High schoolers prepare for a visit to the National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC, to preview a photo exhibit (specifically of James Van Der Zee). This lesson could be adapted when viewing any photo exhibit.

The activities in a comprehensive teacher's resource guide provides budding psychologists with opportunities to design experiments to study behavior, apply their knowledge of research variables, critique online behavior surveys, and much...

Class members investigate the Jim Crow Laws, Executive Order 9066, the Chinese Exclusion Act, and the Indian Removal Act to gather information about not only the challenges encountered by diverse groups of Americans, but their...

Groups research participatory democracies and compare the role and rights of citizens in ancient history with those in recent U.S. history. Guided by a series of questions, individuals compose a persuasive essay in which they discuss the...

Action is the heart of change. Encourage class members to not only identify critical social justice issues in their school or community but to take action as well. As individuals or as groups, they research a situation, develop a...

Your parents were both in different countries. You were born in the US. Documents and application forms ask you to identify your racial or ethnic classification. Which box do you check? Class members collect documents...

Slavery in India, Sudan, and Mauritania? What about in the United States? Groups research modern slavery in these four countries, collecting factual evidence (What), determine their feelings about this evidence (So what),...

Students study how archaeologists record the past. They discuss archaeology and artifacts. They view a list of artifacts discovered by Marquette at the Illinois Village and answer questions regarding them. They complete a test about...

Pupils work in cooperative groups to explore communication needs of our world. They are assigned a demographic area and asked to create ways to solve communication problems with innovative ideas. They also explore areas that can help...

Why are some immigrant groups in the United States embraced while others become disenfranchised? To answer this question, teams investigate why groups emigrated to the US, why some of these these peoples were...

Use the Franklin Institute's exhibition "An Inquirer's Guide to the Universe" to have young scholars research ideas for a science fiction story. After completing their research, writers will compose science fiction stories that...

Ancient religion was often times closely linked to social structure and government. Hand out a handy guide that describes 12 major gods and goddesses from ancient Mesopotamia. They are each connected to a location, symbol, and force of...

Students discover how worms contribute to the balance of the environment. In this composting lesson, students study the composting and decomposition processes. Students then create habitats for worms that allow them to do their jobs.

Take a trip to Great Britain with this fun reading lesson! Young learners read an article about many famous attributes of Britain - 101 of them, to be exact - and finish several comprehension and grammar activities about what they have...

Students create trading cards based on historical individuals that helped people with disabilities. In this disabilities lesson plan, students put the name, picture, description, and graphic on the card.

Students investigate the lifestyles of the Native Americans and look at a recipe found on a website. They read the recipe and pay attention to the measurements. They differentiate between the various measures in order to apply them to...

Students examine and discuss the history and process of Gyotaku, or fish prints. They view images of Gyotaku, create a fish print, and write a haiku.

Pupils study Japanese Daruma dolls and the Legend of Bodhidharma. They create their own Daruma Dolls.

Upper elementary and middles schoolers discuss and solve real world applications of math. They use formulas for volume and percents to answer real world questions. In the second part of the lesson, groups write and solve word problems....

High schoolers view two unknown historical objects and try to identify their function by looking at and asking questions of their appearance and function. They use critical thinking skills to view a number of images and objects. They...

Eleventh graders explore Jazz in America. They examine greats in Jazz, such as Duke Ellington. They are also to discuss the cultural implications of the music itself.

Students compare the characteristics of a fired porcelain sculpture to the clay used to create it. They discuss the physical and chemical changes that occur in the clay as it is heated and then create their own clay sculpture. This...

Young scholars investigate how rocks are modified into construction materials. In this building up and breaking down lesson plan, students explore what happens to building materials over time and how people modify natural materials....

Young scholars identify geometric patterns in quilts. In this geometry lesson, students view various types of quilts and identify the geometric shapes. Young scholars construct one hundred patch paper quilts using geometric shapes.