LAFS.68.WHST.1.2Archived Standard

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text intended to support reading in the content area. Cell biologist, Yoshinori Ohsumi, won the Nobel Prize for medicine for his research of how cells recycle unused materials in order to maintain homeostasis. The text describes his research and contains statements from other scientists supporting Ohsumi as the right choice for the award. This lesson includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an intended to support reading in the content area. The article explains how climate change is reducing the amount of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean. Within this sea ice is found algae that forms the base of Arctic food webs. As the sea ice goes, so does the algae, which in turn could affect the entire Arctic ecosystem. This lesson includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text designed to support reading in the content area. The article introduces readers to a new threat to giant panda survival: horses. The article explains how both species are competing for the limited bamboo supply in the Wolong Nature Reserve. This lesson includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text intended to support reading in the content area. The article describes one common virus that takes a sneaky route to success. It doesn't kill its leafy hosts, instead, it makes infected plants smell more attractive to bees. This ensures the virus will have a new generation of the plants to host it in the future. This lesson includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text intended to support reading in the content area. This article describes new research suggesting urban life creates evolutionary changes in plants and animals. Examples of changes to an urban growing plant (the white clover) and a Leapin' Lizard are described as they evolve to suit their new environment. This lesson includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an article that introduces readers to the importance and role of pollinators, factors contributing to their current decline, and easy steps that can be taken to help pollinators. This lesson is designed to support reading in the content area. This lesson includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an  intended to support reading in the content area.  The article showcases the recent discovery of a planet orbiting our nearest star that may have the necessary ingredients to harbor life.  The possibly Earth-like planet is 4 light years away, however.  How might we explore it in greater detail?  The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Numerous options to extend the lesson are also included.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text that shows how a seemingly harmless invasive species of jumping worm may cause much more destruction than once thought. The Asian jumping worm eats the debris on the forest floor at a rate that out-competes the native worms so much so that it is causing a number of problems, including forest re-growth. This lesson plan is designed to support reading in the content area. It includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. 

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text that describes the spread of the Zika virus through the Americas and its arrival in the United States. The text describes how the virus is carried by specific species of mosquitoes that are common in Florida and other warmer areas of the United States. An added concern with Zika is the link to microcephaly, a neurological disorder affecting fetuses and infants from infected mothers. The text also describes other viruses in the larger group that Zika belongs to and how these viruses affect the human body. This lesson is designed to support reading in the content area. The lesson plan includes a reading guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Options to extend the lesson are also included.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this Model Eliciting Activity (MEA), students will understand how global patterns affect the temperature of an area by studying the features of an application's virtual creatures called the "Pokemontures." These creatures have the ability to match the temperature of their environment. As students study the Pokemontures' features and calculate their approximate temperature, they will apply concepts linked to the patterns that affect temperature. Students will also review heat transfers and sea/land breezes with the use of this MEA.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this MEA, students will select the robots that are more efficient at doing a certain type of job. They will have to analyze data tables that include force, force units, mass, mass units, and friction.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text that explains the importance of examining moons in our solar system for signs of life. The text provides evidence on several moons of Saturn and Jupiter and explains how these moons might be good candidates for potentially harboring life, in part due to the presence of water. This lesson is designed to support reading in the content area. The lesson plan includes a graphic organizer, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Numerous options to extend the lesson are also included.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text that addresses what causes lightning and thunder. The text also outlines ways to stay safe during a lightning storm. This informational text is designed to support reading in the content area. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text that addresses organelles in terms of their size, characteristics, and functions. This article, designed to support reading in the content area, "shrinks" the student to put the size of certain organelles in perspective with familiar objects/places. It also describes the characteristics and functions of the nucleus, certain membranes, endoplasmic reticulum, ribosomes, Golgi apparatus, and the mitochondria. This lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Numerous options to extend the lesson are also included.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text intended to support reading in the content area.  The article begins by defining the jet stream and then describes how the Earth's rotation and axis affect the movement of wind bands around the earth. Interactions from variables such as the locations of high and low pressure systems, warm and cold air, and seasonal changes are also discussed. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Options to extend the lesson are also included.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text that describes the physics of roller coasters. This informational text is designed to support reading in the content area. The article was written to answer the question, "Why don't I fall out when a roller coaster goes upside down?" The article is an interesting combination of scientific information about physics of roller coasters along with some fun facts. The lesson plan includes text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text that explains how ranchers in Australia are using satellite data to more effectively manage their land. The text also describes how NASA's satellite technology is used by farmers in other parts of the world, providing them with data to help them track changes to their land in near real-time and over time. This lesson is designed to support reading in the content area. This lesson includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions and a writing prompt, sample answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, the students will learn about the five spheres of the Earth and how they interact.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will look at heat transfer and investigate radiation, conduction, and convection.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze the challenges faced by the Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, and the effect the journey had on American history and Native American cultures.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will analyze a set of data to determine the best location for a family fishing trip based on annual and monthly weather patterns. Students will consider average number of rainy days, wind speed, average number of sunny days, and relative humidity for each location.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will learn about how investing in education affects the economy by interpreting data and writing a persuasive letter to the Chamber of Commerce.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this activity, students will engage critically with nutritional information and macronutrient content of several fast food meals. This is an MEA that requires students to build on prior knowledge of nutrition and working with percentages.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will analyze sets of data to determine what construction company proposal would be best suited for building an outdoor concert venue. Students will need to consider sound quality to the concert patrons, disturbances to the local community, and safety.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will analyze a set of data to determine what type of construction material would be best to construct a levee out of. Students will consider not only cost, but also ecological impact and disturbances to the local community.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will learn about seven of Egypt's most famous pharaohs. They will discuss leadership styles and draw conclusions about the success of each of these pharaohs. After learning about the personality and life of each pharaoh, students will break into groups to create in-depth projects about one of these seven pharaohs and will teach others in the class about this leader.

Type: Lesson Plan

After creating a series of simulated earthquakes with various magnitudes in a virtual manipulative online, the students will investigate liquefaction by shaking fishing weights on top of three types of soil. Upon completion of journal notes on earthquakes, students will write an essay explaining the cause of earthquakes, the ways energy from earthquakes moves, and the effects of earthquakes on the Earth's surface.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson requires students to use mathematical data and logic/reasoning to place vendors into retail spaces in a shopping plaza. Students will first rank five vendor types on their profitability (based on average sales and average overhead/upkeep costs), then place the vendor types into the 11-13 retail spaces. They are also required to find the area of each space and calculate the total leasing charges. The plans for the plaza are given on a coordinate plane, so students will need to find the lengths of horizontal and vertical line segments (using the coordinates of the endpoints) to calculate the areas of the rectangular and composite spaces.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is a detailed lesson based on the germination of seeds, science vocabulary of plants, diseases, and insect infestations with tomato plants. Tomatoes grow nutrients that the human body needs to survive. It is a companion lesson to: Survival Journal Parts 1 and 2 available on CPALMS.

Type: Lesson Plan

The students will complete an inquiry activity using dominoes to determine what variables affect the speed of the chain reaction. Students will have to consider and decide on the best spacing between dominoes to achieve the fastest travel time and ensure the spacing remains constant by carefully measuring the distance between each domino. They will set up 5 dominoes at a time to set off a chain reaction alongside another 5 dominoes space differently. Students can create a bar graph to show how the spacing affects the speed. Students can have fun while learning or reinforcing their understanding of potential and kinetic energy, measuring distance, measuring elapsed time, recording data, making and interpreting graphs and using the distance formula to calculate the rate of speed.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, each student will explain and document in a science journal how they will over come a natural disaster/plague for 15 days. They will continue with part two of this lesson "Outdoor Gardening."

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will explore motion related to an object in terms of its change in position over time compared to a reference point.

Students will be given a variety of simple materials to create and test their very own land yachts to explore motion.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students take visitors on a trip through time to view the development of the atomic theory. During the presentation they list scientists who contributed to our understanding, give dates, and display diagrams that represent the atom in various stages of its development.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson (2 parts) is an engaging way to strengthen student understanding of the Law of Superposition and evidence of Earth's changes over time. Students will excavate "fossils" from plastic tubs in class and then have the option of a larger outside excavation. The lesson not only supports science benchmarks but Math and Language Arts Standards as well and has an optional Social Studies extension. Materials are required but can be easily obtained and are reusable year after year. The more imagination you put into setting the context, the more powerful the lesson's outcome.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is a 6th grade MEA. This MEA will ask students to work as a team to rank various fabrics to see which one is the best at blocking the sun.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is designed for 7th grade students and is best suited for advanced students. It can be used (with modifications) in the general education classroom for 7th grade or in an advanced 6th grade classroom. In this MEA, students select jars for candles based on a variety of factors and then design boxes to contain the jars.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

This MEA requires students to formulate a comparison-based solution to a problem involving finding the fastest driving routes from home to work considering different aspects. Students are provided the context of the problem, a request letter from a client asking them to provide a recommendation, and data relevant to the situation. Students utilize the data to create a defensible model solution to present to the client.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will use their skills as scientists to identify a mystery white powder. This lesson is a hands-on, engaging way to build students' understanding of physical and chemical properties of several common compounds.

Type: Lesson Plan

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The article highlights the work of cell biologist, Yoshinori Ohsumi, who won the Nobel Prize for physiology for his research on how cells recycle unused materials in order to maintain homeostasis. Ohsumi studied what the cell did if it started to "starve." He noticed how the cell would start "eating" some of the parts it didn't really need in order to survive. This process is called autophagy. Scientists hope that Ohsumi’s discovery will help find a cure for diseases like Alzheimer's, which is caused by cell trash buildup in the brain.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. In parts of China, pandas are threatened by horses. The pandas have a specific diet - bamboo that grows on the gently sloping areas far from human populations. But some farmers allow their horses to roam free and graze upon bamboo, taking away the only source of food for pandas.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The article introduces the reader to the importance and role of pollinators, factors contributing to their decline, and easy steps that can be taken to help pollinators.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. It describes new research suggesting urban life creates evolutionary changes in plants and animals. Examples of changes to an urban growing plant (the white clover) and a Leapin' Lizard are presented as they evolve to suit their new environment.

Type: Text Resource

This resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The text describes the emergence of the Zika virus and the threat it may pose to the United States. Information is provided about how the virus is transmitted, and the connection between Zika and microcephaly is explored.

Type: Text Resource

This resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The text includes information on a newly discovered planet that orbits the nearest star to our sun. Proxima b, while close, is actually quite far—more than four light years from our sun—yet it shows potential for life, close enough for the planet to receive radiation and energy from its star. The article also discusses the possibility of sending robotic missions there using new technology that could perhaps reach the planet in twenty years.

Type: Text Resource

This resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The article describes new research on the ways Asian jumping worms are affecting American forests. Findings show they are much more of a problem than initially feared. Because Asian jumping worms have bigger appetites than other earthworms found in the U.S., they are much more successful at eating the debris on the forest floor. This exposes vulnerable areas that may bring more diseases and invasive plants. It can also prevent delicate seedlings from taking root.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. This article from NASA addresses how our solar system’s moons may be a more interesting study than some of the planets because they show a possibility of harboring life due to their composition, atmospheres and presence of water.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The text describes what causes lightning and examines the science behind cloud-to-ground lightning strikes. It also discusses what causes thunder and explains why we see the lightning before we hear the thunder. The last section of the text provides important rules about lightning safety and lists ways to stay safe during a lightning storm.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The purpose of the article is to define and describe the jet stream. It explains how the earth's rotation and axis affect the movement of wind bands around the Earth. Interactions from variables such as locations of high and low pressure systems, warm and cold air, and seasonal changes are also discussed.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. This article describes some of the organelles in a cell and explains their functions. It takes students "inside" the cell, by "shrinking" the students and giving the students perspective to the size of these organelles by comparing them to familiar objects.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The article is provided by NASA and discusses how farmers in Australia are able to use digital data provided by U.S. satellites. These farmers are able to use this satellite data to monitor the condition of their land, and enables them to better manage their farms. The author also provides additional examples of how this data is used by countries throughout the world. The article helps demonstrate how space technology positively impacts the world. The text also discusses the impact of human activities on the environment.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. This short article was written to answer the question, "Why don't I fall out when a roller coaster goes upside down?" The answer to the question results in an interesting article that combines scientific information about the physics of roller coasters, along with some fun facts and photographs.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text supports reading in the content area. This text discusses the findings of studying mite speed and mite's affinity for high temperatures. The article explores how the data could be used in the field of biomechanics.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. In 2012, the rover Curiosity was sent on a mission to Mars in order to explore the planet for signs of life. This article describes the research required to build the rover, its flight and landing on Mars, and the objectives of its mission.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This is a clearly organized high-interest informative text explaining how astronauts use the bathroom, sleep and eat in zero gravity. The web version has a video, library of photos, and many other related sites that students can independently investigate.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article discusses deforestation, its causes, and its effects on ecosystems.

Type: Text Resource