How can we use chemical reactions to design a solution to a problem? In this 21-day unit, students are introduced to the anchoring phenomenon—a flameless heater in a Meal, Ready-to-Eat (MRE) that provides hot food to people by just adding water. In the first lesson set, students explore the inside of an MRE flameless heater, then do investigations to collect evidence to support the idea that this heater and another type of flameless heater (a single-use hand warmer) are undergoing chemical reactions as they get warm. Students have an opportunity to reflect on the engineering design process, defining stakeholders, and refining the criteria and constraints for the design solution.

OpenSciEd content is highly rated in EdReports and is aligned to NGSS standards.

Knowing how to engage in signature scientific acts, such as formulating questions and using evidence in arguments is an important part of science learning. This InfoBrief from the National Center for Technology Innovation offers more information about using technology to support struggling students.

Links to 17 lessons and activities that build student skills in standard SL.4.3: Identify the reasons and evidence a speaker provides to support particular points.

Students develop an organized mind map of facts they have learned about fossils from reading and visual content.

In this video, Paul Andersen explains how scientists analyze data and evaluate evidence. He starts with a description of data and how it must be properly displayed. He then describes types of data in each of the four big ideas. He finally discusses a number of practice questions related to data analysis. [6:49]

A new instructional model, called Argument-Driven Inquiry (ADI), is introduced to elementary teachers in this article. The author shows how school librarians and classroom teachers can collaborate to help students construct and communicate evidence, or arguments. Evidence buckets, a collaborative activity, and related online resources are presented. The article appears in the free online magazine Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle, which is structured around the seven essential principles of climate literacy.

Students learn how various kinds of data and information can be gathered to create a biodiversity timeline that serves as evidence of changes in a population of a species.

Become a detective to solve the case of the smelly backpack! Act out the clues and draw conclusions to solve the mystery.

When Detective Bentley cannot figure out why his backpack is smelly, he retraces the events in his day to find clues. Taking on the role of detectives, the viewers act out the events of Bentley’s day and use textual clues to solve the case.

Learning Objective:
Draw conclusions from the facts presented in text and support those assertions with textual evidence.

Students experience the information aftermath of a fictional event as it unfolds on social media. They also learn about five common logical fallacies, then evaluate the evidence in several arguments. A free educator account is necessary to assign this Checkology lesson.

This video [0:25] adapted from KTOO takes a look at Earth's warming and cooling cycles and the current atypical trend of warming that is impacting the glaciers in Alaska's Inside Passage.

This lesson plan requires the students to examine past maps from various cultures in order to learn how the people from that time period interacted and understood their world.

In this transcript of an interview filmed for the PBS series "Evolution," scientists Ted Daeschler and Neil Shubin describe the discovery and significance of some of their key fossil finds.

The 11th grade learning experience consists of 7 mostly month-long units aligned to the Common Core State Standards, with available course material for teachers and students easily accessible online. Over the course of the year there is a steady progression in text complexity levels, sophistication of writing tasks, speaking and listening activities, and increased opportunities for independent and collaborative work. Rubrics and student models accompany many writing assignments.Throughout the 11th grade year, in addition to the Common Read texts that the whole class reads together, students each select an Independent Reading book and engage with peers in group Book Talks. Students move from learning the class rituals and routines and genre features of argument writing in Unit 11.1 to learning about narrative and informational genres in Unit 11.2: The American Short Story. Teacher resources provide additional materials to support each unit.

In this short unit, students will spend three lessons exploring the importance of themes and main ideas in fiction and informational texts.  Now would be a good time to have them take an assessment of their reading and writing skills. They'll explore theme through O. Henry's classic short story  "The Gift of the Magi" and consider how this piece compares to the main idea in the article "The Proven Power of Giving, Not Getting."

 In this lesson, you will take the writing portion of the culminating assessment. You will continue to use the skills you have learned in the first three lessons of this unit.Today, students will take the writing portion of the culminating assessment.They will reflect on all the material they have read in this unit, and they will use their understanding of all the material presented to them to write an essay. You will evaluate their work in both reading comprehension and writing.Lesson PreparationRead the lesson and student content.Anticipate student difficulties and identify the differentiation options you will choose for working with your students.If you have students on an IEP or other accommodations, check to see whether they receive extended time or need an alternative test setting. Work with the professional supporting SWDs to make sure student needs are met.

In this lesson, students will read a famous short story by the author O. Henry and consider how gift giving affects both the giver and the receiver. They’ll learn about aphorisms and create their own bumper sticker.

Observe and annotate various images of weather phenomena in this interactive drawing tool produced by WGBH. Weather is the combination of various factors -- snow or rain, wind, sunlight and clouds, and temperature -- that happen in a specific location at a specific time. As the combination of factors constantly shift, the condition changes and leaves behind evidence that shows how the weather has changed. Students can use the images in this interactive tool to observe weather conditions and document evidence of weather that happened earlier in the day. Teaching materials are provided.

Observe and annotate various images of weather phenomena in this interactive drawing tool. Students can use the images in this tool to observe weather conditions and document evidence of weather that happened earlier in the day. Teacher and student support materials are provided.

Discover why concussions and less traumatic forms of brain injury sustained while playing high school football are being met with greater scrutiny from science and society. Evidence gathered from the brains of deceased former professional athletes shows a progressive degenerative disease called chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, which is linked with a history of concussions and can lead to depression, dementia, and even suicide. Researchers have found that the onset of CTE can occur even in people who have never suffered concussions. [4:41]

This set of debate guidelines includes information on debate format as well as preparing for a debate. It uses a computer science class debate prompt.