Michigan Sea Grant
Survival Game
Musical chairs may be a classic game, but Ruffe Musical Chairs is a unique lesson on invasive species! Using the time-honored game, pupils role play the behaviors of the invasive fish called Eurasian ruffe. Learning about this aggressive...
Curated OER
Wheeling and Dealing
students explore how wireless communications and other mobile technologies have changed the ways and places people work. They design 'mobile learning labs' to demonstrate how these technologies might impact their current workplace and...
Curated OER
The Use of Myths in Science
Students are told stories, myths and legend to explain their world. After telling the tales and discussion them, students are assigned to write a myth that describes a familiar situation, such as why the school garbage cans are always...
Curated OER
Women in Two Countries: Japan and America
Students explore the role of women in Japan and the United States during World War Two. They focus on women and the family and women and the workplace and the changes within each. Students create an informational brochure of women...
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Building Suburbia: Highways and Housing in Postwar America
Students determine how suburbs changed America. In this post World War II activity, students complete research projects that require them to examine the growth of suburbs in the 1950's and 1960's. Students reveal how government policies,...
Curated OER
WWI and Twenties & Thirties
Young scholars study economics and timelines of events to understand changes in America. In this Twenties and Thirties instructional activity, students navigate Internet sites to research famous reformers. Young scholars recognize the...
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The American Mosaic
Eighth graders role play as a poor immigrant family moving from the Old World to the New World in search of the American Dream. They create a portfolio and journal of their travels.
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Finding Our Way Home: Immigration to the United States, 1815-1860
Students break into families of 4 members. They brainstorm issues that they would encounter as an immigrant family by creating a web. Students are given roles to research focusing on that perspective: father, mother, grandparent, and child.
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Space Age Technology Comes to Earth
Young scholars explore eight career and technical areas and make connections with business, family and consumers, and technology. They examine and describe how agriculture and natural resources impact our quality of life. They explore...
Curated OER
Email From Another Planet
For this article about emails and plants worksheet, students read short descriptions about 8 planets in the solar system and then imagine they are visiting one of the planets and send an email to a family member describing their...
Curated OER
Taxes, Tips, and Salaries
In this taxes, tips and salaries worksheet, students read story problems and determine the sales price, percent of change, amount of tax, and final price. This four-page worksheet contains 8 multi-step prolems. Answers are provided on...
Curated OER
Diary of a Wombat
Learners create a diary entry from an animal's point of view. In this creative writing lesson, students read the book Diary of a Wombat and conduct brief research on an animal of their choice. Learners create a diary entry based upon...
Curated OER
The Journey of the Pacific Salmon
Students examine the journey of the Pacific salmon. For this salmon species lesson, students review the stages of the salmon life cycle and conduct an experiment to determine how the water and habitat changes during each stage.
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Rushing the Border
Students discuss the issues of immigrants who overstay their legal welcome. They explore the recent changes in immigration registration, and participate in a roundtable discussion.
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How Did the Other Half Live?
Students study the conditions under which immigrants lived. They determine what it means to make it in America. They observe the connection between immigration and unionization and how immigration changed the City of New York. They...
Curated OER
Food Classification
Students are introduced to classification and some of the difficulties surrounding classification and how classification systems need to be able to adapt and how they may need to be changed when new information is discovered. They...
Curated OER
Healthy Eating
Students explore how they can make healthy food choices and assess how "eating healthy" requires knowledge and planning ahead. They review and discuss The Edible Pyramid as well before they complete this project online. Each student maps...
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Folklife Around the Year and Around the State
Research how seasonal changes in Louisiana affect learners' lives and the folklife of their communities and the state. They investigate differences in the seasonal round in the regions of Louisiana, including celebrations, festivals,...
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Satyagrah: Social Change vs. Social Transformation
Students examine the difference between social change and social transformation. they learn through discussion in order to be able to research and analyze a systematic social injustice. Students identify their part in a wider social...
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Understanding and Appreciating Poetry: Afro-Americans and Their Poetry
Sixth graders are introduced to poems written by African-American authors. As a class, they read excerpts of poems from different time periods and discuss how and if anything has changed over time with discrimination and equal rights...
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Teenage Boys: Perspectives on the Adolescent Male's Development in an Urban Setting
Students examine the effects of an urban setting on the development of male adolescence. After watching a film, they identify the problems in the relationship of the characters. They discuss the impact of becoming a teenage father and...
Learning Station
Point of View—Picking Favorites
For this writing worksheet, learners discover how a story can change depending on the point of view the writer has chosen. Students read several excerpts from stories and respond in writing to how they are different.
Curated OER
U.S. Penny to Get Four New Designs
Students look at U.S. currency and read about plans to change the back of U.S. pennies. In this current events instructional activity, the teacher introduces a news article with a discussion of money and a vocabulary activity, then...
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Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice: The Novel as Historical Source
Students examine historical fiction as historical sources. In this historical fiction instructional activity, students analyze excerpts from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice as well as Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights...