Read Just a Little Bit, by Ann Tompert as an introduction to levers. Discuss playground seesaws and then turn learners loose to experiment with the placement of a fulcrum. Their goal is to determine where to place it in order to lift ten...

M.C. Escher's "Hand with Reflecting Globe" and the work of Dick Termes, inspire this activity. Kids check out their reflection in a Christmas ornament or a bubble filter and recreate this distorted image on a vinyl ball.

Different currencies, multiple armies, unreliable protection from thieves: class members experience these challenges playing a game that demonstrates life under the Articles of Confederation. After playing the game—which takes them on a...

English language arts and science combine in a lesson that focuses on asking and answering questions about frog skin. Discussion, a read-aloud, and partner work lead the way towards a three-page worksheet that tests learners'...

What is the purpose of a city charter? What services do local governments provide to their citizens? Is there an ideal way for citizens to behave? Approach these often overlooked yet important questions with your class members by having...

Art does not always have to look perfectly realistic. Play with proportion and shape by stretching images. Pupils study works of art by Picasso, Cézanne, and Monet before selecting a photograph to adapt. They use a distorted grid to...

Don't go around and around, help your class determine amounts around and in a circle with a video that connects circumference to the perimeter or the distance around an object. The resource includes 14 questions dealing with circles and...

Ever have students complain that they don't know how to write a poem? Turn those complaints into magnificent works of writing with an independent poetry lesson about not being able to write poetry.

Uncover the properties of translations through this exploratory lesson. Learners apply vectors to describe and verify transformations in the second installment of a series of 18. It provides multiple opportunities to practice this...

Teach cube roots by building on an understanding of square roots. The third installment of a 25-part series asks learners to solve simple quadratic and cubic equations using roots. Scholars compare square roots and cube roots throughout...

The concept of slope gets an approachable, yet theoretical, treatment in a comprehensive algebra lesson. The use of functional notation and problem-solving techniques keep the material rigorous, but detailed teaching notes and lots of...

Elementary learners are not often shy about expressing what they want, but they could use a little help organizing their arguments. Help young writers work through a series of persuasive writing exercises that emphasize the importance of...

Why is the Bill of Rights so important to American's civil liberties? An important resource helps scholars find these answers and more by reading through state and federal constitutions to discover their own civil liberties. The activity...

Students examine role of Naval blockades in Union war strategy, and analyze primary source image "On Deck of a Union Warship" and make detailed observation about people and activities shown.

For this lesson created specifically to integrate the use of the SMART Board, Students view a variety of animated myths in order to create a web that identifies the characteristics of a myth. Then Students choose a myth from selected...

Students explore the 5 themes of geography. In this cross curriculum literacy and geography lesson, students listen to Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett, and make a list of the needs of the people in Chewandswallow....

Discrete or not discrete? Individuals learn about the difference between discrete and non-discrete functions in the fourth installment of a 12-part module. They classify some examples of functions as being either discrete or non-discrete.

How many matchsticks can be made from a single tree? That is the problem facing middle schoolers. Scholars first determine the volume of a matchstick given its dimensions, and then use this information to estimate the number of...

Learning about the mole using rice is pretty nice! Help your chemistry scholars visualize the concept of a mole of substance with an easy-to-perform lab. Partnered pupils find the mass of a single grain of rice and relate this...

Considered an American art form, rap has its roots in places from Jamaica to the Bronx. Using a series of readings, comprehension questions, and videos, scholars explore the history of rap and its connections to the African diaspora....

The impressive story of Benjamin Franklin, including his rise from a printer’s apprentice to a statesman, color upper-level scholars’ understanding of the possibilities of life in colonial Philadelphia. But not everyone had the...

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,...

Mathematicians explore cubic functions by learning how to investigate the relationship between the x-coordinates of the three zeros of a cubic function.  The lesson also contains an application of differentiation. 

High school classes can use manipulatives too! Offer hands-on, interactive lessons that venture away from the typical day in your algebra class. Young mathematicians will be involved in collaborative learning, visual...