Curated OER
Math Challenge
Students challenge their math knowledge through a series of lessons designed to engage critical thinking and reasoning skills. In these problem solving lessons, students work with the Pythagorean Theorem, time zones in different regions...
Curated OER
Choosing Materials for Bicycle Frames
In this materials for bicycle frames instructional activity, high schoolers read about the various materials that have been used to construct bicycles and the pros and cons of each. They answer four critical thinking questions about the...
Curated OER
World Trade Center Design Proposals
Students explore architectural design. In this critical thinking and architecture lesson, students view a number of websites providing proposals for design plans of a new World Trade Center. Students choose and evaluate three possible...
Curated OER
A Matter of Pattern
Students explore how shapes can make patterns then make connections as to how elements in a pattern relate to one another. In this matter of pattern instructional activity, students create a multi-folded paper snowflake. Students engage...
Curated OER
A Walk Through the Past: A Grave Undertaking
Learners explore how historians construct a story out of fragments of the past; a discussion of nineteenth century poetry and art leads students to connect art and literature to their place in time.
Curated OER
Farming in Space
Students research, design, and run plant growth experiments online. They explore websites, design an experiment using an animation-based building block program, construct a soda bottle hydroponic production unit and a cardboard plant...
Curated OER
On My Honor-Marion Dane Bauer
Students read and examine the novel On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer. They choose to complete a variety of intriguing assignments on this novel. Critical thinking skills are intertwined throughout this lesson.
Curated OER
India And Pakistan At 60
Students engage in a lesson that is concerned with the comparison of India and Pakistan. They construct a venn diagram comparing the two while conducting research. There are several extension activities that include a timeline, visual...
Curated OER
The House of Dies Drear
Learners read The House of Dies Drear and understand how he filled a need and helped people. In this philanthropy lesson students understand how the people who helped on the "Underground Railroad" filled a need and helped others....
Curated OER
How to Graph in Excel
Fourth graders construct data graphs on the Microsoft Excel program. In this statistics instructional activity, 4th graders formulate questions and collect data. Students represent their results by using Excel.
Curated OER
Reducing Air Pollution
In this critical thinking learning exercise, students evaluate different scenarios to decide how the person or business in the scenario could help reduce air pollution. Students work in cooperative learning groups to decide what...
Curated OER
Sentence Completion 8 (low-advanced SAT level))
Proficient English language learners or native English speakers develop vocabulary with this five-page packet. The first page contains six fill-in-the-blank questions, and learners must decide which word or words best completes the...
Joel Michel Studies
The Swiss Family Robinson: Novel Study
What items would most people want to have with them if they were stranded on a desert island? Using the novel study for The Swiss Family Robinson, scholars attempt to answer the question from their own perspectives. They also explore...
Reed Novel Studies
Fahrenheit 451: Novel Study
Fahrenheit 451 depicts firemen like never before ... rather than putting out fires, they start them! Scholars read to understand why firemen now burn books. As they read, they work through two vocabulary activities, answer 10...
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Cast Your Vote
In a simple but unique lesson, youngsters learn about the history of voting systems. They then collaborate in groups to develop a new honest and consistent voting method. A class-wide poll is taken, evaluating the designs of other...
Main Memory Network
Longfellow's "The Village Blacksmith" and Whitman's "Song of Myself"
Although the work Americans do has changed over time, the plight of the American worker has largely remained the same. Facilitate a class discussion aboutAmerican workers using Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "The Village Blacksmith" and...
Outdoor Learning Center
Outdoor Survival
Which of the following can you survive without for the longest time: water, food, or a positive mental attitude? The answer may surprise you. Guide learners of all ages through games, activities, and discussions about surviving in the...
Curated OER
The Old Man and the Sea: Questioning Strategies
Readers learn to ask questions about text with an activity based on Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. As they read, class members craft questions based on Bloom's Taxonomy and then find the answers themselves.
Syracuse University
Ancient World Writing System
Most twenty-first century pupils don't know how to interpret cuneiform. Examining images of cuneiform and papyrus writing and using a chart and Venn diagram, young historians extrapolate what life may have been like for people who lived...
Syracuse University
World War I
World War I was known for its gruesome battlefields and horrific injuries. Using photographs from a battlefield surgeon's scrapbook, scholars see first-hand what life was like in the trenches. After creating a timeline of the war using...
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Engineered Music
Sound engineers investigate the structural design of a musical instrument, the recorder. They work in collaborative groups to choose an instrument to build out of everyday craft materials. It must be able to repeat a three-note sequence...
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Spring Scale Engineering
After examining how a spring scale works, teams work together to design their own general measurement device. Reading material provides background information, but there is no part of the procedure in which learners handle an actual...
Curated OER
The Little Prince: Venn Diagram Exercise
Compare and contrast your learners' traits to the characters in The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Éxupery. After they complete a Venn diagram comparing themselves to a peer, kids create a three-part Venn diagram to compare themselves...
Curated OER
Maniac Magee: Picture Book Strategy
Who would have thought to explore the concept of race through children's literature? After reading Bell Hooks' picture book, Skin Again, and chapter sixteen of Jerry Spinelli's Maniac Magee, class members consider whether skin color...