Teach your class about saving, spending, and goal setting with a story about a couple of bunnies who went shopping and related activities. Learners keep track of the bunnies' spending, practice identifying long- and short-term savings...

Break down lowercase cursive letters with this packet of materials. Learners copy a cursive alphabet chart, practice letters grouped by starting strokes, work on joining letters, and complete several other activities using...

Encourage the spread of knowledge in your class with this cross-curricular epidemic simulation. Pulling together science, social studies, and math, this lesson engages students in modeling the spread of infectious...

Go beyond a traditional end-of-the-year survey and have your middle school pupils compile a portfolio of work illustrating their progression as a writer. 

Bring history to life for your young scholars with a Fourth of July lesson series. After a class reading of the Declaration of Independence, students translate this pivotal document into layman's terms before working in small...

Class members work to translate the Declaration of Independence into their own words, as well as design a Facebook page within the context of 1776 to raise public awareness about the document and its meaning for citizens.

What is the difference between a form of energy and a source of energy? This first activity in a series of 19 lessons uses demonstrations and discussions to introduce energy to the class. Through using hand-generator flashlights,...

How is the wind up there? The class builds a topography model using materials available in the classroom, then place wind flags in different locations on the landscape. Using a fan as a wind source, pupils collect data about how wind...

Can my windmill pick up a weight? Given the same set of materials, groups design and build the most efficient windmill. On the first day, groups concentrate on getting a windmill to spin, while on the second day, they modify their...

If I change the length, will they work better? After brainstorming the variables of wind turbine blade design, groups choose one variable to isolate and test. The groups then present their data to the class in order for all to have the...

I get a charge out of this. In order to learn how a generator works, groups build and test one in this ninth lesson of the series. The generators are tested at low speed and high speed to determine the watt output and whether they have...

Promote the most positive reading test-taking strategies to your third graders. A six-question practice test suggests using context clues, underlining words, rereading, and using process of elimination to choose the best answer when...

Planning activities for Autism Awareness Month? Check out the ideas in a packet designed to raise awareness of autism. Suggestions include plans for an assembly to launch a school-wide focus, lesson plans for classroom activities,...

Turn skills practice into a game of Bingo! Scholars listen to words and locate their synonyms on their Bingo cards. The first play to fill their card wins.

A greenhouse provides additional warmth and protection to the plants inside, but what if the greenhouse gets too hot? Pupils discuss and experiment with the difference between natural and anthropogenic greenhouse effect. They measure the...

It's time to boldly go where your class has not gone before! The introductory lesson in a five-part series takes young oceanographers aboard the NOAA Ship Okeanos to begin a study of ocean exploration. The lesson includes a comparison of...

How do you create a map of the ocean floor without getting wet? Middle school oceanographers discover the process of bathymetric mapping in the third installment in a five-part series of lessons designed for seventh and eighth graders....

Sometimes scientists learn more from unexpected findings than from routine analysis! Junior oceanographers dive deep to explore hydrothermal vent communities in the fourth lesson in a series of five. Scholars examine data and look for...

How do robots assist ocean explorers in collecting data and images? The final installment in a five-part series has science scholars examine underwater images collected by robots and identify the organisms shown. Groups then calculate...

Observe a flatworm as it regenerates its own head. A laboratory exploration asks learners to cut a planaria worm at different locations and then observe it regenerate. Using data collected during the exploration, they make conclusions...

What does it take to train your brain? Learners explore the question as they experiment with their own memory and motor skills. They attempt to trace an object using a mirror and then score their results over several trials. They then...

Compare what shells look like on the outside with what makes that happen on the inside. Scholars begin by sorting an various seashells by their physical characteristics into phylogenetic trees. They then conduct a DNA comparison of...

Understanding the life cycle of a mosquito helps us understand how to prevent the spread of diseases they carry. A lab investigation provides learners with the opportunity to track the two-week life cycle of the mosquito. Scholars make...

Global warming is leaving coral reefs in hot water. What does that mean for their survival? Find out as scholars use authentic satellite data to explore the issue. Learners look for global trends in the data and research the effects the...