Emergent engineers plan, construct, and experiment with a spaghetti noodle structure that could be used to hold a load. Set them up for success by first showing them a four-minute video on engineering design and a slide show of different...

Explore a real-word math problem with your class. Strengthen their problem-solving strategies by coming up with an answer to a money question. They work in groups to determine the answer. Also, they share with the class the various...

Writer's workshop is an idea that's been around for years. Students write, read, and comment on each others writing in an authentic and thoughtful way. Here is a 21st century twist, 6th graders will use the class blog to create a...

High school physics or engineering classes construct a system for piping water from a storage tank to a water dispenser. They will apply Bernoulli's principle and perform calculations for elevation, pressure, and velocity. This is a...

Youngsters love to write on their hands, and in this fabulous activity they are actually asked to. Using numbers written on the tips of their fingers, they will learn how the binary number system works. This hands-on instructional...

Experiment with chocolate coating on cookies! What a delightful way to learn about food processing and chemical engineering. Throughout this activity, groups collect measurements and make calculations. They conclude by writing...

How tall is your marshmallow structure? Using only limited supplies (including uncooked spaghetti noodles, masking tape, and one marshmallow), teams endeavor to support the marshmallow atop the tallest spaghetti structure they can build....

Challenge young engineers to design a one-bedroom scale house that would collect and maintain as much heat as possible. Special constraints must be adhered to, but creativity is also allowed. Diagrams and background information are...

Design and construct buildings with rooftop gardens. Junior engineers work in groups to build two buildings and then perform experiments to determine whether or not a garden affects the building temperatures. They graph and interpret...

Demonstrate how the Skywatch website works, locating your city via The International Space Station. Have cooperative groups use string and a protractor to identify an azimuth. When each groups' height has been marked, you will have a...

Information is provided on Gray's Reef, Florida Keys, and Flower Garden Banks marine sanctuaries. Young marine biologists then visit the FishBase and REEF databases to collect fish species information for each location. They then...

With so many ways to follow the news today, it is imperative to think critically about the sources of information we are turning to. Here is a fantastic graphic organizer that will help your learners develop the skills to...

Pink and Say, a picture book by Patricia Polacco, and an anticipation guide, set the stage for a reading of Mississippi Trial, 1955, Chris Crowe's novel based on the true story of the murder of Emmett Till. Instructional routines, the...

Passive solar heating is a technology that's been in use for thousands of years. Here, elementary schoolers are exposed to this type of heating, the materials that are used in passive solar heating, and they study how engineers design...

Maps can be so much fun, they help you understand spatial relationships, distance between objects, and can foster direction skills. Budding cartographers with visual impairments use the Wheatley Tactile Diagramming Kit to create their...

Here is an excellent resource in which class members host a mock election for a candidate and policy that will be implemented into your very own classroom. Progressing from primaries, through the campaign trail, and finally to the mock...

The threat posed by super volcanoes is explored in a short video that reviews the destruction caused by Mount Tambora in 1815 and by Peru's Huaynaputina in 1600. Think it can't happen again? The narrator contends that the explosive...

Julius Caesar need not be Greek to kids. The background information and suggestions for teachers, as well as the activities for learners, make this curriculum guide a must-have for your Shakespeare curriculum library.

Receiving credit can be both a benefit and a curse. Prepare your learners to make wise credit choices by studying how credit influences credit scores, identifying the different components of credit cards, and exploring major consumer...

For this everyday editing instructional activity, students correct grammatical mistakes in a short paragraph about the Ides of March. The errors range from capitalization, punctuation, spelling, and grammar.

I think most of us adults could use a tip or two on how to budget our personal finances. Pass on some valuable knowledge to your pupils as they move into the real world. The presentation provides three easy steps to creating a personal...

Your learners will get lots of practice calculating simple and compound interest by the end of this lesson. Simple explanations and examples lead learners through the concepts and steps of calculating simple and compound interest...

Second graders identify proper nouns and categorize them by subject. They apply correct principles of grammar: they write complete sentences, use correct capital letters, use correct punctuation and apply correct rules of usage and...