After a teacher-led demonstration on the lives and music of Aaron Copland and Duke Ellington, learners write a letter to them which shows their understanding of how a person's life experiences can be reflected in a composer's music. They...

Students understand where the number for pi comes from. They understand and use the formula for circumference. Students measure the circles given out and the diameters of those circles and record the results on their worksheet.

Tenth graders explore mathematics by participating in hands-on daily activities. Learners identify a list of different shapes and classify them by shape, size, sides and vertices. They utilize tangrams and geometric pieces to gain...

Young geometers investigate and apply properties of quadrilaterals.  After a review and discussion of key terms, learners use a computer applet to explore four-sided figures and classify them according to their attributes. The...

Cooperative groups select from one of four scenarios regarding hurricanes, greenhouse gases, thunderstorms, or the global climate domino effect. They discuss what kind of research needs to be conducted to address their chosen scenario...

Navigate the ups and downs of learning about energy. Future engineers consider how potential and kinetic energy apply to roller coasters. They design a roller coaster of their own and then use computer design software to showcase their...

Installment eight of the 10-part Discover Your Changing World series tests the class's understanding of climate. Scholars play alone or in small groups to assess their understanding of climate systems, causes of climate...

Teach your class how to get out of a cell — or break in. The third installment in a seven-part series introduces the class to cell membranes and their functions. The lesson plan includes information to present to the class,...

Stars exist from a few million years to over 10 billion years, depending on their mass. Scholars perform a play acting as stars to learn about their different life cycles. They develop an understanding of many of the fundamental concepts...

Review with your young learners what opposites are and use a fun tag board game called Auntie Alice to practice. After the class plays the game, pairs work on computers practicing with interactive matching/flashcards/concentration games...

Using geoboards, computer programs, and hands-on manipulative materials, elementary schoolers engage in a study of two and three-dimensional geometric shapes. This lesson is chock full of good teaching ideas on the subject, and the...

A great language arts lesson designed for emerging readers awaits your class. Rhyming words are the focus. Learners play an interactive learning game on the computer that helps them to understand words that rhyme. As with all of these...

Middle schoolers engage in a discussion about bullying. They list the many forms bullying can take, and how much of a problem bullying is at their own school. Then, learners plan their own campaign to eliminate bullying at their school....

Clean, but captivating, two online simulations demonstrate probability for middle schoolers. They can choose the number of coins and tosses and watch as the results pile up. They can choose from a variety of spinner types and the number...

This activity helps young mathematicians connect the graph and the point-slope form of a line, by first solving a real-world problem and then using that example to motivate the understanding of the equation. By manipulating the gizmo,...

Your statisticians examine the characteristics of conditional probability and the probability of simultaneous independent events. They perform computer activities to find probabilities for simple compound events. They examine the...

Using meters as years, your class works together to map out the geologic time scale on a football field. Plenty of background information is included in this lesson plan as well as several resource links and a student worksheet. Your...

With the help of the Area Officers and Perimeter Patrol, you learners will develop a better understanding of area and its relationship to perimeter. First, they view a video clip from Cyberchase, and then they visit a website to...

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...

When it comes to the origin of the human species students are full of misconceptions. Clear up the hominid confusion with this evolutionary activity focused on assisting students in understanding prehistoric man and his family tree....

In order to understand figurative language, learners read 5 poems, each exemplifying a different literary device. They discuss and write responses to each poem. They then choose one literary device which they will use as the basis...

Scholars use four different children's books by Dr. Seuss to analyze microeconomic concepts. Group presentations and research help them better understand simple economic concepts through simple stories.

As part of a five-lesson unit on how television uses technology and film techniques to communicate meaning, elementary students create their own media productions that demonstrate their understanding of these concepts.

If a random sample determines that 45% of learners favor block scheduling, is it possible that the actual percentage might be 50% or 60%? In this task, learners use data from a computer-generated simulation to determine the plausibility...