Resource Type: Instructional Resource -- Best Practice Discipline: Mathematics Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 3–5 Professional Commentary: Students learn about sampling bias by working in three groups to survey separately students, parents, and teachers about the amount of homework students ought to have. They report and compare the responses from each of the three groups to see how the results differ.... 102 Finding Satisfactory Solutions Resource Type: Instructional Resource -- Best Practice Discipline: Mathematics Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 8–12 Professional Commentary: In this activity, students decide where to locate ice cream stands in a town so that no one has to travel too far to buy a treat. The problem-solving strategies for this problem give students a chance to grapple with the notion of proof and to decide what makes a solution satisfactory.... Resource Type: Instructional Resource -- Best Practice Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 8–10 Professional Commentary: The aim of this lesson is to help students develop their persuasive writing and information gathering skills using various forms of information and communication technology. Using the context of issues common to teenagers, this lesson provides an authentic and personally relevant purpose.... Career Fields: Education & Training, General Career Skills Projects: Writing 6-12, Standards First Resource Type: Instructional Resource -- Best Practice Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 4–6 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.... Projects: Writing 6-12 105 Mysterious Life of Caves: Microbial Townhouse Resource Type: Instructional Resource -- Best Practice Discipline: Science Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 9–10 Professional Commentary: The purpose of this activity is to understand that microorganisms can survive in many different environments and that microorganisms live in places where conditions are suitable for their growth. Students use commonly available materials to create Winogradsky columns.... Career Fields: Agricultural & Environmental Systems, Health Science Projects: Standards First 106 The Grapes of Wrath: Scrapbooks and Artifacts: Ethnographic Field Studies in Fiction Resource Type: Instructional Resource -- Best Practice Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 11–12 Professional Commentary: This instructional unit uses The Grapes of Wrath and digital images from the American Memory collections to explore cultural and literary themes. Students use the American Memory collections to conduct research and gather artifacts.... Career Fields: Agricultural & Environmental Systems, Arts & Communication, Human Services, General Career Skills Projects: Standards First 107 Kindergartners Write Every Day! Resource Type: Instructional Resource -- Best Practice Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Kindergarten Professional Commentary: Kindergartners Write Every Day provides an in-depth look at a comprehensive writing program for emergent writers. Video segments, samples of student work, suggestions for management, and ideas for engaging young learners are outlined for teachers.... 108 Growing, Growing, Graphing! Resource Type: Instructional Resource -- Best Practice Discipline: Mathematics Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 7–12 Professional Commentary: In this lesson, students focus on China's population growth. They graph data on graph paper using a graphing calculator or spreadsheet software.... Career Fields: Business & Administrative Services, Health Science, Law & Public Safety, Marketing Projects: Standards First 109 Acquiring New Vocabulary Through Book Discussion Groups Resource Type: Instructional Resource -- Best Practice Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 3–5 Professional Commentary: This lesson explores ways to foster students' vocabulary skills through direct instruction and small-group discussions. Following a teacher demonstration, students work in small groups to identify words that are unfamiliar to them.... 110 Audience, Purpose, and Language Use in Electronic Messages Resource Type: Instructional Resource -- Best Practice Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 5–10 Professional Commentary: With the increasing popularity of e-mail and online instant messaging among teens, a recognizable change has occurred in the language that students use in their writing. This lesson explores the language of electronic messages and how it affects academic writing and more formal communication.... Career Fields: General Career Skills Projects: Writing 6-12, Standards First |