Human-made pollution is a large and complex problem that has harmful effects on communities and ecosystems. Understanding these impacts is essential, but it can be daunting when many types of chemical pollution are difficult to conceptualize, especially for elementary school students. Something every student can understand, however, is trash.…

In their classrooms, the authors observed students experiencing meaningful and memorable learning when they were immersed in scientific inquiry involving Bess beetles. Students who learn from active, experiential instruction, find such learning to be exciting and emotionally engaging. As a result, they learn more deeply and effectively. This…

Over the last twenty-five years, the Minnesota Historical Society, the University of Minnesota Libraries, and Minitex have developed a partnership centered on creating pathways to higher education by engaging local middle school and high school students in immersive programs at academic libraries. These activities vary in scope and content, but…

Sound is typically thought of something that is heard. Can it be seen or felt? Most students experience the noises that surround them in everyday life, but few stop to think about what sound is, how it travels, and the biological challenges associated with perceiving sound. Since students are already familiar with everyday sounds, inquiry-based…

When a college professor who teaches research methods to graduate education students was approached by a local public urban elementary school to help them teach research skills to 4th-graders, it was thought that the process would be simple--take what we did at the college level and differentiate it for the childhood classroom. This article will…

The time students spend using mobile devices is making an impact on the reading experience both inside and outside the classroom. The authors--a doctoral student and a fourth-grade language arts and science teacher--designed and implemented a unit on landforms that included nonfiction reading, with both traditional print books and eBooks on iPads,…

In the STEM classroom, students can work in collaborative teams to build those essential skills needed for the 21st-century world. In project-based learning (PBL), teams of four to six students are often randomly selected to describe a realistic situation that may occur in today's workplace; this may be done by counting off in fours, fives,…

This unit focuses on California's growth as an agricultural and industrial power in the 20th century and includes the impact of key people and key historic events. The unit is divided into 4 overlapping topics and should take 10 weeks to implement. Students examine how California became a power by tracing the transformation of the California…

In this lesson, each fourth-grade student is asked to choose a famous person who was born in his/her state, research the person's contributions to history, write a monologue, and then perform the monologue using a costume and/or a prop. The lesson offers an overview; suggests lesson length and grade level; lists subjects and subtopics; cites…

In 1875, a man fishing in the isolated Trout River of California discovered several large gold nuggets. This lesson plan asks fourth-grade students to develop a plan to avoid another 1849 gold rush. The plan is to design a new town while considering transportation, housing, food and goods for the miners, and the preservation of the area's…

Reports that students from fourth and fifth grades, along with middle and advanced history students acting as mentors, planned and executed a five-month historical research field project. Student research teams carried out at a local site a two-week archaeological dig uncovering artifacts and discovering how their predecessors lived. (NL)