Health Smart provides a instructional activity that shows middle schoolers how they can step up and help someone exhibiting self-harming behaviors. After learning the signs and symptoms of depression and suicide, teams research local...

Relationship and communication skills are the heart of a lesson that focuses on passive, aggressive, and assertive communication. After examining examples of each type, teams develop an assertive, win/win solution that resolves a conflict.

Help mice beat the odds with an exciting activity about traits. Biologists discover the role of diet and other factors on animal traits by participating in a simulation activity. Teams collect and evaluate data to understand how certain...

What's so difficult about predicting the weather? Scholars work collaboratively to build a device that models how meteorologists use computers to forecast weather. Team members collect and interpret data while working together to...

The goal of this Health Smart lesson is for freshmen to develop a personal system for coping with stress. They create a power-up list of things that make them feel happier, healthier, or better connected, identify people in their lives...

Costco, Google, and Microsoft are among America's largest employers. Using the resource, scholars learn what makes business like these successful. They write a mission statement for a chosen business, practice drawing organizational...

Scholars work in teams to research the geography, economic conditions, and cultural factors associated with conducting business in another country. They create a PowerPoint to show what they've learned, and then design a brochure with...

Here's a new twist in the egg drop competition. Using only six inches of tape, four straws, and 2 pieces of newspaper, teams build a structure that keeps an egg from breaking when dropped. What's different about this project is that the...

Reliable news stories are based on facts from reliable sources. Young journalists learn how to evaluate the reliability of news sources by watching a short explainer video. Teams apply their new source-digging skills to a current news...

As part of a study of the First Amendment, young historians research instances when individuals or groups used the First Amendment to change the United State's laws or policies. Teams are each assigned a different case study. With the...

Here's a lesson designed to help learners develop their digital verification skills. First, expert groups study specific digital verification skills, and in a jigsaw activity, share what they have learned with classmates. The jigsaw...

Scholars examine the articles written for the series' first lesson plan and select ones that would benefit from further research. In a 48-hour deadline, teams of three select one topic to investigate in greater depth and craft a...

Working in teams, pairs, or individually, scholars select one resource from a gallery of historical sources and consider which examples might be considered propaganda, the techniques used to persuade audiences, and evaluate how the...

Young journalists use a "Is This Story Share-Worthy?" flowchart graphic to decide whether a story is worth sharing online. Instructors provide groups with fake news, poor quality stories, opinion pieces, biased news, and high-quality...

To understand the importance of the wording of the articles of the First Amendment (freedom of religion, freedom of speech and the press, and freedom to assembly and petition), teams argue before a jury for draft amendments of one...

As part of a civil rights movement study, groups select an event from an interactive timeline that they feel marks a turning point in the struggle. After collecting evidence to support their choice, the teams develop a multimedia...

After class members brainstorm a list of current social and political issues, groups each select a different topic from the list to research. Teams create a portfolio of at least 10 examples of stories about their issue, stories that...

Evaluate global temperature anomalies using real-world data from NASA! Climatologists analyze a data set using a literacy cube and differentiated question sheets. Team members evaluate global temperature anomaly data with basic...

People communicate in all sorts of ways. As part of a study of nonverbal communication, teams of three must complete a puzzle without speaking to one another. After debriefing the activity and analyzing the messages nonverbal cues...

Make learning the definitions of literary terms memorable with a fun and engaging activity. Teams of scholars are given several terms and create an acrostic poem with simplified definitions and examples.

Two stories by Roald Dahl, "Lamb to the Slaughter" and "The Landlady" provide readers an opportunity to compare stories by the same author. After a close reading of the stories, teams select a character from one of the tales, craft...

Introduce middle schoolers to Edward Bloor's novel Tangerine with a lesson that asks scholars to make predictions about events in the novel based on an article written by the Smoop Editorial team. Predictions are posted in the classroom...

Lines from popular songs are used to teach middle schoolers about conditional and subjunctive moods. Groups engage in a card sort activity to identify conditional and subjective sentences and then partners draft sentences of each type....

Groups of two to four work collaboratively to engineer a birdhouse that will stay cool in the summer heat. Teams examine several different-colored roofs, testing the efficiency of each with a heat lamp. Then, groups sketch their ideas,...