Curated OER
Budget Busters
Use this economic activity to focus on writing summaries of informational text. First, middle schoolers define common economic terms used to describe news about the economy. They closely read news about the federal budget deficit and...
Curated OER
Fanatically Grammatically Correct
Research guidelines for correct usage, then explore how creative writers employ punctuation as an essential tool in their craft. Secondary classes create board games to teach elementary school students how to properly punctuate. From the...
Visa
Smooth Sailing: Exploring Insurance and Estate Planning
While purchasing insurance and estate planning may seem like a rather irrelevant topic for high school young scholars, introducing this concept now can help your learners develop a solid foundation of financial literacy that will support...
Curated OER
Examine the History of U.S. Immigration
Students investigate the history of immigration in the U.S. and the current debate over illegal immigration. In small groups, they conduct Internet research on an assigned time period, analyze political cartoons, and discuss themes in...
Curated OER
Renaissance Occupations - The New Middle Class
Learners share their knowledge of the Renaissance Period. For this creative activity, pupils create fliers detailing services offered during this era. They focus on a particular occupation and detail how this job has changed from then...
NASA
The Evidence is “Clear”!
Do you think you know better? Become a scientist and prove it. Scholars review the evidence for two different theories of the origins of the universe. They notice the empirical observations as well as the inferences to determine which is...
Scholastic
Analyzing Media Messages
Telling young people to just say no can be difficult in a world that inundates them with messages to just say yes. A lesson on media messages encourages teenagers to analyze song lyrics and advertisements that mention drugs and/or...
Curated OER
Stop the Fighting and Start Uniting
Research current and proposed peace talks around the world with this New York Times lesson, Using the Darfur peace talks in Abuja, Nigeria as a starting point, middle schoolers create a news program on the subject. They propose a future...
The New York Times
Making Do: Learning and Growing Through Adversity
What is it that makes people keep going when they face challenges in life? Ask your class to consider this question in relation to their own experiences and as they read material from The New York Times. Using personal experiences and...
Illinois Department of Natural Resources
Section Two: Why is Biodiversity Important?
Explore soil, genetic traits, natural resources, and pollution in a series of lessons that focus on biodiversity. Kids complete experiments to learn more about the importance of varied genes and organisms in an ecosystem.
Novelinks
Tuesdays with Morrie: K-W-H-L Strategy
Readers of Tuesdays with Morrie are directed to use a K-W-H-L chart to record what they know, what they want to learn, how they will find information, and what they learned about a particular topic related to Mitch Albom's book.
Curated OER
"World enough, and time"-Andrew Marvell's Coy Mistress
Discuss tone and imagery with Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress." In an attempt to get his fair lady to consummate their relationship, he write a poem urging her to seize the day! Introduce the author to your high school class,...
Curated OER
The Grapes of Wrath: KWHL Strategy
Before beginning The Grapes of Wrath, readers create a KWHL chart recording what they already know about the Dust Bowl, the author, and the book, what they want to know, and where they might find answers to these questions. After reading...
Education Outside
Seed Scavenger Hunt
After listening to a book about seeds, individuals locate, collect, and illustrate five seeds from the school garden and determine how the seed traveled to the plot.
Piscataway Township Schools
Bake Sale
Here is a project that instructs young bakers to calculate the ingredients needed for a cookie bake sale. The catch is that the ingredients for 32 cookies is given; however, pupils must figure out the amounts needed for 12 and 60...
Curated OER
Water Down the Drain
Did you know that leaky faucets waste $10 million worth of water? Conservationists perform an experiment and draw best-fit lines to explore how the US Geological Society determined this value.
Curated OER
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson Literature Study Guide
Yo-ho-ho, Treasure Island can be lots of fun with the aid of a resource that guides readers' exploration of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic tale of buccaneers and buried gold. It's the glory of the read that will turn your pupils' heads.
Howard County Schools
Discounting Tickets
A boss who can't do math? Oh, no! Young entrepreneurs use linear and exponential models to determine which discount will yield the most profit on ticket sales.
Curated OER
Newspapers in Cyberspace: Journalism's Digital Future
Ninth graders complete a unit of lessons on how the Internet is used as a resource for journalists. They visit a newspaper office, conduct Internet research, conduct an interview, and write a newspaper article using their researched...
Curated OER
Beginning Research
Young scholars begin the research portion of their project after they have chosen a topic. Using their peers, they provide feedback to others to help them stay on track. They compare old research papers with new ones to show student...
Curated OER
Lesson #3: Internet Map Activity
Learners label assembly centers and relocation camps on a given map of the United States in order to create a better understanding of the relocation experience of Japanese-American citizens and the distance that families had to move and...
Media Smarts
Making Media for Democratic Citizenship
Pupils analyze global issues. In this video podcasting lesson plan, pupils research Internet and print sources regarding selected global development issues. Pupils plan and create video podcasts that feature their research findings.
Curated OER
Creating Context Mural
students examine the historical, political, religious and culture aspects of the Renaissance. Using this information, they read "Galileo" by Bertolt Brecht. They use the internet to research a specific event of the time period and come...
Curated OER
Railroads
Students make travel plans. In this transportation lesson, students determine whether trains, planes, or buses are best to get them a city 500 miles from their hometown.