Curated OER
Sea-ing More Clearly
Explore works of art with your class by engaging them in a variety of artistic activities including papier-mache sculpture, poetry, performance, and more. After viewing and discussing four paintings of the sea by Robert Harris, learners...
World Wildlife Fund
Bar Charts & Pie Charts
Learn about life in the Arctic while practicing how to graph and interpret data with this interdisciplinary lesson plan. Starting with a whole group data-gathering exercise, students are then given a worksheet on which they analyze and...
Curated OER
1900 America: Primary Sources and Epic Poetry
Using Walt Whitman's Song of Myself and Hart Crane's The Bridge as models, class groups first craft their own epic poems for 1900 and, using primary sources, create a multi-media presentation that captures the sights and sounds of life...
Illinois State Board of Education
Solar System
Aspiring astronomers solve problems involving mixed units of the same attribute, including time, money, length, and area. They convert large numbers into scientific notation, then compute and compare ratios to explain why drawing...
Curated OER
I Love Spiders
Students complete an integrated unit on spiders. They explore about spiders. Students read a book entitled I Love Spiders by John Parker. They incorporate Spider art, Edible Spiders, the making of a Spiderweb Room and Spider poems.
Curated OER
Satchel Page
Bring a instructional activity about Negro League Baseball to your Black history unit, or any other research unit throughout the year. While the lesson plan itself is simplistic, there are several good ideas that you could use, such as...
Curated OER
Ice Cream
Open this instructional activity by giving a brief history of ice cream. Using liquid nitrogen to lower the temperature, preteens make their own confection. The accompanying activity sheet queries learners about freezing point, the...
Curated OER
Urban Ecosystems 2: Why are There Cities? A Historical Perspective
Second in a series of five lessons, this lesson encourages preteens to consider cities as urban ecosystems. First, they keep a food diary for a few days. They visit the Natrional Agricultural Statistics Service website for current data...
Out of Africa Wildlife Park
A Thematic Learning Guide to Lions
Written as an accompaniment to a field trip to the Out of Africa Wildlife Park in Arizona, this is an interdisciplinary, themed instructional activity on lions. Even if you cannot take your upper-elementary kids to this attraction, there...
Curated OER
An Interdisciplinary Deer and Human Population Study
Students answer the question, "What environmental problems arise due to animal and human overpopulation and what might need to be done to combat these problems?" They play games, graph data and write proposals about the question.
Curated OER
Inventing and Presenting Unit 3: Persuasive Speaking and Invention Promotion
Middle schoolers write a proposal for a speech. Students prepare appropriate visuals for use in the proposed speech. Middle schoolers produce one or more graphs that summarize the results from the experimentation. Students deliver an...
Curated OER
Inventing and Presenting Unit 2: Effective Speeches and Building the Invention
Young scholars identify the characteristics of effective speeches. Students find elements of good speeches in the text and in the delivery of model speeches. Young scholars build a working three-dimensional model of an invention or an...
Curated OER
A Passport to WWII and the Holocaust
Students explore the Holocaust. In this interdisciplinary lesson, students research Hitler's rise to power, the terror of concentration camps, and World War II. Students read The Diary of Anne Frank , listen to a Holocaust survivor, and...
Curated OER
US Patriotic Symbols: The North American Bald Eagle
Students research the North American bald eagle to determine if this bird's characteristics make it an appropriate symbol to represent the United States as a country. They debate the substitution of other bird species for the eagle.
Curated OER
Exploring the Biomes of South America
Sixth graders complete a five-week unit investigating the eight major biomes of South America. They conduct Internet research, collect short-term and long-term climate data, and create a HyperStudio slideshow stack about a selected biome...
Curated OER
West Nile Virus and Lyme Disease: Making Sense of the Numbers
In an interdisciplinary exploration, trace the development of West Nile fever and Lyme diseases. Pupils discover how these diseases are contracted. They collect statistical data and analyze trends.
Curated OER
Lincoln, Douglass, and Black Emergence (Literature and Politics, 1840-1865)
Pupils examine the ideas of Lincoln and Douglass. In groups, they compare and contrast writings from each man and how they formed the nation with their ideas. After watching "Glory", they discuss how people like Lincoln and Douglass...
Curated OER
What Are the Literary, Artistic, Scientific, and Technological Contributions of Immigrants to the United States?
Young scholars evaluate impact of immigration on America's economy and culture, research information about people of various countries of origin, and share findings with classmates through collages, posters, handouts, or skits.
Scholastic
Lesson One: The Earth, Background and Glossary
How much do you really know about our planet? Middle schoolers build up their prior knowledge about Earth, its placement in the solar system, its composition, and important geological vocabulary with an introductory earth science lesson.
Henry Ford Museum
Transportation Systems
Learners analyze the evolution of cultural attitudes through the lens of transportation, examining several artifacts, documents, and photographs. Topics covered include how American attitudes have influenced society's evolution into a...
Curated OER
Access Ramp
Just about every public building that your students are familiar with has an access ramp which complies with ADA requirements. As it turns out, designing such a ramp is an excellent activity to incorporate slope, the Pythagorean Theorem,...
Curated OER
Task: Miniature Golf
"Fore!" All right, no one really yells this out in miniature golf, but this well-defined activity will have your charges using lots of numbers in their unique design of a miniature golf hole. Included in the activity criteria is the...
Curated OER
Task: Range of Motion
If you have ever injured your shoulder, you know it takes a while to improve your arm's range of motion. In this real-world example, young mathematicians gain insight into the world of physical therapy while they analyze a case study...
Curated OER
Soda to be Absent from Schools
Should schools serve soda to students? Learners read an artlcle that argues against the sale of soda in schools and engage in a class discussion. They then complete a short assessment to check for comprehension and reflect on the...