Curated OER
Picture Board
Learners divide a poster board so everyone gets the same amount of area to decorate. Youngsters talk about the different ways to divide a rectangle. They measure their lines to make sure that each piece is equal and then decorate their...
Curated OER
Plate Tectonics: First Grade Lesson Plans and Activities
A set of first grade geology lessons focuses on plate tectonics and movement of plate boundaries. During the pre-lab, learners experience three types of plate movement through a kinesthetic demonstration. The lab demonstrates stresses...
Curated OER
Volcanoes: Fourth Grade Lesson Plans and Activities
Young geologists begin exploring volcanoes of different structures and states: active, extinct, or dormant. During the lab, they make three models and compare different types of volcanoes, including composite, cinder cone, and shield....
Noyce Foundation
Parallelogram
Parallelograms are pairs of triangles all the way around. Pupils measure to determine the area and perimeter of a parallelogram. They then find the area of the tirangles formed by drawing a diagonal of the parallelogram and compare their...
Noyce Foundation
Boxes
Teach your class to think outside the box. Scholars use the concept of equality to solve a problem in the assessment task. They determine how to use a scale to identify the one box out of a set of nine boxes that is heavier than the others.
North Carolina Consortium for Middle East Studies
Missing Pieces of the Puzzle: African Americans in Revolutionary Times
What's missing from most studies of the American Revolutionary War is information about the role African Americans played in the conflict. To correct this oversight, middle schoolers research groups like the Black Loyalists and Black...
Inside Mathematics
Sorting Functions
Graph A goes with equation C, but table B. The short assessment task requires class members to match graphs with their corresponding tables, equations, and verbalized rules. Pupils then provide explanations on the process they used to...
Channel Islands Film
Island Rotation: Lesson Plan 1
How do scientists provide evidence to support the theories they put forth? What clues do they put together to create these theories? After watching West of the West's documentary Island Rotation class members engage in a series of...
National Park Service
The Young Naturalist
Beginning with a brief history of our 26th president, Theodore Roosevelt, then followed by a discussion of his interest in nature, young scientists take to the outdoors to locate and observe local plants and insects. Scholars return to...
Noyce Foundation
Mixing Paints
Let's paint the town equal parts yellow and violet, or simply brown. Pupils calculate the amount of blue and red paint needed to make six quarts of brown paint. Individuals then explain how they determined the percentage of the brown...
Inside Mathematics
Snakes
Get a line on the snakes. The assessment task requires the class to determine the species of unknown snakes based upon collected data. Individuals analyze two scatter plots and determine the most likely species for five additional data...
Curated OER
Tilted Earth
What causes Earth's seasons? Find out through a series of anticipatory questions, an easy yet powerful activity representing the sun-Earth system, a diagram to label, and follow-up questions. Dispel the misconceptions about Earth being...
National Endowment for the Humanities
The 1828 Campaign of Andrew Jackson: Expansion of the Voting Base
Students give examples to indicate how the franchise was extended and limited in the first half of the 19th century, and cite some differences in the newly enfranchised population that could affect the way they would vote.
Mathematics Vision Project
Geometric Figures
Logical thinking is at the forefront of this jam-packed lesson, with young mathematicians not only investigating geometric concepts but also how they "know what they know". Through each activity and worksheet, learners wrestle with...
Inside Mathematics
Graphs (2006)
When told to describe a line, do your pupils list its color, length, and which side is high or low? Use a worksheet that engages scholars to properly label line graphs. It then requests two applied reasoning answers.
Inside Mathematics
Conference Tables
Pupils analyze a pattern of conference tables to determine the number of tables needed and the number of people that can be seated for a given size. Individuals develop general formulas for the two growing number patterns and use them to...
Inside Mathematics
Squares and Circles
It's all about lines when going around. Pupils graph the relationship between the length of a side of a square and its perimeter. Class members explain the origin in context of the side length and perimeter. They compare the graph to the...
Inside Mathematics
Graphs (2007)
Challenge the class to utilize their knowledge of linear and quadratic functions to determine the intersection of the parent quadratic graph and linear proportional graphs. Using the pattern for the solutions, individuals develop a...
Inside Mathematics
Population
Population density, it is not all that it is plotted to be. Pupils analyze a scatter plot of population versus area for some of the states in the US. The class members respond to eight questions about the graph, specific points and...
Mathematics Vision Project
Transformations and Symmetry
Flip, turn, and slide about the coordinate plane. Pupils define the rigid motions and experiment with them before determining the relationships of the slopes of parallel and perpendicular lines. The sixth unit in a nine-part series...
American Museum of Natural History
What Do You Know About Astronomy
Develop an understanding of the universe. Learners answer 10 multiple choice questions about several topics in astronomy. Questions contain information about the age of the universe, gravitational attraction, galaxies, planets and comets...
Curated OER
Then and Now: Life in Early America, 1740 - 1840
Students complete a unit of lessons that examine life in early America from 1740-1840. They compare items with similar objects we use today, explore various websites, create a paper doll, try and guess the function of various objects,...
Curated OER
Sophocles' Oedipus the King
Introduce your class to the Greek tragedy with a study of Sophocles’ Oedipus the King. Learners examine the features of a Greek tragedy, Sophocles’ achievements and contributions, and the universal themes that make the drama an enduring...
Curriculum Corner
Coniferous and Deciduous Trees
What are the differences between coniferous and deciduous trees? Supplement your tree lessons with a set of activities that has learners describing, naming, comparing, and reading about deciduous and coniferous trees. The activities are...