Designing an Ecologically Sound City

Young citizens construct an understanding of urban planning in this cross-curricular unit. Covering every aspect of city development from the political, economic, and social influences to sustainable building practices, this 10-lesson...

Shake things up in your STEM or earth science classroom when you have small groups construct their own seismographs. A reading assignment on the history of seismographs, the Richter scale, and current technology sets the stage for the...

While cities had only a small fraction of the population in colonial America, they played a significant role in pre-revolutionary years, and this was certainly true for the largest city in the North American colonies: Philadelphia. Your...

With Earth Day quickly approaching, as well as many science fairs, why not challenge your class to investigate geothermal energy or other renewable energy resources? There are five driving questions explored in depth here, as well as...

During the Winter Olympics, this would be an engaging task to include in your STEM lesson. Design teams plan, construct, and test a miniature ski lift that can carry a pingpong ball up and down a rope line without falling out. With this...

No matter what subject you're teaching, you'll find some fun and innovative ideas for using newspapers in your classroom with a helpful resource. Based on Getting the Most Out of Teaching with Newspapers by Rebecca Olien, the series of...

Here's a nice example of assignment guidelines for a California mission project, as well guided notes for learners to complete as they conduct their research and write their final reports.

Fifth graders design an "ecologically sound" city.

Fifth graders follow an outline which helps them design an ecologically sound city. The city is required to include the laws for the city to help make all citizens aware of their ecological responsibilities.

Students use the Web to find out about the plants and animals that live in their local area. They design eco parks containing local plants and animals. They utilize websites imbedded in this plan to visit other ecoparks to get ideas for...