Overcoming Obstacles
Using Appropriate Resources
A lesson dives deep into reference materials. The class begins with a discussion of which resources are best used for specific purposes and how to identify ways to get the needed information. Learners share information about the internet...
Library Sparks
Reference Tools Vocabulary Challenge
Students love the opportunity of going to the library to jump into that one comfy chair in the whole room with a book, or be a lucky one to get to the computers before anyone else. But knowing how to locate books and other reference...
Curated OER
Learning Vocabulary by Using Reference Materials
Finding engaging ways to help your middle schoolers build their vocabulary is not easy to do. The lesson presented here offers a great way to motivate them to build vocabulary by making it into a game. Teams of pupils use a dictionary...
Curated OER
Reference Materials
After a class discussion where kids share how they find answers to their questions, learners explore the world of reference materials such as, an atlas, an almanac, and an encyclopedia. The Internet is also discussed as a way to access...
Curated OER
Word Reference Materials
A class discussion on reference materials opens up a lesson on how to use these important resources. They discover that dictionaries, glossaries, and thesauruses are called word reference resources, and they practice using them. The...
NSW Department Mineral Resources
Aboriginal Use of Raw Materials
What's the difference between base metals and precious metals? Experimenting with natural metals is an interesting way for kids to learn about the world around them. Use a resource that contains over 30 pages of worksheets and...
Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction
Using Our Senses to Observe
Look around and explore. Little ones use their five senses with some day-to-day activities designed to guide observation and apply STEM strategies. Young scientists learn through comparing/contrasting and observing with magnifiers as...
Curated OER
Reference Materials
Students discuss reasons to use reference materials, identify correct reference material to use for specific information, find answers to specific questions by locating information in encyclopedia, dictionary, atlas, almanac, glossary,...
Council for Economic Education
Using an Excel Checkbook
High school is the time that many scholars get their first jobs. Help young entrepreneurs apply economic principles to crucial skills for their new jobs and for functioning in society in general. They use Excel to balance a checkbook by...
PBS
Copyright and Fair Use
When is using someone else's copyrighted material appropriate? Learn about copyright and fair use with a instructional activity from PBS.org. Scholars read through a reference sheet about authors' rights and users' rights, and then...
Curated OER
Using Prefixes, Suffixes and Root Words to Improve College Level Vocabulary
Grow vocabulary skills with an understanding of affixes and word roots. Included here are a few activities and plenty of materials you can use to support your learners as the focus on building vocabulary.
Curated OER
Aquatic Roots
Young scientist use reference materials to research various local aquatic plants and or animals to find out whether they are natives or exotics. They investigate their impacts on people, other animals and the environment. Students...
PBS
Using Primary Sources: Wide Open Town
A picture speaks a thousand words, no matter how old! Scholars use political cartoons from the era of Prohibition and the Temperance Movement to analyze what, a primary document (in this case, a bootlegger's notebook) is telling them...
EngageNY
Making Scale Drawings Using the Parallel Method
How many ways can you create a dilation? Many! Individuals strengthen their understanding of dilations by using various methods to create them. The new technique builds on pupils' understanding of the ratio method. Using the ratio,...
EngageNY
Prove the Pythagorean Theorem Using Similarity
Amaze your classes with the ability to find side lengths of triangles immediately — they'll all want to know your trick! Learners use the Pythagorean Theorem and special right triangle relationships to find missing side lengths.
EngageNY
Using Sample Data to Compare the Means of Two or More Populations
Determine whether there is a difference between two grades. Teams generate random samples of two grade levels of individuals. Groups use the mean absolute deviation to determine whether there is a meaningful difference between the...
EngageNY
Describing Variability Using the Interquartile Range (IQR)
The 13th instructional activity in a unit of 22 introduces the concept of the interquartile range (IQR). Class members learn to determine the interquartile range, interpret within the context of the data, and finish by finding the IQR...
American Chemical Society
Using Dissolving to Identify an Unknown
There is a solvent called aqua regis that can dissolve gold! After observing a solubility demonstration, groups receive four known crystals and one unknown. Based on the demo, they design an experiment to determine the identity of the...
Washington State Department of Health
Let's Cook!
Recipes, tasting activities, images of fruits and veggies, fun food facts... you name it, this resource has it! Your class will be cooking up wonderful dishes in no time with these materials. Included here are recipes, handouts,...
Curated OER
Encyclopedia Introduction
Second graders demonstrate how to use reference materials. In this library media lesson plan, 2nd graders are introduced to the encyclopedia and are shown how to use the encyclopedia as a reference. Students use encyclopedias to complete...
Curated OER
Fossil Fuels (Part I), The Geology of Oil
Junior geologists work through three mini-lessons that familiarize them with the formation and location of fossil fuels. Part one involves reading about petroleum and where it comes from via a thorough set of handouts. A lab activity...
EngageNY
Incredibly Useful Ratios
Start the exploration of trigonometry off right! Pupils build on their understanding of similarity in this lesson plan that introduces the three trigonometric ratios. They first learn to identify opposite and adjacent...
Curated OER
Land Use and Lawmaking in California
Students design a plan for a housing development in their city. In this house development lesson plan, students observe pictures of land use, research lawmaking, and develop a plan for an environmentally friendly housing development in...
Curated OER
Using Context Clues
Middle schoolers receive a handout that lists the five types of context clues. The class divides up into groups of three or four, and each group chooses five unfamiliar words. They write a multiple-choice question for each of their five...