This collection contains two lesson plans and an interactive game that will facilitate discussion and deepen understanding of the complex issues raised in the documentary film, A Fragile Trust: Plagiarism, Power, and Jayson Blair at The New York Times. Students will be encouraged to think critically about the daily pressures faced by journalists and media makers in a fast-paced and quickly changing field.

Students gain an understanding of the factors that affect wind turbine operation. Following the steps of the engineering design process, engineering teams use simple materials (cardboard and wooden dowels) to build and test their own turbine blade prototypes with the objective of maximizing electrical power output for a hypothetical situation—helping scientists power their electrical devices while doing research on a remote island. Teams explore how blade size, shape, weight and rotation interact to achieve maximal performance, and relate the power generated to energy consumed on a scale that is relevant to them in daily life. A PowerPoint® presentation, worksheet and post-activity test are provided.

A favorite movie, “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” provides the backdrop scenario for students to discover how harnessing the sun’s energy provides unlimited power for many purposes, including the operation of thousands of satellites in orbit today and communication over long distances. In the movie, E.T., an alien life form, is stranded on Earth and befriends Elliott, the little boy who rescues him. As E.T. becomes gravely ill, Elliott realizes that E.T. needs to return home in order to survive. To arrange for transport, E.T. must “phone home.” Teams engage in an interactive quest to answer the question: E.T. phone home—fact or fiction? They must discover four clues in order to unlock four padlocks on a box that contains the answer. This requires them to watch a one-minute online video, complete a crossword puzzle, scan three QR codes for articles to read, and put together a cut-apart puzzle with an invisible ink clue. They watch short online movie excerpt videos to kick off and wrap up the activity.

Overview of natural gas' creation, usage, and effects.

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A quick review of natural gas.

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Overview of oil's creation, usage, and effects.

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Overview of oil's creation, usage, and effects.

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Use this study guide to understand petroleum power.

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This pathway explores the foundational concepts of electric circuits, such as voltage, curent, resistance and capacitance. Some further applications of circuits are also included. Problems are provided to test for understanding.

PBS provides a fascinating glimpse of Egypt's New Kingdom, arising "more than one thousand years after the pyramids were built." Concentrating on the lives of seven pharaohs (one of them a woman), the site includes a timeline, lesson plans (on Egyptian Daily Life, Pharaohs, and Beliefs), and information on the making of PBS's "Egypt's Golden Empire" TV series. Visually impressive, with great pictures of pharaohs, artifacts, reenactments, and more.

Demos and activities in this lesson are intended to illustrate the basic concepts of energy science -- work, force, energy, power etc. and the relationships among them. The "lecture" portion of the lesson includes many demonstrations to keep students engaged, yet has high expectations for the students to perform energy related calculations and convert units as required. A homework assignment and quiz are used to reinforce and assess these basic engineering science concepts.

We all know that it takes energy to provide us with the basics of shelter: heating, cooling, lighting, electricity, sanitation and cooking. To create energy-efficient housing that is practical for people to use every day requires combining many smaller systems that each perform a function well, and making smart decisions about the sources of power we use. Through five lessons on the topics of heat transfer, circuits, daylighting, electricity from renewable energy sources, and passive solar design, students learn about the science, math and engineering that go into designing energy-efficient components of smart housing that is environmentally friendly. Through numerous design/build/analyze activities, students create a solar water heater, swamp cooler, thermostat, model houses for testing, model greenhouse, and wind and water turbine prototypes. It is best if students are concurrently taking Algebra 1 in order to complete some of the worksheets.

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.

People often say that mankind should learn from history. Charles Dickens, whose books are considered classics, set his novel A Tale of Two Cities in the past. He wanted his readers to learn from the bloody French Revolution and from the widespread brutality in London. Both cities (Paris and London) offer the reader a glimpse into dark and dangerous times. As students read about Dickens's Victorian setting and learn his view of the French Revolution, they will think about what makes a just world. Students will have a chance to think about their own experiences, and, using techniques they have learned from Charles Dickens, they will do some writing that sends a message about your own world.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

To complete the unit accomplishments, students will:

Read the Charles Dickens novel A Tale of Two Cities.
Read several short pieces, including a biography of Dickens and excerpts from other literature, to help them understand Dickens’s world and the world of the novel.
Explore new vocabulary to build their ability to write and speak using academic language.
Practice close reading and participate in several role plays and dramatic readings to help them experience the dramatic writing style of Charles Dickens.
Write a vignette and a short narrative piece, and practice using descriptive detail and precise language.
Write a reflection about the meaning of Dickens’s novel.

GUIDING QUESTIONS

These questions are a guide to stimulate thinking, discussion, and writing on the themes and ideas in the unit. For complete and thoughtful answers and for meaningful discussions, students must use evidence based on careful reading of the texts.

How does good storytelling affect the reader, and how can a good story promote change in the world?
What was the Victorian view of gender roles?
How can power be abused?
What is loyalty ? What are the limits of loyalty?

In this lesson, students will discuss the actions of the Revolutionaries in France and discuss whether or not they are being fair and just.

The subtitle of this essay is "How Presidents Have Come to 'Run the Country' by Usurping Legislative Power." It discusses how the Constitution defines executive powers in a general way, with few limitations on the power of the President to overrule the powers of Congress or state governments. The author goes on the outline how the issue of the separation of powers should be a major concern.

Students learn to simplify complex-looking exponential expressions, and they learn efficient ways to describe, communicate, and operate with very large and very small numbers.

Meet the Function Family! Each member of the family has examples of their graphs and descriptions of the types of real-world situation that produce those graphs.

An in-depth look at the different types of contempt of court, in the United States legal system.

Read the words in the U.S. Constitution, Article VI, concerning the oath of office. Link to a Supreme Court case which tested the interpretation of this article, McCullock v. Maryland, to view the decisions of the Justices.