To understand the controversy surrounding the US 2000 presidential election, class members investigate the rationale behind the Electoral Collage, the intimidation involved in the election of 1876, and the 2004 American League...

Teach your readers how to engage with a text by using the request strategy. As kids read Antoine de Saint Éxupery's The Little Prince, they choose a passage of text and formulate questions to stump their partners or their...

Riddle me this! As part of a Valentine's celebration, class members are challenged to find the key to solve the riddle in Edgar Allan Poe's Valentine poem.

What is a party caucus anyway? And what part do caucuses play in the primaries? Everything future voters need to know about the four stages in the presidential selection process is provided by this resource. The 2012 US...

How do you balance a set of data? Using a ruler and some coins, learners determine whether the balance point is always in the middle. Through class and small group discussions, they find that the mean is the the best estimate of the...

Class members are introduced to a project-based learning unit on US immigration with an activity that asks them to analyze sheet music and other primary source materials to uncover issues raised by immigration.  

As Ken Jennings said, "There's just something hypnotic about maps." Certainly, the longer you look at them the more you can learn. For this project-based learning lesson, individuals study both historic and present-day maps of...

The intricate craft of narrative writing can make a happy story feel exuberant or a sad story feel devastating. With 42 extensive lessons that include poignant discussion questions, standards-aligned self-reflections, engaging writing...

Is there such a thing as fate/luck? Can one fight destiny? As part of their study of Chinua Achebe's purpose in writing Things Fall Apart, class members answer these questions from Achebe's point of view and then from William...

"Eneke the bird says since men have learnt to shoot without missing, he has learnt to fly without perching." As part of their study of Things Fall Apart, class members read Paul Hernadi and Francis Steen's essay, "The Tropical Landscapes...

How many ways can you create a dilation? Many! Individuals strengthen their understanding of dilations by using various methods to create them. The new technique builds on pupils' understanding of the ratio method. Using the ratio,...

Is it bigger, or is it smaller—or maybe it's the same size? Individuals learn to describe enlargements and reductions and quantify the result. Lesson five in the series connects the creation of a dilated image to the result. Pupils...

Do you view proofs as an essential geometric skill? The resource builds on an understanding of dilations by proving the Dilation Theorem of Segments. Pupils learn to question and verify rather than make assumptions. 

It's time for your young artists to shine! Learners examine images to determine possible similarity transformations. They then provide a sequence of transformations that map one image to the next, or give an explanation why it is...

Playing with mathematics can invoke curiosity and excitement. As pupils construct triangles with given criteria, they determine the necessary requirements to support similarity. After determining the criteria, they practice...

Why are right triangles so special? Pupils begin their study of right triangles by examining similar right triangles. Verifying through proofs, scholars recognize the three similar right triangles formed by drawing the altitude. Once...

Concepts are only valuable if they are applicable. An informative resource uses concepts developed in lessons 26 and 27 in a 36-part series. Scholars write equations and solve for missing side lengths for given right triangles....

What does geometry have to do with depression? It's an angle of course! Learners apply the tangent ratio to problem solving questions by finding missing lengths. Problems include angles of elevation and angles of depression. Pupils make...

Not all triangles are right! Pupils learn to tackle non-right triangles using the Law of Sines and Law of Cosines. After using the two laws, they then apply them to word problems. 

Was Oedipus' destiny determined by fate or by his actions? Using details from the text, ninth graders delve into a critical thinking exercise based on Sophocles' Oedipus the King. Now that Oedipus has learned his true identity, readers...

What if I can no longer justify area by counting squares? Lead a class discussion to find the area of a rectangular region with irrational side lengths. The class continues on with the idea of lower approximations and...

Using a similar process from the first instructional activity in the series of finding area approximations, a measurement resource develops the proof of the area of a circle. The problem set contains a derivation of the proof of the...

Review the principles of scaling areas and draws a comparison to scaling volumes with a third dimensional measurement. The exercises continue with what happens to the volume if the dimensions are not multiplied by the same...

Our teacher told us the formula had one-third, but why? Using manipulatives, classmates try to explain the volume formula for a pyramid. After constructing a cube with six congruent pyramids, pupils use scaling principles from...