In 1993 Lake Agassiz School in North Dakota received a Knight Foundation grant so teachers and students could participate in a program to learn how to create an opera. The program instructed teachers on how students could maximize their understanding about producing an opera. The school formed a partnership with the Metropolitan Opera Guild of New…

These lessons contain information that applies to almost every emergency situation involving water. Each lesson has three main components: depiction of an emergency situation, descriptions of actions that will avoid or remedy the emergency situation, and review and discussion questions with suggested answers. Part 1 has lessons on rescuing oneself…

Appropriate for intermediate grades through high school, this social studies newspaper guide suggests learning activities using newspapers. The areas covered are history, geography, current events, the working class, sociology, the political scene, cultures, government, and travel. Suggested assignments include writing a feature or news interview…

Calculator riddles can interest elementary students in math. Solving riddles where a numerical answer turned upside down reveals a word answer provides an amusing way to practice mathematical operations and learn about calculator functions. The paper explains how to create word riddles and includes student work pages. (SM)

The stated goal of this student notebook and teacher's guide are: (1) to develop in students an understanding of the concepts related to becoming a well-adjusted human being who can feel "ok" about himself/herself and "ok" about others; (2) to develop in students decision making and problem solving skills related to the concept…

This resource guide, for teachers and students in the upper elementary and middle school grades, has been developed in response to the nationwide interest in asking schools to play an active role in preparing students to become informed and responsible citizens. The guide is divided into seven sections, one for each character trait: Caring, Civic…

This teaching packet, designed for students in grades 6 through 9, explores the role of rulers in ancient Mesopotamian society and examines the depiction of those rulers in Mesopotamian art. Students are encouraged to compare present-day political leaders with ancient Mesopotamian rulers. The guide includes: (1) background information for…

This document contains a teaching guide and a children's activity book about the wild horses and burros living on Nevada public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). In 1971 Congress passed legislation to protect, manage, and control wild horses and burros on public lands. The BLM maintains 270 herd management areas in 10 states.…

Designed for students in grades 4-6, the teaching unit presents illustrations and facts about snakes. Topics include common snakes found in the United States, how snakes eat, how snakes shed their skin, poisonous snakes, the Eastern Indigo snake, and the anatomy of a snake. A student page includes a crossword puzzle and surprising snake facts. A…

This booklet presents the text for an environmental education learning sequence designed to enhance environmental knowledge and environmental ethics by providing information about: (1) energy; (2) pollution; (3) interrelationships; (4) impacts; (5) cycles; and (6) quality of life. The sequence, suitable for students in grades 5 through 8, is based…

This publication presents a science activity and instructional information on mechanics of granular materials, interparticle friction and geometric interlocking between particles which is a fundamental concept in many fields like earthquakes. The activity described in this document focuses on the principal strength of granular materials,…

Mathematics can be used to analyze musical rhythms, to study the sound waves that produce musical notes, to explain why instruments are tuned, and to compose music. This book explores the relationship between mathematics and music through proportions, patterns, Fibonacci numbers or the Golden Ratio, geometric transformations, trigonometric…

Most people think that the artist and the scientist live in two totally different worlds. However, art and science are only two different ways of understanding and knowing the world. To help intermediate students make a connection between art and science, a collection of hands-on activities have been developed. By engaging in these activities that…

One skill that elementary students need to acquire is the ability to analyze spatially distributed data. In this activity students are asked to complete the following tasks: (1) plot a set of data (related to "mud-sharks"--an imaginary fish) on a map of the state of Alabama, (2) identify trends in the data, (3) make graphs using the data…

This story, written by middle school students and their teacher at Kingsbury School in Michigan, concerns the Ancient Roman Empire and is designed to be used to teach other middle school students. The story depicts a quest to reconstruct the Roman Empire from its beginnings as Ancient Italy, as a republic in the sixth century B.C., to the height…