Messenger Education
Can You Hear Me Now?—Communicating with Spacecraft
Radio signals transmitted to Pluto take five hours to reach their destination! In these two activities, young scientists explore data communication in space. In activity one, pupils learn how data is gathered and sent back to Earth....
Curated OER
The Punch and Judy Show
Students view a puppet show and learn how people from the past spent their leisure time. In this puppet show lesson plan, students view the show and see how people 400 years ago would spend their time. Then students get to ask the...
Curated OER
TV Tells it All
Students discuss the concept of gender bias and stereotyping. In this social science lesson, students determine what the influence of television on gender roles represents and compares the chage in gender roles of today to those of their...
Curated OER
Human Rights Education Handbook: Telling Our Stories
Students describe a time they stood up for themselves. The stories are interpreted in human rights terms. They match these terms with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Curated OER
Through India and Back
Students play a game based on "The Amazing Race" to practice using rates and fractions. In this fractions and rates activity, students work in small groups competing to complete the tasks in the quickest time. At each stage of the...
Curated OER
How Bear Lost His Tale: Storytelling
In this storytelling instructional activity, children practice re-telling the story of "How Bear Lost His Tale", review and write out the story sequence, and learn about homophones like tail/tale, sail/sale, etc. Extension activities for...
Illustrative Mathematics
Bike Race
A graph not only tells us who won the bike race, but also what happened during the race. Use this resource to help learners understand graphs. The commentary suggests waiting until the end of the year to introduce this topic, but why...
Curated OER
Safe and Sound: Rock Concert Dangers
Students read attached articles and others they can find about dangers at rock concerts and also what bands, venue owners and others have done to increase safety. They conduct interviews and write a feature about concert safety in the...
Curated OER
Victorian Fashion Detectives
A rare lesson plan on fashions that were in vogue during the Victorian era. Learners discover what types of clothes both rich and poor people of this time period wore. They see how fashions changed during the reign of Queen Victoria, and...
Curated OER
Car For Sale!
Car For sale! In this GED prep lesson plan, writers develop a classified advertisement to sell a car. After a discussion of precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language, sellers draft their ad for review, revision and...
Curated OER
Making the Most of the Internet
Children listen as the teacher tells them about Childnet. Young scholars use the CD-ROM and internet sites to answer questions on the worksheets. Students learn to navigate the sites and search techniques. If time and interest allows, an...
Curated OER
Looking at Illuminated Manuscripts: An Illuminated Day Planner
Students examine the contents of a book of hours and then compare it to the modern day-planner. They create class day-planners/ calendars with illuminations that correspond to modern holidays and season.
Curated OER
Photo Safari
Students take photographs of people and things that impact their lives. In this photojournalism lesson plan, students learn how to use a photo to tell a story and present their project.
Curated OER
Through the Lens of Robert Capa
Students use Guided Reading techniques to learn about Capa's style and to discover the techniques that made him a great photographer. Students examine the basics of telling compelling stories through photos and each student creates a...
Curated OER
Law School vs. School Laws
Students discuss the military's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding sexual orientation and restage the debate leading up to the recent decision in Rumsfeld v. FAIR. They write essays evaluating the merits of the decision.
Curated OER
Tribes And Tribulations
Learners explore South African history from pre-colonial times to today. They create a timeline of important events in South African history and reflect on connections between this timeline and the existence of tribal traditions in the...
Curated OER
Turkey Soup for the Soul
Young scholars read an article that tells how a young man turned his life around through the help of a local charity. They create inspirational scrapbooks and posters to help motivate their peers when they are facing adversity.
Curated OER
Poets of Christmas Past
Students consider the meanings of Christmas by reading an op-ed. As a class, they then create a sequel to the poem "A Visit from Saint Nicholas," in which "Mamma" tells a story about the history of Christmas.
Curated OER
Giving It the Old College Try
Students discuss opinions they have about entering college. Reading an article on advice from parents, they discuss what their own parents are telling them. They role-play different conflict resolution scenerios. They also write a...
Curated OER
Bread Cells
Fifth graders examine plant and animal cells. In this plant and animal cell lesson, 5th graders define what cells are, label their parts, and describe how plant and animal cells are different. They observe cells at a number of web sites,...
Curated OER
Eyes in the Sky
Middle schoolers examine the use of satellites. In this research lesson, students discuss the history of satellites and how we use the information today. They will conduct interviews with older adults who have lived in the changing times...
Curated OER
Show Me the Way To Go Home
Students place a pencil perpendicular to the ground and trace its shadow between 11:30 AM and 12:30 PM. They measure the length of the shadow, periodically over several hours, in either English or Metric units. Using the data, they find...
Curated OER
Unit Conversion in Chemistry
Hopefully by the time high schoolers are enrolled in your chemistry class, they are skilled with unit conversion. It does not hurt, however, to take an hour early in the school year to review this vital skill. This plan simply provides a...
Virginia Department of Education
Weather Patterns and Seasonal Changes
Get your class outside to observe their surroundings with a lesson highlighting weather patterns and seasonal changes. First, learners take a weather walk to survey how the weather affects animals, people, plants, and trees during...