Middle schoolers study the three types of mass media messages: visual media, written media, and audio media. After a class discussion which has them list examples of each, learners get into pairs and work on analyzing the "Four A's" in...

Fourth graders read the book, Good Dog by Alexandra Day. In this writing instructional activity, 4th graders re-write the story from a chosen character's point of view. This instructional activity can be used with many other...

Designing a game is the focus of this probability lesson. Groups develop and build a unique game, including directions for how to play, a calculation of the expected value of winning, and a personal reflection. The plan provides a...

Take flight with a fun activity focused on graphing data on a coordinate plane. As learners study the data for Granny's hot-air balloon trip, including the time of day and the distance of the balloon from the ground, they practice...

Young scientists demonstrate their creativity while completing several activities, to assess genetic variations and mutations. Instructors provide a list of options and scientists choose to write a comic strip, create a book,...

To get the word out that the Great Pacific garbage patch (GPGP) contains millions of pounds of non-biodegrading plastics, individuals research the GPGP and write an article for a newsletter. Researchers present their facts in a...

Students write an essay from rough draft to final copy about the Underground Railroad. Civil disobedience is researched from a variety of sources. There is a prewriting exercise that is included in the lesson. The whole writing process...

Students create metallic Bas-relief scultures using basic art supplies and the technique of "tooling" in this Art lesson plan with croos-curricular connections in Social Studies and Math. A scoring rubric is included for assessment and...

What do Pascal's law, Archimedes' Principle, and Bernoulli's Principle have to do with fluid mechanics? The included PowerPoint presentation provides the basic definitions and equations associated with the three. A set of homework...

It all adds up to one. Pupils solve several items that involve finding sums of fractions in relationship to a whole. The assessment task uses fractions with unlike denominators to determine the amount of a tank of gas and the amount of...

High schoolers compare and contrast the societies of India and the United States by creating a chart. In groups, they give examples of each type of classification. They present their material to the class while identifying the role of...

When it comes to testing, practice makes perfect. A set of free-response questions from the AP® English Language and Composition exam help writers prepare for the test. Three different prompts cover topics such as monolingual English...

Learners develop a rubric or scoring guide to assess newpaper articles. They rate the story and write the reasons for the rating. An Essay Scoring Guide is attached for reference.

Prompt scholars to complete a magic square using only variables. Then they can attempt to solve a numerical magic square using algebra. 

Sixth graders explore philosophy by researching the Dalai Lama. In this Tibetan history lesson, 6th graders discuss the influence of Buddhism on the Dalai Lama and the unique view on life a Buddhist must have. Students read a Tibetan...

Here is a (great) lesson on using parentheses! The task requires the expression of ages using algebraic expressions, including the distributive property. Pupils use their expressions to determine the individual ages.

Ready, aim, fire! Launch to a new level of understanding as scholars build and test their own catapults. Learners explore lever design and how adjusting the fulcrum changes the outcome. 

Explore the behavior of light with different materials. Collaborative groups determine whether certain materials absorb, reflect, diffract, or transmit light waves. They then measure the angle of incidence and angle of reflection.

A two-day assessment challenges scholars to read an excerpt from the story, Bud Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis then complete a series of exercises in preparation for a writing assignment. Day one includes an independent...

What's it like to study snakes, reptiles, and turtles in their natural habitats? Serving as the mid-unit assessment, pupils read an interview with a rainforest scientist. Next, they analyze the text and answer text-dependent questions.

Let's save some money! High schoolers investigate different options for price reductions. They then determine the best and worst sale from a list of options.

There is often more to data than meets the eye. Scholars learn that they need to analyze data before making conclusions as they look at data that describes the number of candy bars boys and girls eat. They disprove a given conclusion and...

Students are introduced to news writing being a concise, factual, and informative type of writing. They assess that publishing an article in a newspaper style utilizes a word processing program. Each student researches the Titanic and...