Technology has undoubtedly improved the lives of people around the world—but has it improved communication? Seventh graders read two informative passages about the rise of texting and emailing versus in-person conversations before...

What does it mean to have digital citizenship? A set of lessons teach middle schoolers how to be safe and productive online. From sharing posts to creating secure passwords, learners discuss the importance of remaining diligent—and...

Number patterns can seem mysterious. Help your learners unravel these mysteries as they complete an intriguing task. Through examination, collaborative groups determine that they are able to produce all integers above a certain...

Explore a basic pattern to practice writing expressions. In collaborative groups, learners examine a contextual pattern and write an expression to model it. The task encourages groups to describe the pattern in multiple ways.

Explore the measures of central tendency through a challenging task. Given values for the mean, median, mode, and range, collaborative groups create a set of data that would produce those values. They then critique other answers and...

Evaluate patterns of numbers through an engaging task. Scholars work collaboratively to determine a general rule reflecting the sum of consecutive positive integers. Multiple patterns emerge as learners explore different arrangements.

Teach solving absolute value inequalities through inquiry. Groups use their knowledge of absolute value and solving inequalities to find a solution set to an absolute value inequality. Working collaboratively encourages discussion,...

Collaboration is the key for this equation-solving lesson. Learners solve a multi-step linear equation that requires using the distributive property. Within collaborative groups, scholars discuss multiple methods and troubleshoot mistakes.

What makes a good sample? Your classes collaborate to answer this question through a task involving areas of rectangles. Given a set of 100 rectangles, they sample a set of five rectangles to estimate the average area of the figures. The...

Connect science, math, and art for a true interdisciplinary instructional activity! Learners explore simple machines in art. Through analysis with a physics app, they identify positions of kinetic and potential energy and make...

What makes a source primary or secondary? Middle schoolers read a definition of each term before exploring different examples and applying their knowledge to a research project.

Investigate negative exponents of-ten. Pupils use the pattern of increasing powers of 10 to determine negative powers of 10. The scholars write the powers in expanded and product forms and make the connection to exponents using a...

If only you had a Sorting Hat to sort out quadrilaterals. Learners sort cutouts of quadrilaterals based on their properties and attributes. A flowchart helps them organize the results of the activity.

A change is coming. Pupils use unit cubes to investigate how changes in the length, width, and/or height affects volume and surface area. They extend the results to write and test predictions on the effect of changing multiple sides on...

Design an efficient cereal box. Scholars use set volume criteria to design a cereal box by applying their knowledge of surface area to determine the cost to create the box. They then determine whether their designs will fit on...

Which deal is best? Learners determine which of two companies has the best deal for a particular number of shirts. They begin by creating a table and equations containing each company's pricing structure....

Model the effects of practice on texting speed. Pupils develop a linear equation that models the change in texting speed based on the amount of practice. The sixth performance task in an eight-part series requires learners to solve...

Why do all sizes of pictures not show the same thing? Class members analyze aspect ratios of various sizes of photos. They determine which sizes have equivalent ratios and figure out why some pictures need to be cropped to fit...

Moooove over, there's a better deal over there! The fourth segment in a series of eight requires individuals to determine the best unit cost for milk. Scholars calculate the least amount they can spend on a particular quantity of...

How does your garden grow? Use proportions to help Tim answer that question. By using their understanding of proportional relationships, pupils determine the number of seeds that will sprout. They create their own linear...

Squares can be magic. Pupils use their knowledge of addition of positive and negative rational numbers to create a 3 X 3 magic square where the sums are 1. Scholars create addition and multiplication expressions with a set of rational...

Investigate the growth rates of alien animals. Pupils study fictional animals from another planet to determine how much they grow per year. The investigators plot the growth of their animals over a period of time and then compare...

Living in someone's shadow would be difficult for anyone, including one of the most talented artists of the modern age. Middle schoolers read an excerpt from Vincent Van Gogh: Portrait of an Artist by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan...

An effective lesson plan truly can make all the difference. Seventh graders read, analyze, and annotate Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" before writing an essay about what they believe to be the theme of the iconic poem.