This lesson focuses on how the blues both operates as poetry and informs the poetry of many prominent African American poets. Students consider the poetic devices and recurring themes in blues lyrics and the significance of the poetry of...

This lesson plan enables students to gain a broader awareness of the basic blues scale and the harmonic structure of the standard blues progression. Students will be given introductory exercises on blues improvisation and will also...

This lesson enables teachers to use blues music to explore the history of African Americans in the 20th century. By studying the content of blues songs, young scholars can learn about the experiences and struggles of the working-class...

This instructional activity enables teachers to use blues styles and performers to think about various geographical regions of the United States. By studying different blues styles from the Mississippi Delta, Texas, and the Piedmont...

This lesson plan focuses on how students can learn basic blues percussion patterns by considering the polyrhythms of African drumming and investigating how and why such drums were banned during slavery. Students will listen to several...

Students will: Analyze an extract of a document from 1616 concerning male adolescent behavior. Decide if the advice offered is sensible. Determine if the content of that document is relevant to contemporary adolescent males. Compare the...

This lesson plan invites students to interact with the play from their first encounter, determine actions implied from the text and better comprehend Shakespeare's language.

Though this lesson deals specifically with Hamlet and its themes, many of the strategies and approaches here may be used with most any of Shakespeare's plays that have been adapted to film. Viewing clips of the same Shakespeare scene in...

This is an excellent multidisciplinary lesson designed by Scientific American. It provides three creative activities--designing a garden, studying hieroglyphics, and writing poetry--relevant to the ancient peoples of the Middle East....

This is a creative, multidisciplinary, well-designed lesson provided by Scientific American related to special effects. Students make their own animated short films and use math and computer skills.

This is a well-designed science activity which helps students learn the behavior of different species of birds. Working with partners and in small team, students learn to scientifically observe birds.

This is a creative multidisciplinary lesson which will involve students in art, technology, and psychology. Students learn about Harold Cohen who created a robot programmed to create art. Students will also enjoy the sand pendulum...

This is a well-designed, creative lesson to help students learn more about the human memory. Working in pairs, students complete tasks and gather data. Excellent websites for resources are also provided.

In these creative hands-on activities, students construct several different molecular models that represent substances that play an essential role in our nutritional needs. Using gum drops and toothpicks, students design the models....

In this well-designed nutritional activity, learners are given the opportunity to create their own daily food record, compare their nutrient with minimimun requirements, and think critically about their own food choices. Materials and...

In this creative music activity from Scientific American, students learn about musical notation and then design their own notations. Great web resource links are alsp provided

In this creative science activity from Scientific American, students learn more about hearing with two ears and make a hands-on exploration of how sound is located. Excellent web link resources are also provided.

This activity explores structural racism by revealing the important role that family wealth plays in shaping life chances how opportunities to accumulate wealth have been racialized, and the roots and consequences of the current...

In this computer-based activity, students will measure genetic diversity within and between three subspecies of chimpanzees in order to gain a better understanding of genetic distinctiveness and explore race as a genetic concept.

This lesson will help students examine their preconceptions and assumptions about racial categories and understand the impossibility of constructing a consistent system of human racial classification.

This computer-based lesson will enable students to test their notions of "racial" similarity and difference by comparing mtDNA sequences as the students do in the first episode of RACE - The Power of an Illusion.

This lesson plan explores the multiple causes of racial segregation and environmental racism, and helps students understand the perpetuation of institutional racism in the post-Civil Rights era. Students will perform a mock tribunal in...

This lesson plan will help students practice conducting an oral history interview, increase knowledge about what it is like to be a soldier, gain knowledge about the Vietnam War and gain knowledge about the Chicano experience in the U.S.

Young scholars see how to use primary and secondary sources to investigate history. Whether it is a photograph, book, map, letter, postcard, newspaper, or official document, students can use sources to reconstruct and relive history.