Why did attackers on December 7, 1941, and on September 11, 2001, choose the targets they did? That is one of several questions young historians try to answer as they compare and contrast the two attacks. They also consider the...

As part of a study of the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, young historians imagine the feelings of those who lived during the attack by creating a word cloud of 10 words they think express the emotions of people at that time....

Letters have long been prized by historians as primary sources for what they reveal not only about events but also about the emotional responses of the writers to these events. "My Dear Little Boys," a letter written by Leonard Isacks on...

From December 20, 1860 to June 8, 1861, eleven states seceded from the Union. Alabama seceded on January 11, 1861. Why did so many white Alabamians want to secede? Why did they believe the South could win the war? These are the essential...

After listening to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's "Day of Infamy" speech, young historians research information about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, possible motives for the attack, and the consequences of the attack. Scholars...

Clara becomes Marie, The Mouse King becomes a rat, and the Shadyside section of Pittsburgh becomes the setting for a modern interpretation of Tchaikovsky's famous ballet. Intended as a resource guide for a 2012 performance, the...

Can the President of the United States pass a law all by himself? Scholars investigate the concept of the executive order in regards to the powers of the presidency. They use current issues and events to monitor media bias while also...

Young historians use primary source materials to investigate the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor and the sinking of the USS Arizona. After reading background articles and studying maps and images of the attack, class members consider whether...

Balancing national security and civil liberties can be tricky. To appreciate the tension between these two concepts, class members investigate the Japanese attack on the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor and President Franklin D....

Young historians use the prompts on a worksheet to analyze President Roosevelt's "Day of Infamy" speech. They identify the intended audience for the speech, the devices FDR used to persuade his audience, the responses promoted, and the...

Every culture has a set of social skills one must learn to establish and maintain relationships. Some of these skills are particular to a culture and some are universal. Class members practice using appropriate language,...

Experiment with chocolate coating on cookies! What a delightful way to learn about food processing and chemical engineering. Throughout this activity, groups collect measurements and make calculations. They conclude by writing...

How tall is your marshmallow structure? With limited supplies (including uncooked spaghetti noodles, masking tape, and one marshmallow), teams endeavor to support the marshmallow atop the tallest spaghetti structure they can build....

Challenge young engineers to design a one-bedroom scale house to collect and maintain as much heat as possible. Particular constraints must be adhered to, but creativity is also allowed. Included is a diagram and background information...

Design and construct buildings with rooftop gardens. Junior engineers work in groups to build two buildings and then perform experiments to determine whether or not a garden affects the building's temperatures. They graph and interpret...

Demonstrate how the Skywatch website works, locating your city via The International Space Station. Have cooperative groups use string and a protractor to identify an azimuth. When each groups' height has been marked, you will have a...

Kick off the school year with some math fun! New classmates share information about themselves by using graphs and interpreting data. The goal is to use a general graph shape, such as linear or exponential, and create labels for the axes...

What could be more relevant to teens and preteens than experiencing stress? Use an article from the New York Times website to practice valuable Common Core skills for informational text reading, and also get a discussion going in your...

Refuse to alienate your scientific-minded young scholars during your creative writing unit. Learners explore how literary writing can reflect observable fact, and be based in actual science. The links include examples of fiction and...

Nothing aids in comprehension more than an explanation and understanding of why things are done. Address why the Common Core requires the reading percentages that it established and analyze how this affects your readers. Learners read...

Every good novel needs a solid beginning! Setting the stage can have your budding authors stumped, so use this lesson to get them thinking. After examining the plot rollercoaster image (included) they consider the four places...

It's all about using peer resources in this writing process lesson, which includes a fantastic novel revision worksheet packet. Learners have read a partner's story draft the night before, and groups have a "lightning round of...

There are an average of three human fatalities by bears in North America every year, which is low when you compare it to the 26 killed by dogs and the 90 killed by lightning annually. The lesson encourages researching human-bear...

Children enjoy playing with silly putty, but it provides more than just fun. Young scientists make their own silly putty using different recipes. After a bit of fun, they test and graph the viscosity of each.