After reading the story "Dear Mr. Henshaw" by Beverly Cleary, student groups create alarm systems to protect something in the classroom, just as the main character Leigh does to protect his lunchbox from thieves. Students learn about alarms and use their creativity to devise multi-step alarm systems to protect their lockers, desk, pets or classroom door. Note: This activity can also be done without reading the Cleary book.

It’s hard to imagine life on Earth without oceans. The air you breathe used to be an ocean breeze. The water you drink was once in a cloud over the ocean.

The ocean is also important to the many species of plants and animals that call the water their home. This community of organisms is called an ecosystem.

Human-caused climate change is warming our planet, and the oceans are feeling the heat. Plants and animals in the ocean ecosystem are sensitive to changes in the ocean’s temperature. Some organisms can adapt to the change, but others can’t survive the warmer temperatures. Since so much life is dependent on these waters, it’s important to keep the oceans healthy!

Scientists are monitoring the temperature of the ocean with an instrument called the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite. The satellite measures the temperature of the top millimeter of the ocean’s surface.

With this activity, learn to make a cool and tasty version of the ocean ecosystem at home!

NASA Space Crafts helps you learn to make paper airplanes. Print the pattern and watch the video to make a paper airplane and learn about NASA airplanes.

These projects allow students the opportunity to create, test, experiment, design and collaborate to meet some seriously engaging challenges!

Want to make your own online games for free? Sploder ™ makes it super easy for you to make your own free games online. Make your own arcade games, platformer games, spaceship shooters, or space adventure games. Advanced game maker? Try the physics game maker for creating original minigames! You can even customize it with your own game art using our free graphics editor!

Night Sky Star Stories Makinak: The Turtle
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

This task is for students who know how to use base 10 blocks.

This task is a straightforward task related to adding fractions with the same denominator. The main purpose is to emphasize that there are many ways to decompose a fraction as a sum of fractions, similar to decompositions of whole numbers that students should have seen in earlier grades.

Students learn the components of the rock cycle and how rocks can change over time under the influence of weathering, erosion, pressure and heat. They learn about geotechnical engineering and the role these engineers play in the development of an area of land, the design and placement of new structures, and detection of natural disasters.

Let's Make Butter! Learn about dairy in your diet, and see how butter is made.. in real time!

Following the model of N. Scott MomadayŐs The Way To Rainy Mountain, students write three-voice narratives based on Kiowa folktales, an interview with an Elder, and personal connections to theme.

This tasks lends itself very well to multiple solution methods. Students may learn a lot by comparing different methods. Students who are already comfortable with fraction multiplication can go straight to the numeric solutions given below. Students who are still unsure of the meanings of these operations can draw pictures or diagrams.

Students redesign and justify the packaging used in consumer products. Design criteria include reducing the amount of packaging material by 25%.

Students compare the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald with the song, ŇThe Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,Ó then create their own poetry about a historical event.

This is the first of two fraction division tasks that use similar contexts to highlight the difference between the ŇNumber of Groups UnknownÓ a.k.a. ŇHow many groups?Ó (Variation 1) and ŇGroup Size UnknownÓ a.k.a. ŇHow many in each group?Ó (Variation 2) division problems.

This is the second of two fraction division tasks that use similar contexts to highlight the difference between the ŇNumber of Groups UnknownÓ a.k.a. ŇHow many groups?Ó (Variation 1) and ŇGroup Size UnknownÓ a.k.a. ŇHow many in each group?Ó (Variation 2) division problems.

Spark the engagement of English-language learners or reluctant readers with the graphic novel "Maus". The visual information provided by the genre serves as a support for reading and critical engagement.

Students use everyday building materials sand, pea gravel, cement and water to create and test pervious pavement. They learn what materials make up a traditional, impervious concrete mix and how pervious pavement mixes differ. Groups are challenged to create their own pervious pavement mixes, experimenting with material ratios to evaluate how infiltration rates change with different mix combinations.