Wait, you mean researchers don't all use Wikipedia? Teach your class about intelligent research with a lesson about evaluating digital sources. The lesson starts with a quickwrite and includes vocabulary exercises and several...

How reliable is a painting of the first Thanksgiving if it was created 300 years after the fact? Learners assess the validity of a primary source image to determine what it can actually reveal about this event. 

Don't get caught plagiarizing! Before starting your research unit, use this instructional activity to help your young writers identify plagiarism. The truth is, many kids don't even realize when they're doing it! They practice citing...

Eugenics philosophy takes survival of the fittest to a whole new level. With a research-focused lesson, young scientists examine the history of the eugenics movement and its impact on society. Pupils engage with a video clip, primary...

Students examine the need to cite sources and respect intellectual property. They determine the need to use their own ideas and words.

Why does it get so hot inside of our cars in the summertime? The greenhouse effect! Lab groups experiment to see what happens to an ice cube enclosed in a jar and placed in sunlight as compared to an ice cube outside of the jar. They...

Middle schoolers will paraphrase a resource without plagiarizing. Then rewrite after reading text. They then evaluate the site or reference they are using for accuracy. In the end, they complete a note-taking organizer.

Small groups in your physics class collaborate on researching and forming an opinion on whether or not to continue operating the Indian Point nuclear power plant in New York. Once the information is gathered and an argument developed,...

A reading of What's The Big Idea, Ben Franklin? provides an opportunity for class members to practice paraphrasing, quoting, and citing sources. An exercise on how to avoid plagiarizing is also included. 

Use this exceptional resource to examine the discourse and debate that occurred at the start of the War of 1812 with your class. Learners will first consider their own position on the war in a silent journal writing activity. Then after...

The Internet is known as the information superhighway, but sometimes it's hard to know when to hit the brakes on unreliable sources. Using a well-rounded lesson plan, pupils read and summarize articles about the gender pay gap and...

This instructional activity starts out with a guided discussion about the statement "Birds fly in the sky; airplanes fly in the sky; therefore, airplanes are birds" and goes on to cover logical fallacies and reliable sources, relating...

Future public health advocates read a case study of a combination of water pollutants that may be linked to autism. The class is split into three groups, one to research each of the suspected chemicals. The look at how each one affects...

Eleventh graders examine why major tribes were involved in the French and Indian War. They write a short paragraph about the causes and answer an essay question based on text and Internet research, citing sources. They research text...

Plagiarism, copyright, and fair use are the focus of a three-part instructional activity designed to inform scholars of how to properly cite others' work. First, pupils use a KWL chart to begin thinking and...

Drawn by promises of fertile land, thousands of settlers poured West because of the Homestead Act of 1862. By examining images of the ads that drew them westward, learners consider the motivations for movement. They also consider how the...

Demonstrate how to cite information from Internet sources without plagiarizing. If your class is working on an Internet research paper, and you have observed learners cutting and pasting directly from the Internet, the activities and...

Fourth graders use primary and secondary sources to research the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. They identify arguments supporting and opposing the position that Lincoln's assassination could have been prevented and write a report...

Students are given a variety of materials and are asked to design a heat loss experiment that results in a reasonable explanation of "Why don't whales have legs?" students work with the theory of natural selection.

Students make connections between music, the other arts, and other curricular areas. They compare characteristics of two or more arts within a particular historical period or style and cite examples from various cultures.

Lead toxicity is a hot topic these days, especially when it was a common component in household paint for many years. In Taiwan, there was concern that babies were being exposed to toxic levels of lead through breast milk. A study was...

Students explore how biological classification is intimately associated with evolution.

Students discover the differences in how stem cells develop and function depending on their source. They see how scientists are using stem cells - from a variety of sources - to study how they can be used to cure certain illnesses and...

Students navigate the Internet to research online encyclopedias and answer questions.  In this navigating the net instructional activity, students answers questions and compare their answers. Students discuss information gathered...