Thinkfinity.org Hotlinks for 9-12
Preview sample lessons from Thinkfinity Content Partners.
ARTSEDGE ArtsEdge — the National Arts and Education Network — supports the placement of the arts at the center of the curriculum and advocates creative use of technology to enhance the K-12 educational experience.
- Oklahoma! and the Cultural Myth of America
Students explore the cultural myth of the Old West. After an introductory discussion about cultural ideals and values, students read "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" and discuss essayist Frederick Jackson Turner's thoughts and assumptions about the American character. They then view the musical Oklahoma! and analyze the extent to which the musical reflects or supports Turner's ideas about "American-ness."
http://www.artsedge.kennedy-center.org/content/2342/ Students research contemporary songs (alternative, country, metal, pop, rap, and rock music) to study current social issues. They deliver oral presentations using factual data, graphics, and other media to interpret the song lyrics.
http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/content/2058/ The “Drop Me Off in Harlem” mini-site explores the creative and intellectual intersections of the Harlem Renaissance through a rich multimedia exploration of the sights and sounds of the time period.
http://www.artsedge.kennedy-center.org/content/3268/EconEdLink EconEdLink is centered on curriculum standards and based on the essential principles of economics. EconEdLink provides a premier source of classroom-tested, Internet-based economic lesson materials for K-12 teachers and their students
- I’ll Trade You a Bag of Chips, Two Cookies, and $60,000 for Your Tuna Fish Sandwich
This lesson explains that supply and demand are the factors that determine the market price of a good while attempting to describe why some goods are more expensive than others. Students will graph supply and demand curves from data.
http://www.econedlink.org/lessons/index.cfm?lesson=EM46&page=teacher Have you given any thought to where you will live when you are "on your own" - out in the world earning a living? You will have many decisions to make as you look for a place to call home. In this lesson, your basic economic decision making skills will be used to weigh the pros and cons of home ownership, and to analyze housing options.
http://www.econedlink.org/lessons/index.cfm?lesson=MM162&page=teacher Income for most people is determined by the market value of the productive resources they sell. What workers earn depends, primarily, on the market value of what they produce and how productive they are.
http://www.econedlink.org/lessons/index.cfm?lesson=EM203&page=teacherEDSITEment EDSITEment strives to bring the best currently available humanities scholarship available on the Web to K-12 classroom teachers and their students.
The EDSITEment calendar contains Web sites and new lesson plans highlighting events from each month of the year.
http://edsitement.neh.gov/calendar.asp- Scripting the Past: Exploring Women’s History Through Film
In this lesson students will examine a figure in women's history through the lens of filmmaking, producing a screenplay based on an autobiographical narrative and their own research into the time period in which that autobiography is set.
http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=254- Worth a Thousand Words: Depression-Era Photographs
In this lesson students will gain insight into New Deal programs and the experience of Depression-era Americans; recognize the distinction between observation and inference when drawing information from documentary photographs; recognize some ways the photographer can influence interpretation of documentary photographs.
http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=304 Illuminations The mission of Illuminations is to improve the teaching and learning of mathematics for all students by providing the best online resources for mathematics education. Please use the text that appears in the MP Teacher’s Guide.
In this lesson, students use their knowledge of weights and balance, symbolic expressions, and representations of functions to link all three concepts.
http://illuminations.nctm.org/LessonDetail.aspx?id=L746- Location, Location, Location
Students use a dynamic geometry applet to investigate the relationship among the distances from a point inside a regular polygon to each side.
http://illuminations.nctm.org/LessonDetail.aspx?id=L660- The Regression Line and Correlation
Interactive computer-based tools provide students with the opportunity to easily investigate the relationship between a set of data points and a curve used to fit the data points. As students work with bivariate data in grades 9-12, they will be able to investigate relationships between the variables using linear, exponential, power, logarithmic, and other functions for curve fitting
http://illuminations.nctm.org/LessonDetail.aspx?id=U135 The activities in this Illuminations unit develop a mathematical model for the decay of light passing through water. The series of four lessons shows the use of exponential models in context.
http://illumnew.nctm.org/LessonDetail.aspx?id=U137ReadWriteThink ReadWriteThink is produced by the International Reading Association and The National Council of Teachers of English. Our goal is to provide K–12 educators and students access to the highest quality practices and resources in reading and language arts instruction.
- Creative Outlining—From Freewriting to Formalizing
Students prepare for this lesson by reading a short story in class over approximately two sessions. Students then freewrite a response to the story to generate an original framework for a literary analysis essay. Students develop a thesis idea from their body of freewriting. This central idea serves as an organizational principle for creating an outline for an original literary analysis essay.
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=1071- Semicolons and Swift: Analyzing Punctuation and Meaning
In this lesson, students identify and categorize different ways Jonathan Swift and those who have edited his text since its initial publication used semicolons in the essay, “A Modest Proposal.” They compare these uses with rules for semicolon use as indicated in online guides, theorizing about uses that do not follow the rules. Following this analysis and theorizing, students use what they learn about punctuation and its influence on meaning to write insightfully about their findings, using semicolons as they do so.
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=1130Science NetLinks Providing a wealth of resources for K-12 science educators, Science NetLinks is a teacher’s guide to meaningful standards-based Internet experiences for students.
To engage students in making design decisions that affect the transfer of energy between a building and the outside environment. To help students identify and consider the types of decisions involved in improving a building’s energy profile. To analyze the green roof option in economic and community terms.
http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/lessons.cfm?BenchmarkID=8&DocID=496 Sunburn, Sunburn, and Cancer
This lesson is part of the Skin Deep Project, which examines the science behind skin. Skin Deep is developed by AAAS and funded by Neutrogena. For more lessons, activities, and interactives that take a closer look at the science behind skin, be sure to check out the Skin Deep Project.
http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/lessons.cfm?BenchmarkID=5&DocID=464Xpeditions
Xpeditions is National Geographic's standards-based Web site for teachers. The site is one of many offerings from National Geographic that is appropriate for classroom use, but this site was built with the specific needs of teachers who use, or are learning how to use, the Internet and the National Geography Standards.
In this Xpeditions activity, become a whiz at the cardinal directions -- north, south, east, and west -- and match wits with the Orientometer. Related activities for parents to do with their children are also found on this page.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/activities/02/getoriented.html In this Xpeditions activity, students create a map showing the origins of the spices and herbs that help flavor their favorite dish. Related activities for parents to do with their children are also found on this page.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/activities/16/spiceworld.html - Was The United States Ready for Pearl Harbor?
In this lesson, from the National Geographic Xpeditions Web site, students consider the United States' level of preparedness for the Pearl Harbor attack and discuss what the U.S. could have done to be better prepared. Students conclude by writing letters to American military commanders in the summer of 1941, suggesting what they might do to prepare for a Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/13/g912/ready.htmlSmithsonian's History Explorer Your gateway to innovative, standards-based online resources for teaching and learning American history, designed and developed by the National Museum of American History. Explore the rich resources of the Museum and bring history to life with artifacts, primary sources, and online tools for the classroom, afterschool programs, and home.
- Understanding Historical Photos
Every photograph is both truthful and deceptive. These images were selected to illustrate some of the intricacies in reading historical photographs. Included in the online exhibition entitled Whatever Happened to Polio?, from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, this resource will help students understand how to analyze historical photos to better understand the intentions of those who took them.
http://historyexplorer.americanhistory.si.edu/search/resource.asp?id=328- Vote: The Machinery of Democracy Homepage
Vote: The Machinery of Democracy explores the history of voting methods in the United States. In this online exhibition from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, students will study how ballots and voting systems have evolved over the years as a response to political, social, and technological change, transforming the ways in which American’s vote.
http://historyexplorer.americanhistory.si.edu/search/resource.asp?id=436 This virtual gallery features a selection of objects from the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History that illustrate the use and meaning of the flag in World War II. While exploring it, students will learn how the flag, in a variety of forms, expressed ideas about what it meant to be American during a time of war. The virtual gallery is included in the online exhibition entitled July 1942: United We Stand.
http://historyexplorer.americanhistory.si.edu/search/resource.asp?id=56