning.

Be curious! Seek out different opinions! Be conscious of your thinking process! After reading an article about confirmation bias and motivated reasoning, class members apply these strategies to the topic of school start times. They read...

Introduce young historians to primary source analysis with a lesson that teaches them how to use a four-step process to analyze a photograph of a 1913 Suffrage Parade. Groups practice the process and share their observations with the...