American Chemical Society
Energy Changes in Chemical Reactions
Some chemical reactions produce heat, but what is really going on? Lesson focuses on the concept of energy changes, both exothermic and endothermic. Scholars perform multiple experiments, hands-on activities, and view videos of the...
Cornell University
Making a Battery
Don't be shocked when your class has a blast making their own batteries! Science scholars examine a dry cell battery, then design and construct a wet cell battery. The activity guides them through the parts of a battery, the variables...
PBS
The Sixties: Dylan Plugs in and Sells Out
Before Woodstock, there was Newport. Get plugged in to the social changes of the 1960s with a lesson that looks at Bob Dylan's performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival as a symbol of the radical changes that marked the era.
Shodor Education Foundation
Recursion
Perform the operation ... and then do it again. Scholars investigate recursive formulas by creating and graphing them. Using the interactive, pupils set the variable, determine the initial value, and type in a recursive formula.The...
Concord Consortium
Area Upgrade
Imagine a world built of triangles. A performance task asks scholars to consider just that. They use their knowledge of special segments of a triangle to make decisions about the area of triangular plots of land.
Concord Consortium
An Algebraic Oversight
Tackle a common misconception using a performance task. Dividing by a variable to eliminate a variable may seem like a good idea, but simplifying the variable eliminates solutions as well. Learners develop algebraic and graphical support...
Concord Consortium
You Are What You Drive
Grab the wheel in learning about functions. A short performance task challenges young mathematicians to develop a function that describes the cars eight people drive. They consider whether the inverse of the function exists. If not, they...
Concord Consortium
The Trouble with Tables
Tackle these tables. A performance task has learners complete two puzzles using addition and subtraction. They must fill in tables with missing addends, sums, minuends, subtrahends, or differences.
Concord Consortium
Detective Stories
The truth will always come out. A short performance task has learners considering a witness statement given to a detective. They apply special line segments in triangles and Ceva's Theorem to prove that the witness is actually lying.
Concord Consortium
Dubious Dice
How many ways can you slice dice distribution? A short performance task asks pupils to consider different types of distributions. Given histograms showing a triangular distribution and a bimodal distribution, they create pairs of dice...
Concord Consortium
Measuring the Unit Circle
Here's the right task to investigate right triangles in the unit circle. A short performance task has learners determine the product of two side lengths in a unit circle. They must apply similarity concepts and trigonometric ratios to...
Concord Consortium
More or Less
How long can the cable get? A short performance task provides learners with information on the length of cables and the margin of error for each. They must determine the longest and shortest cable possible by splicing these cables.
Concord Consortium
On the Road to Zirbet
The road to a greater knowledge of functions lies in the informative resource. Young mathematicians first graph a square root function in a short performance task. They then use given descriptions of towns and the key features of the...
Concord Consortium
Orthogonal Circles
Here's some very interesting circles for your very interested pupils. A performance task requires scholars to sketch a pair of orthogonal circles so the centers are the endpoints of one side of a triangle. They draw an additional circle...
New York State Education Department
US History and Government Examination: January 2012
What led to the United States Civil War? Interested historians consider a variety of political, social, and economic factors using primary sources and an essay prompt in an authentic high-stakes test. Primary sources include political...
Missouri Department of Elementary
Community Wellness Fair
Seniors work with teachers, counselors, and administrators to organize a community wellness fair. Committees take on the responsibility for the various tasks (publicity, set up, hospitality room, agency contact, thank you letters, etc.)....
Education Oasis
Creative Writing Unit: Analyzing, Interpreting, Discussing and Writing Various Genres of African-American Literature
A six-week unit takes high schoolers through various works of African-American literature, including poems, plays, and short stories. The lesson plan format includes a week-by-week description of activities, goals, materials, and...
Curated OER
How Many?
Middle schoolers explore and design ways to collect data through simulations and random samples. They perform two experiments to determine the answers to various probability problems, and present the data/graphs in the form of a...
Curated OER
Science NetLinks: Adolescent Sleep
Wake up, sleepy head! High schoolers craft a creative presentation that represents how they feel when they wake up on a school morning. After the presentations, a reading of Academic Sleep Times and Academic Performance launches a...
Curated OER
Anti-Smoking Jingle or Rap
Young scholars read information about tobacco and describe the problems associated with smoking. They work in groups to create a presentation to discourage teenagers from smoking. They present their songs to the class and digitally...
Curated OER
Respect: Looks Like, Sounds Like, Feels Like
Sixth graders participate in a question and answer discussion on respect and then complete the "Planning to Use Respect" activity sheet. They describe the senses of a stuffed animal to their peers and assess how respect looks, sounds and...
Ken Taylor
The Stones: Guilty or Not Guilty?
Young drama pupils will perform a number of expressive speaking exercises as they consider the themes of responsibility, consequences, and justice in the very modern Australian play The Stones. With a lot of role playing and...
Curated OER
"Old 300"
Fourth graders combine art and history to assess the importance of the "Old 300." They explore a group of colonists that Stephen F. Austin brought to Texas as the first settlers and then create a time line of major events leading to the...
Curated OER
Rational Functions
Through a mini assessment, learners identify and list the vertical and horizontal asymptotes for the given rational functions and determine the type of asymptote of a given rational function. They also decide which form of a function...