This course meets weekly to discuss recent aerospace history and current events, in order to understand how they are responsible for the state of the aerospace industry. With invited subject matter experts participating in nearly every session, students have an opportunity to hone their insight through truly informed discussion. The aim of the course is to prepare junior and senior level students for their first industry experiences.

Students will write a daily response to an agriculture news story and make connections to thier community and predict the impact of the event on the agriculture industry.  Reading current agriculture news will help students be more informed consumers while also helping them to connect content learned in agriculture class to real-world events and applications. Written by Taryn Dameron.

The goal for this unit is to have students analyze a variety of sources on a current events subject of their interest, identify the different perspectives, and defend their own position.This is one lesson from a larger unit on Evaluating Media. This unit will also cover identifying credible sources, analyzing fake news and the role of propaganda, identifying the different ways news is communicated in different communities. This unit will take place in the beginning of the school year to help instill evaluative and critical thinking research skills as we discuss and explore our big ideas throughout the school year. The end goal is to have students create a digital resource for their topic that we can share out as an educational tool for others. We’ll be creating a padlet that links to all of their presentations (students will have their choice in medium, as long as it is digital) that we will share with our school community and ideally can connect and share with other schools and students. There is also a possibility of using PenPalSchools to share out final resources, but that would depend on getting approval from the district to utilize that website.

The goal for this unit is to have students analyze a variety of sources on a current events subject of their interest, identify the different perspectives, and defend their own position.This is one lesson from a larger unit on Evaluating Media. This unit will also cover identifying credible sources, analyzing fake news and the role of propaganda, identifying the different ways news is communicated in different communities. This unit will take place in the beginning of the school year to help instill evaluative and critical thinking research skills as we discuss and explore our big ideas throughout the school year. The end goal is to have students create a digital resource for their topic that we can share out as an educational tool for others. We’ll be creating a padlet that links to all of their presentations (students will have their choice in medium, as long as it is digital) that we will share with our school community and ideally can connect and share with other schools and students. There is also a possibility of using PenPalSchools to share out final resources, but that would depend on getting approval from the district to utilize that website.

Better Arguments can help students learn to engage productively across differences and grapple with differing viewpoints. Linked are resources that are applicable to school-based learning activities and after school programs. These include a curriculum, exit ticket exercise and current events exercise.

The Chemistry Capstone Essay is a way to introduce or assess students' knowledge and understanding of a variety of science texts and their understanding of chemical theories and applications taught during the year. Students demonstrate knowledge by having to be concise and distill down complex ideas and connections from a variety of different texts.

This activity aims to facilitate classroom discussion of President Obama's remarks on July 19 about race and the Trayvon Martin case.

The goal of this seminar is to have open discussions of controversial political and social issues and raise awareness of current world events in an informal setting. Discussions for the first part of each class will focus on current events from that week, while in the second part of class students will discuss a scheduled issue in greater detail. Scheduled issues include the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the regulation of marijuana, how our society should punish criminals, genocide in Rwanda and Sudan, discrimination in our society today, the future of social security, whether pornography is sexist, and where we can go from here in the Arab/Israeli Conflict. Discussions will be supplemented by readings, films, and public speakers. Students will also be encouraged to read news media from around the world.

Looking for engaging content for your economics courses? The Institute for Humane Studies has curated this collection of educational resources to help economics professors enrich their curriculum. Find videos, interactive games, reading lists, and more on everything from opportunity costs to trade policy. This collection is updated frequently with new content, so watch this space!

Preparation for this activity is done during the class discussion on current events. Prior to this class, students are required to look through the newspapers and browse the internet for a list of events. During the class, student groups share their list with the class. Each group then categorizes the larger list. This discussion is extremely useful for shedding light on the connectivity and complexity of human relationships from the individual to nations. Students are then asked to propose why these current events are occurring. For example, immigrant students in my course discuss scarcity of resources leading to conflict and civil war in their home countries. Other students will bring the idea of global economy and the effects of globalization on their cultures. The discussions that emerge from this activity are significant for all students involved. In addition to increased student awareness, this activity underscores the importance of integrated learning. Uses geophysics to solve problems in other fields

Instructional expert Jim Knight visits John Cusick to observe a small groups project and discuss the classroom management techniques he is using. John and Jim discuss structured lessons, giving students respect, and finding the key to unlocking their love of learning.

Geography 431 is designed to further understanding of the natural processes of aquatic ecosystems, management of water resources, and threats to sustaining water quantity. Develop awareness and appreciation of the perspectives about water as a precious resource, commodity, and sometimes hazard. Learn how and why water is distributed unevenly around the Earth. Examine how resource management decisions are strongly related to water availability, quantity, and quality. The course examines water resources management; dams and dam removal; provision of safe potable water; threats to water quantity and quality; land use changes; the water economy; water laws and policy; institutions for water management at the global, national, regional, and local scale; and issues of water security and climate change.

While learning about historical connections/patterns of civil rights movements in History class, students in English Language Arts will be completing literature circles featuring various genres of literature. Students will start 5-6 consecutive classes featuring excerpts and reviews of new novels and short stories. Students will then personalize learning, exercising voice and choice when selecting a novel to finish reading and specialize in. Using the book of their choice, students will move into their final project which will bring the historical event together with modern issues. Students will have a few days to build their projects.
Written by: Sean Astle, Chelsea Crowley, Pam Kelly and Sr. Lauren Zak

The US government debt is now bigger than the debt of any other government in human history. It is so big, that it is hard to comprehend just how big it is. This immersive 360 degree video helps illustrate the scale of the debt while Professor Antony Davies from Duquesne University breaks down the debt and explains its implications.

Students will compare portrayals of individual soldiers to depictions of battle scenes, write two articles representing two different perspectives about a current war, and manipulate a photograph to alter its mood.

This website is a collection of resources concerning learning Arabic as a second language as well as information about Arab culture, Islam, and various Arab countries. There are links to videos from YouTube on the site relating to Arabic study, including songs and lessons, as well as a host of other more unrelated things, such as tornadoes. Links to opportunities to study Arabic, teacher resources, and Arabic newspapers are available.

Edward Snowden's leak of classified information about the NSA's surveillance of American citizens has touched off a debate about the need for government secrecy versus the public's right to know. Two student readings and discussion questions probe the controversy.

Students will compare propagandistic strategies in artworks to modern-day examples of persuasive techniques and create a propaganda poster for a current political leader.