Student Achievement Partners
"The Glorious Whitewasher" from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain with Mini-Assessment
It's the classic scene: Tom Sawyer is whitewashing a fence. Expose your learners to Mark Twain's humor while reinforcing reading comprehension. Eighth graders are encouraged to read and reread, achieving as much exposure to the text...
Curated OER
Recreating A Mission
Students role-play a satellite recovery mission. They explain and appreciate the complexity and planning involved in carrying out a shuttle mission.
Curated OER
What's Left to Explore-Space and the Ocean Floor
Middle schoolers describe unique exploration studies of the ocean floor and space. They utilize research skills and write summaries of research studies using the Internet. Students answer a variety of questions over their research findings.
Curated OER
An Alphabet Journey Through Space
Third graders author a book about the universe to be shared with a younger audience. After compiling an alphabetic list of words related to the universe, 3rd graders research a definition for each word and put them in book form. Books...
Curated OER
Soaring Through Space With a Kid Pix Slide Show
First graders create a slide show on Kid Pix about space. In this space lesson plan, 1st graders will explore the earth, sun, moon, and planets. After exploring their motions and locations around the sun, they create a 4 page slide show...
Curated OER
Human Factors
Students design a space settlement for colonizing a planet in our solar system. In small groups, they play a space colony game and read an article about human needs in space to prepare for the design stage. They discuss their design...
Curated OER
My Spacecraft and Cassini
Students discover solutions to the problems that NASA used in a previous activity. They write a paper comparing and contrasting their spacecraft idea to the one that was actually used to go to Saturn. They also discover Saturn's moons.
Curated OER
Hubble Space Telescope
Learners investigate the universe through the eyes of the Hubble space telescope. They conduct research from looking at the universe that is simulated with a digital projector. The images are projected onto the wall in a simulation of...
Curated OER
Create a Full-Scale Layout of the International Space Station
Students work together to convert scale dimensions to determine the true size of the International Space Station. They create a full-scale outline of the station. They share their layout with the class.
Curated OER
Positive/Negative Bugs
Bugs can be creepy - and fun! Kids create a positive and negative design by repeatedly drawing a simple insect overlaid with a geometric shape. The outcome is really neat and will help build spacial reasoning, visual acuteness,...
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics
Where Are We Going?
Come take a ride on the space bus! Scholars go on an imaginary trip to pick up their peers from the inner and outer planets while reinforcing math skills. First, learners round decimals to identify each planets' distance from Earth....
Curated OER
Dog Pen Problem
Teach your class about various approaches to solving the problem of maximizing the area of a rectangle space with a fixed perimeter in the context of a farmer's dog pen. Then, they complete a worksheet independently to summarize the...
Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation
Greenhouse Gas Game
You will need to gather a number of tokens, bags, and other various game components in order to incorporate this activity into your curriculum. Different tokens represent carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. Printable 8.5"x11"...
Baylor College
Energy Sources
Take the concept of burning calories to a more literal level in the second of seven lessons about energy in the realm of food and fitness. Using simple materials, groups will burn breakfast cereal and a pecan to see which one gives off...
Virginia Department of Education
Permutations and Combinations
Counting is not all it adds up to be — sometimes it involves multiplying. The lesson introduces permutations and combinations as ways of counting, depending upon whether order is important. Pupils learn about factorials and the formulas...
BioEd Online
Serving Sizes
When it comes to eating a balanced diet, portion control is paramount, but what is the difference between the serving size on the nutrition facts label and a portion as determined by the USDA? In a comprehensive look at portion control,...
Baylor College
It Begins with the Heart
Aspiring anatomists label a photograph of a human heart by comparing it to a colored diagram on the same page. The video that is mentioned in the procedure does not seem to be available, but the overview provides plentiful background...
Baylor College
Energy for Life (Energy from Food)
Energy comes in many forms, but how do living things get the energy they need to survive and thrive? In a simple, controlled experiment with yeast, water, and sugar, groups make observations about how yeast reacts with water alone, then...
Polar Trec
Create a Topographic Profile of Beacon Valley
Landforms in Beacon Valley, Antarctica, where there is no snow, bear a striking resemblance to landforms found on Mars. Scholars identify landforms found in Beacon Valley through analysis of topographic maps in the activity. They then...
Baylor College
Gases Matter
As a demonstration or as a hands-on activity, your class watches as the combination of vinegar and baking soda produce carbon dioxide gas. The intent of the lesson is to help youngsters understand that gases occupy space. It is included...
Curated OER
1984 by George Orwell
Readers of Nineteen Eighty-Four engage in a close reading exercise that directs their focus to the key details Orwell provides in the opening paragraphs to introduce his dystopian society. The included worksheeet is divided into three...
BioEd Online
Muscles and Bones: Nutrition
Got milk? Or almonds, sardines, or tofu? Calcium is important throughout life, but especially so for developing bodies. If teens do not consume enough calcium while they are growing, they are at a much higher risk of osteoporosis and...
US Environmental Protection Agency
Tree Rings: Living Records of Climate
Open with a discussion on weather and climate and then explain how tree rings can provide scientists with information about the earth's past climate. Pupils analyze graphics of simulated tree rings from various US locations for the...
Illustrative Mathematics
Shape Hunt Part 2
Shapes are everywhere in the world around us, from rectangular doors to the circular wheels of a car. The second lesson plan in this series opens the eyes of young mathematicians to this wonderful world of shapes as they search the...