Illinois Department of Natural Resources
Section One: What is Biodiversity?
Four intriguing and scientific activities invite learners to explore the natural resources of their town. The activities cover concepts such as genetic traits, organizing species in a taxonomy, the differences between different species...
Curated OER
Do I Need Insurance?
Explore the different types, costs, and coverage of insurance. High schoolers compare their family's health care to their income, compare the cost of health insurance to their expected future income, and make a choice about what type of...
Curated OER
Abercrombie & Fitch Catalogue: Is it Pornographic?
Young scholars research the legal definition of pornography from a law textbook, reference books available in class or online. Students view the Abercrombie and Fitch home page. A selection of resources related to this topic is linked....
Curated OER
Robbing the 'Hood?
Young scholars investigate historical figures and how they play a role in tourism by reading and discussing the article "When Robin Hood Supped, Was it Yorkshire Pudding?" In groups, students investigate issues related in the article in...
Curated OER
A Question of Faith?
Should organized prayer be prohibited at high school sporting events? Learners explore their own feelings about prayer in school-sponsored events, before discussing the recent Supreme Court decision banning public prayer at high school...
Curated OER
Exploring Career Choices
Students complete a self-analysis exercise and choose a career to research based on the results. Students research their career using various resources including interview and internet research. They use the information gathered to...
Curated OER
De-Mystifying Poetry: Understanding Narrative Poetry
Tenth graders explore narrative poetry. They analyze sections of a poem and present to groups. They compose their own narrative poems using pictures as prompts. They exchange their poems and analyze their classmate's poem.
Curated OER
Kumeyaay Indians
Useful for literary analysis, citing textual evidence, or summary skills, this lesson about the Kumeyaay Indians would be a good addition to your language arts class. Middle schoolers read novels and summarize the literature in their own...
Curated OER
Skittles Galore!
Youngsters show understanding of accurate division of whole number, decimals, fractions, and percents using manipulatives (candies). They use white boards to demonstrate their understanding of representing numbers as defined in the...
Curated OER
Move It!!!
Students explore motion by observing the movement of people and duplicating those movements. They compare and contrast various kinds of movements and identify different types of movements in pictures. They build an object that can be...
Curated OER
It's Opposite Day
Celebrate Opposite Day by using a Visual Thesaurus to match words to their antonyms. They match a list of vocabulary words to their antonym counterparts using the Visual Thesaurus, and then they play Antonym Bingo with the words from...
Curated OER
Mad-Libbing Your Way Into Modern Poetry
Use a Mad-Libs like activity to create modern poetry! Writers will identify different words and their parts of speech and study "The Red Wheelbarrow" by Williams Carlos Williams. Then, use the sheets attached to craft your own poem! An...
Curated OER
Exploring the Power of Puns
Read and analyze a variety of Shakespearean and contemporary puns using Visual Thesaurus computer software. Middle and high schoolers analyze a pun as a class; in small groups they analyze a Shakespearean pun using contextual clues and...
Curated OER
Seeing Words in a New Way
What's the best resource to use when looking up words? Use Visual Thesaurus to see a word's meaning. The class accesses the interactive website and then compares and contrasts the difference between using a traditional dictionary and the...
Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian In Your Classroom: The Music in Poetry
Take poetry off the page and put it into terms of movement, physical space and, finally, music with this series of three lessons from the Smithsonian Institution. This resource introduces students to two poetic forms that originated as...
Curated OER
Rooting One's Way to Meaning
Discover the Virtual Thesaurus with your class. They use the Virtual Thesaurus to assist them in an inquiry-based approach to discovering the meanings of some common Latin and Greek roots. Each child then teaches a particular root and...
Curated OER
The Mighty Elements: Using the Visual Thesaurus to Investigate Chemical Elements
Pupils create trading cards for elements in the Periodic Table. Initially, they are introduced to the Periodic Table of Elements and the concept of elements in the world around us. After dividing into groups, learners use the Visual...
Lesson Plans
Macromolecule Worksheet
Biology scholars are asked to define and explain, to complete a chart, and to fill in the blanks for seventeen macromolecule questions. Easy for pupils to read and comprehensive in content, this is a resource that you will want to use....
Curated OER
Protein Synthesis Worksheet
Future geneticists use base pairing rules to build DNA and RNA polypeptide strands, and then explain both transcription and translation. Although the chains themselves are a little blurry, there is plenty of room in them for learners to...
Curated OER
American Imperialism
Critical analysis skills can be built in a variety of ways. Using editorial cartoons (both domestic and foreign) learners will consider how American Imperialism was perceived during the late 19th century. Critical thinking questions,...
Curated OER
Courtship and Marriage
Students research the concept of courtship and marriage as it pertains to early New England and explore the values and culture that shaped our history. In this courtship and marriage instructional activity, students examine primary...
Curated OER
Subject-Verb Agreement Context Exercises
Focus on verb agreement with this clear, concise worksheet. Various subject-verb combinations and sentence examples prompt learners to choose the correct verb to fill in the blank. A great tool and handy guide for this area of grammar.
Food Project
Introduction to Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems
A series of hands-on, outdoor activities increase understanding of agricultural terms, soil management, pest control, and more. Plan ahead for this one as it requires a number of supplies and could be messy. Activities include...
Curated OER
The Art of Advertising
Get your class thinking about advertising with this lesson plan. Over the course of 15 days, your class will discuss advertising techniques, study the concepts of pathos, logos, and ethos, and analyze the persuasive techniques of...