Your pupils will be expected to determine the meaning of words and how those words affect the meaning of a text. Help them master this skill with the ideas listed here. First, look over the two activities that could be used for your...

How long would it take to break into a safe by testing every possible combination of codes? Pupils view a video clip of this happening and must determine the total amount of time before success. They measure how long each step takes, add...

What is the best way to test water quality? Using plastic bottles, scholars create monitoring sensors to test water quality. Creating three different sensors allows individuals to measure water quality at different water levels.

You want your class to meet all of the Common Core standards, and here is one way to tackle the first speaking and listening standard. Given a theme to focus on from "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" by Leo Tolstoy, small groups come up...

One way to get your class to evaluate and synthesize multiple multimedia sources is through a research project. The idea here is that class members will watch videos and listen to scientific debates in order to create a casebook about...

Whether you're lost at sea, lost in the woods, or testing communication skills, teamwork is always important. Build your middle and high schoolers' cooperative and collaborative skills with four activities that prompts groups to compete...

Boxing takes on a whole new meaning! The second installment of the three-part series has groups create lidless boxes from construction paper that can hold the most rice. After testing out their constructions, they build a new box....

For many young children it seems obvious that longer objects are heavier than shorter objects. This assumption is put to the test as the class investigates the relationship between length and weight in a whole-group activity. Using a...

Wrap up the unit in one final design. Pairs use their knowledge of aviation to design new flying machines and record how their designs take into consideration the forces that act upon airplanes. The pupils determine whether their designs...

What do lemurs do best? They move! Lemurs like to jump, run, hop, and climb and it's your class's job to document seven fun lemur behaviors. The class starts by discussing why lemurs are considered primates, and then they isolate seven...

Discuss the ethical and practical consequences of dishonesty at work by analyzing a hypothetical situation in which a young employee at a pizza shop is being asked by her friends for free meals.

Save the soup! Scholars devise a flotation device using straws, balloons, foam, corks, and other objects. A can of soup must stay afloat for at least a minute with this device—your dinner might depend on it!

Do you think the lab smells like rotten eggs? Sorry to hear about your sulfering. A set of five experiments covers many different topics including seasons, gravity, food, precipitation, and photosynthesis. Though not presented as a...

High schoolers test wood splints that have been soaked in mystery solutions to identify the different colors it produces when lit. The lesson concludes with a reading passage and analysis questions.

Learners time each other as they read as many high-frequency words as possible in one minute. Peers record progress.

Everything in moderation, especially candy. Scholars design and build a dispenser for candy. But, they can't get too carried away—only three or four pieces of candy can come out of the dispenser at one time.

Can your classes solve the problem of the smelly sweat sock? Young scientists complete a lab investigation that begins by using electrochemistry to generate colloidal silver. They use their solutions to test the rate of microbial growth...

What's that lurking in the shadows? An activity that demonstrates how eclipses happen. Science scholars investigate how light and distance interact to form shadows. The experiment uses simple materials to generate data and observations...

See what it feels like to be a robot. Scholars use programming vocabulary to program a human robot and test out their codes by acting them out. The code should result in stacking six cups into a pyramid.

Feel like a rocket scientist for the day. Using only paper and tape, scholars create a framework for a spaceship to Mars. Each sheet of paper costs $10 million and each piece of tape costs $100,000. Make sure you stay within budget!

Explore the respiratory system with a model. First, pupils build a set of lungs to experiment how they inflate and deflate. Then, they delve deeper into the topic with a web quest to discover new information about the nose, trachea, and...

This Daily Teaching Tools resource provides test taking tips for students. The following are a few of the tips included: QAR, pacing, and underlining.