Curated OER
Integer Solutions to Inequality
When is the last time you assigned your students only one problem? This seemly simple problem requires learners think like a mathematician and reason about how to solve this compound inequality in one variable. More than just using...
Illustrative Mathematics
Equivalent fractions approach to non-repeating decimals
Trying to get your class to think of decimals as fractions and vice versa can lead to interesting discussions. After all, we can usually understand quickly that 1/4 is .25 but why is 1/7 not so easy to convert? This activity looks at...
Perkins School for the Blind
Prepositions
When most children learn about prepositions, they are provided with a visual to show them the concepts of on, in, near, and beside. For learners with visual impairments, concepts need to be constructed in a very concrete way. A stuffed...
Google
Advanced 2: Understanding Search Results
Effective researchers use a variety of techniques to find what they need online. Pupils who complete the activities listed here should already have an arsenal of strategies for searching. They will learn about and practice two new...
Perkins School for the Blind
Volume, Mass, and Density Boxes
Mass and density are difficult topics for kids to understand, and even more difficult when you have visual impairments or blindness. Learners will make boxes and fill them with cotton, sand, or crushed paper. They will feel the density...
Perkins School for the Blind
What Would You Do If...?
What would you do if...? That's a great question, and, when posed to learners with visual impairments, a question that can foster concept development and speaking and problem-solving skills that relate to real-life situations. The...
Showbie
Student Clicker - Socrative
Ask your class a question, and they can submit their responses in no time. Just like that, their work has been sent to you for review. Try out this super-simple app to increase engagement and inform instruction.
Showbie
Teacher Clicker - Socrative
Ask a question and get an immediate response from your class, right on your mobile device. Or, come up with a quiz the night before, and have your class race to finish the questions. The app will show you live results that you can check...
Exploratorium
Exploring Pattern Blocks
Here's a great lesson that uses one of the best manipulatives there is: pattern blocks. Elementary schoolers must fill in a variety of shapes using specific amounts of pattern blocks. This forces them to do some spatial mathematical...
Illustrative Mathematics
Field Day Scarcity
Introduce young mathematicians to concepts of financial literacy with this open-ended word problem. With seven dollars to spend during field day and given a list of available items and their prices, children must determine how they want...
Exploratorium
Corner Reflector
If you set up a triad of mirrors into a corner figuration, they act as a kaleidoscope, bouncing light waves back and forth indefinitely, changing the light that your eyes perceive. Although the materials required are very specific and...
iCivics
Drafting Board: Military Intervention
Should countries use their militaries to stop humanitarian crises in other countries? Learners make claims, organize their reasoning, and provide evidence for their arguments with this rich resource.
iCivics
Drafting Board: Electoral College
Should the president of the United States be voted by the Electoral College or the popular vote? Your young historians will consider the pros and cons of the Electoral College, and make an argument using reasons and evidence provided in...
iCivics
Drafting Board: Community Service
Should schools impose community service graduation requirements? In the final lesson of the Drafting Board series, learners solidify their practice of crafting an argument supported by sound reason and evidence.
Curated OER
Tangerine: Vocabulary
Here's a great way to make vocabulary words drawn from Edward Bloor's novel Tangerine memorable. Kids create a word square, and in one quadrant write the word. A picture goes in a second quadrant, the definition in a third, and a...
Curated OER
5th Grade Historical Fiction: Solder's Letter
A picture is worth a thousand words, but sometimes a single word can go a long way as well. Practice making inferences about character traits with a letter written from the perspective of a soldier in the American Revolution.
Civil War
Civil War Medicine: Fact or Fiction
Young historians compare the presentation of medical care during the Civil War in passages from fictional and nonfictional texts. They examine passages from Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell and Soldier's Heart by Gary Paulsen, and...
EngageNY
Calculating Conditional Probabilities and Evaluating Independence Using Two-Way Tables (part 2)
Without data, all you are is another person with an opinion. Show learners the power of statistics and probability in making conclusions and predictions. Using two-way frequency tables, learners determine independence by analyzing...
Chicago Teachers Union Quest Center
Factored Form of a Quadratic Function
Build upon linear functions to learn about quadratics. The lesson introduces the concept of zeros for quadratic functions and makes the connection to the linear factors of the function. It presents quadratics in both graphical and...
Teach Engineering
Building an Electromagnet
Your pupils can build their own electromagnet — awesome! The culminating activity in an eight-part series challenges groups to design and build their own electromagnet. The goal of the activity is to build a magnet capable of picking up...
Virginia Department of Education
Rational Equations
Provide guidance and practice of the useful skill: solving rational equations using both an algebraic and graphical approach. Pupils solve increasingly more difficult rational equations using algebraic methods. After, they study steps to...
EngageNY
Ratios II
Pupils continue the study of ratios by creating ratios from a context. The contexts present more than two quantities, and scholars create contexts that match given ratios.
Teaching Tolerance
Changing Demographics: What Can We Do to Promote Respect?
America has always been seen as a melting pot to the world. Scholars research the concept of blending cultures in the United States and how it is changing over time. The final lesson plan of a four-part series analyzes the changing...
Science Matters
Blubber Gloves: It’s All About Insulation
Instill the concept of adaptation with the help of Blubber Gloves—ziplock bags, shortening, and duct tape. Scholars discuss how animals and plants keep warm in polar regions, record their predictions, and try on their Blubber Gloves to...