Teams design and build a windmill, under budget, that can lift an object. The groups evaluate and reflect on their own design, then on those produced by other teams. The goal is to determine which design is the most...

What are employers looking for in prospective employees? Career-minded high schoolers examine their strongest technical skills as well as important 21st century skills, including leadership, empathy, clear communication, working well...

What does dropping a ball look like as a graph? An engaging activity asks learners to record a video of dropping a ball and uploading the video to software for analysis. They compare the position of the ball to time and calculate the...

Is CTE the right choice for me? Introduce the class to career and technical education through an exploratory instructional activity, fourth in a series of six career readiness activities. After an introductory video, scholars determine...

Your career search starts here! Sixth grade scholars begin their journey toward college and career readiness in the first of a five-part series of lessons. Individuals identify where their interests lead them using the Holland code, then...

How do I get where I'm going from here? The fifth of six college and career readiness lessons invites seventh graders to dig deep into the career of their choice. Once they complete their research, individuals relate their findings to...

Begin seeing the world through the lens of geometry! Use the 19th installment in a 25-part module to apply the Pythagorean Theorem to solve real-world problems. Individuals sketch situations resulting in right triangles such as the...

Powered up! Here's a great resource on exponents. Scholars build on their previous understanding of exponents to include all positive real number bases. Distinguishing between an and a^n is a major goal in the fifth lesson of a 36-part...

For employers and recruiters, the first step in their quest to find good candidates is the paper screening process. They look at a candidate's application and resume and push forward the files of those who meet their requirements. Thus...

Take your class on a nature walk around the school and have children assume the role of "Plant Hunter" as they go. The goal is to explore the different parts of a plant. They return to the classroom to discuss the parts that they saw and...

Young nutritionists plan nutritional meals by using the USDA's Food Guide Pyramid. Before constructing their meal plans, they take a close look a food labels and learn how to decipher them. In today's world of obese and unfit children,...

Read Just a Little Bit, by Ann Tompert as an introduction to levers. Discuss playground seesaws and then turn learners loose to experiment with the placement of a fulcrum. Their goal is to determine where to place it in order to lift ten...

Use Music-Mix-Math to help learners solve a series of problems. They will solve one-word problems while music is playing, when the music stops, each learner finds a partner to compare the answer with. This can be done with as many as 4...

Students evaluate immigration policies. In this global issues lesson, students analyze the long-term goals of divergent immigration policies as they role play the deliberation process. 

Avoid the mines and win the game! Young scholars direct a robot through a minefield by plotting points. Their goal is to reach the target in as few moves as possible.

Sixth graders keep track of the amount of paper they consume on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. The goal of the lesson is to have them all find ways to reduce the amount they use. Everyone creates recycled paper from old newspapers...

Learners complete a unit of lessons that examine the goals of the Americans during the Revolutionary War. They explore an online interactive map of major campaigns, read and analyze primary source documents, and analyze diplomatic and...

  High schoolers investigate the practices related to safer sex and define what it means in our society today. Guiding questions are used to facilitate classroom discussion. The goal is for high schoolers to define and identify the...

Create three dimensional objects in an applied science lesson. The goal is for your class to recognize, compare, and model shapes. Using cookie cutters and clay or play dough, they create models for three-dimensional shapes.

After a whole-class discussion of water reservoirs, ten liters of water are given to each lab group to represent Earth's total amount of water. They divide the water into smaller containers, each representing one of those reservoirs. The...

Here is a fun and fast-paced game of shooting baskets. This game uses two basketballs and a line of players at the free-throw line. Player 1 shoots at the basket and tries to make a basket before player 2 makes a basket. If player 1...

If you run more laps, did you run further? Well, it depends. If the laps are different lengths, you need to do some math to answer that question. The goal of this task to is compare two fractions. Young learners represent the real-world...

Your mission, if you decide to accept it, is math skills practice. In this app, Mission Impossible meets basic number operation skills, and your students are the secret agents. 

Can you beat the odds of cancer? In the first installment of a seven-part series, future biomedical engineers consider how to detect and diagnose cancer. An article on biosensors provides useful information toward this goal.