Solar energy in the form of light is available to organisms on Earth in abundance. Natural systems and other organisms have structures that function in ways to manage the interaction with and use of this energy. Using these natural examples, humans have (in the past) and continue to design and construct homes which manage solar energy in passive and active ways to reduce the need for energy from other sources. In this storyline, students will explore passive and active solar energy management through examples in the natural world. Students will use knowledge gained to design a building that maximizes the free and abundant energy gifts of the sun.

This is a solutions-oriented storyline that leads students through a series of investigations to quantify and qualify the ecosystem and social benefits of an urban forest. At the end of the storyline, students will be able to design, evaluate and refine a chosen solution for urban forest ecosystem benefits.

In this lesson designed to enhance literacy skills, students learn about the positive effects that exercise has on the body and some activities they can do to improve their health.

This document describes a series of lessons in the Social Sciences, all of which are tied to the exploration of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) as a Primary Source Document. They are designed to be given to 9th or 10th grade students in a World History, Cultural Geography, or similar social science class. They are specifically designed to teach the Common Core Standards for Literacy in the Social Sciences, and to engage higher order thinking skills.

In this lesson designed to enhance literacy skills, students learn about the advantages and disadvantages of the two basic forms of reproduction for the living things that practice them.

Investigate the history of the International Space Station (ISS), and the lives of the people who have worked on it.

In this lesson designed to enhance literacy skills, students learn how animals' physical characteristics, such as jaw structure, are directly related to the function they perform when the animal interacts with its environment.

In this lesson designed to enhance literacy skills, students study a disease outbreak and the investigation that followed to understand the role that public health workers play in protecting the communities they serve.

In this lesson designed to enhance literacy skills, students learn about the varied physical and behavioral adaptations that animals rely on to help them survive changing environmental conditions, such as the arrival of winter.

In this lesson designed to enhance literacy skills, students learn that transitional fossils provide scientists with evidence to establish how major animal groups are related to one another.

In this lesson, students will listen to a variety of songs or tracks from the 1980’s that were protesting about certain aspects of the Reagan era.  Students will be given a list of eleven songs/tracks with the lyrics of each song protesting either the nuclear arms race, Reaganomics, the Iran-Contra affair or the AIDS epidemic. The task of each student is to analyze the meaning behind the lyrics of each song and explain the controversial event, policy or issues that the protest song was about.

In this lesson designed to enhance literacy skills, students examine our growing waste problem and learn about strategies we can use to lessen the strain on our landfills and Earth's natural resources: reduce, reuse, recycle.

Of the three branches of our government, many believe that the most important is the one directly elected by "We the People": the legislative branch, represented by the two houses of the U.S. Congress at the Capitol building. Join a group of middle schoolers on a tour of Washington, D.C. as they learn about the Constitution and what it means to be "We the People." The "We the People" videos are produced in collaboration with the U.S. Capitol Historical Society.