ORC Resource Types

Discipline: English Language Arts

Professional Commentary: This lesson features methods in which students learn strategies for developing strong characters in their own writing. Students are guided through a series of pre-writing activities as they complete a character sketch....

Discipline: Science

Professional Commentary: Students explore energy transformations and are introduced to the laws of thermodynamics in this series of three lessons. In each lesson students watch a video (available and viewable online) about a different mode of transportation and examine the energy transformations that occur in each....

Discipline: Science

Professional Commentary: Students investigate the wavelength properties of visible light in this lesson. Upon completing the lesson students should be able to explain that as light from the sun passes through the earth's atmosphere, it collides with air molecules, producing a scattering effect....

Projects: Standards First

Discipline: Science

Professional Commentary: Students explore Bernoulli's Principle and relate what they have learned to the principles of flight. The lesson involves an opening discussion, three student activities, a whole class demonstration, and a closing discussion....

Projects: Standards First

Discipline: Science

Professional Commentary: In this lesson students relate Newton's first law of motion to seatbelt safety. Students stop a toy car suddenly and make observations about what happens to a clay figure on the car....

Discipline: Science

Professional Commentary: Students explore Newton's 3rd law of motion by throwing a basketball while on roller skates. Consider strengthening the lesson by asking students guiding questions throughout....

Discipline: Science

Professional Commentary: Students take on the role of an Olympic Downhill Ski Team Trainer as they explore the properties of light and relate their findings to the performance of a downhill skier. Students look at how sunlight (shadows, reflections, etc.) can affect their team's performance....

Discipline: Science

Professional Commentary: Students make three different "icebergs" and compare their floating behavior. The students also explore the changes (or lack of) in the mass and volume of water when it freezes....

Discipline: Mathematics

Professional Commentary: This lesson asks students to find different numbers of candies two children might have, given a fixed relationship between the numbers of candies each child has. This site introduces students to open sentences, variables, and the creation of tables....

Discipline: Mathematics

Professional Commentary: This lesson is a sequel to Comparing Functions: Candy Boxes which asks students to find different numbers of candies two children might have, given a fixed relationship between the numbers of candies each child has. This second lesson introduces students to the idea of an inverse function: Given the total number of candies the two children have between them, how many does each child have individually? The Early Algebra lessons were developed as part of a research project; each lesson in the series includes a synopsis, step-by-step procedures, and downloadable overheads and handouts....