Lessons and Units

Grade Level(s): 4th-8th

Subject(s): Science, Math, ELA

Essential Question: Why is there so much trash at our school?

Focus: Effects of trash and pollution on animals, ecosystems, and human beings

Culminating Project Options: 

• Campus clean-up

• Create a video, poster, animation, or picture book spreading information about pollution and waste reduction

• Reuse trash/ unwanted materials to create art

• School or classroom waste audit

• Waste reduction strategies

• Political engagement

Collaboration/ Share-Out

• Project gallery on the site

• Share videos, animations, books, etc. school-wide or with younger students

Grade Level(s): 7th

Subject(s): History/ Social Studies

Essential Question: How did the culture, politics, landscape, and events of medieval West African empires interact to shape history?

Focus: History, culture, politics, and landscape of medieval empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai

Culminating Project Options: 

• Podcast, video essay, or short book (with Book Maker) about one of the medieval West African empires

Collaboration/ Share-Out

• Project gallery on site

• Upload podcasts and videos

• Share created books

Grade Level(s): 6th-12th

Subject(s): Science, Math, ELA

Essential Question: What impact does smoking or vaping have on a person's body, mood, and money?

Culminating Project Options: 

• Learn about medical professionals

• Write to a smoker

• Make a poster about smoking/ vaping

• Make an educational video

• Myth-bust an ad

• Make a plan to quit

Collaboration/ Share-Out

• Share posters and videos school-wide

Grade Level(s): 6th-12th

Subject(s): ELA

Essential Question: What is the greatest poem of all time? Has it even been written yet? (Focus on figurative language)

Culminating Project Options: 

• Write an essay or create a video essay analyzing the figurative language in "the best poem of all time"

• Write and/or record your own poem or song and include an artist's statement explaining figurative language choices

Collaboration/ Share-Out

• Publish class poetry anthology in the library and/or online of student poems

• Publish an anthology of the "best poem" essays 

• Students submit poems to teen literary magazines and contests (links included)