Upcoming chemists use chemical reactions to determine relative pH in two different acids. This is a terrific lesson for middle schoolers that can stand alone as a practice in precision and lab skills, or as part of the unit on chemical...

Getting back to the beginning of the unit, learners use reactions with red cabbage juice to determine if solutions are acidic, neutral, or basic. This is a straightforward and classic investigation, but what you will appreciate is the...

Alone, or as part of the intended unit on chemical reactions, this activity allows learners to experience an exothermic reaction. Here, learners add calcium chloride to a baking soda solution and watch the temperature rise! They will...

Though the publisher designated this unit for use with third through eighth grades, this particular lesson plan would be best used with middle schoolers due to the specific measurement skills required. Basically, they set up the reaction...

Now that learners have been exposed to chemical changes, they learn that some take in heat and therefore, decrease in temperature. The same reaction that they have been investigating between baking soda and vinegar is revisited,...

If you have taught the first lesson in this mini unit, learners already know that cabbage juice and vinegar cause chemical changes in some materials. Now, they get a chance to use them to compare the liquids' reactions to five known and...

By both demonstration and hands-on investigation, physical science fanatics come to know that some materials react when they come together. Adding vinegar to both baking soda and to baking powder, the difference between the two is clear....

Continuing with the concept of volume and its effect on density, learners now work with a piece of clay to see if they can get it to float in water. This is a memorable end to a seven-part investigation of density. Make sure to check out...

In this sixth of seven activities revolving around the concept of density, physical science fans figure out if anything can be done to change the density of an object. Demonstrate by placing a can of regular and a can of diet soda into a...

During a unit on density, pupils ponder whether or not temperature affects this property. By carefully inserting blue cold water and yellow hot water into a room-temperature sample, they will see the answer. Make sure to have done the...

Fourth in a set of several little lessons on density, this one compares the density of fresh and salt water. First by demonstration, and then by a hands-on activity, learners find that adding salt increases the density, as is evidenced...

Learners will like making a liquid layer cake to investigate the relative densities of various liquids: water, oil, and corn syrup. They will also introduce a few solid materials to find out how their densities compare. Standing alone,...

Investigators construct a makeshift balance and compare equal volumes of wax and water. They do the same for clay and water. Then they discover whether the wax and clay will float or sink in water. Ultimately this is a comparison of...

Three simple activities kick off a unit investigation of density. Your physical scientists make observations on the volume and mass of wood, water, and rocks, and make comparisons. Though this is written for grades three through eight,...

Your class members will take on the roles of jury members in this exciting simulation. After reading a detailed script and reviewing pieces of evidence, they will determine whether Honda violated copyright and copied James Bond.

Jacque's soliloquy from Act II, scene ii of As You Like It sets the stage for a close reading exercise that models how to approach difficult, dense text and enables readers to practice reading comprehension and analysis...

Does a public school have the right to restrict what t-shirts students wear? Discover what happened when this question was brought to the Supreme Court, and review other major cases in United States history involving judicial review....

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...

Use a container full of water as a prism and show that as light is bent, the individual colors from different wavelengths become visible. This explains why the sky appears to be blue midday, and why as the sun nears the horizon, it looks...

Young scientists transform themselves into rivers, oceans, clouds, and drops of water in order to explore the water cycle. After assigning and explaining to students their different roles in the activity, the teacher reads aloud a...

“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” Ambrose Bierce’s short story, is used to model how structural moves, the decisions an author makes about setting, point of view, time order, etc., can be examined to reveal an author’s purpose. Groups...

Draw back the curtain, add a spot of joy to your class, and let learners be instructional activityed by a close reading exercise that models how to develop an interpretation based on evidence drawn from a text. Robert Browning’s dramatic...

Turn your classroom into a music studio as groups work together to determine why music sounds different when performed live versus a recording. After listening to some different music, each group picks a poem, creates a recording, and...

Rotating through five stations, evolutionary biologists explore the question of how changes in DNA facilitate the changes in a population over time. High-quality, colorful cards of animals, skeletons, skulls, and DNA sequences can all be...