Who and what can you trust online? How do you know? After viewing a pair of introductory videos on positive and safe online conduct, learners discuss the content and put it into practice during an online search activity about alien...

A fan of Ari's Crispin trilogy? Here is a packet that contains study guides for all three Crispin novels: The Cross of Lead, At the Edge of the World, and The End of Time.

The reason people first began trading was because of their desires for objects other societies possessed. In the activity, classes discuss why exploration has been a common thread in all societies and where these desires have taken...

Quotation marks are the focus of this resource. In it, youngsters discover how to correctly use punctuation marks. It is meant to be carried out over a three-day period. You could shorten it, but I wouldn't. The activities are...

Blend chemistry with cooking in this exploration of polymers, carbohydrates, and food science. Experimenting with gelatin produces concrete examples of the bonding and ploymerization discussed in the instructional activity. Copious,...

With paper DNA patterns, budding biologists model translation and base-pair substitution within sequences. Through these activities, they examine how mutations can result in genetic disorders. The modeling that occurs is an enlightening...

Students study the route from Hormuz to Constantinople that was traveled by the Polos. They explain the importance of Constantinople in medieval time and discuss its location, and outer wall structure.

Students read and analyze a personal narrative written about a Peace Corps Volunteer teaching English in Guinea-Bissau, Africa. They discuss the concept of crossing cultures, analyze maps, complete worksheets, and develop a writing...

Students graph results of a survey about attitudes and tolerance in their school. They discuss the social climate of their school. Students complete a questionnaire, and tabulate the raw data from their class. They create a bar graph...

Students, working in groups, create "artificial seeds" for a wind dispersal experiment. After trial runs, they redesign their seeds, and re-test them under the same conditions. Finally, they interpret, compare, and evaluate the original...

Step into the hopeful and tragic world of Anne Frank with this lesson plan on reading in context. After complete a variety of activities related to the first two scenes of The Diary of Anne Frank, eighth graders participate in a...

Tenth graders, after reading two excerpts about contemporary child labor situations, discuss two broad questions in detail along with the industrial boom following the Civil War conditions in the United States. They investigate how the...

How can you measure the height of a tree or telephone pole with only a short measuring tape?  It's not a problem when you start by measuring your shadow and your height to create a ratio to use with taller objects. Additional...

Have your upper graders watch the documentary, "The Persuaders" as they explore how advertisers try to gain potential customers. The video is followed by a discussion and close examination of new marketing trends and strategies.

Great real-world math application! Have the class compare and contrast their estimated home price and income data with actual data. In groups, they participate in simulations to discover how the housing market and mortgages operate....

Students explore where electricity comes from and how it is used in their everyday lives. Through discussion and hands-on activities, they define electricity and explain how it travels to our homes. Students make informed choices based...

Students explore the concept of social trade-offs in the context of graduated driver licensing. They discuss the benefits and drawbacks of the graduate licensing program.They create a list of factors that contribute to traffic accidents...

During the 1800s the United States was expanding westward; land was there for the taking.  Kids explore how some early photographers used their photography to influenced the US Congress to save areas like Mirror Lake. They...

Students explore and react to the painting The Road to Santa Fe. In this interacting with art lesson, students locate various objects in the painting.  Students copy the angle of objects by using their bodies.  Students discuss...

Students investigate how pollution affects lung health. In this pollution and lung health lesson, students build lung models from a soda bottle and balloons, and then discuss how the emissions from fossil fuels can adversely affect lung...

Students listen to data on African American women in Texas before the Civil War. In this Civil War lesson, students compare and contrast the lives of slave and free women, and discuss case studies, locating areas on a map. Students...

Fifth graders explore historical fiction. In this genre study lesson, 5th graders go on a text feature scavenger hunt to identify the parts of a historical fiction text. Additionally, students read the book, My Secret War and discuss...

Students research about the processing of biodiesel fuels. In this energy lesson, students produce their own biodiesel using used and new vegetable oil. They discuss the environmental and economic benefits of using biodiesel.

A simple activity goes a long way in demonstrating the property of porosity to your rock hounds. They will mass a specimen of dry sandstone and then soak it in a pre-measured amount of water. After seven minutes, they once again measure...