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What Caused the Tiger Salamanders to Disappear
This unit focuses on the disappearance of tiger salamanders from a vernal pool (where salamanders breed). This curriculum, originally adapted for EL learners at a 5th grade reading level, has nine weeks of life science curriculum material. The curriculum was developed by the NYU SAIL research lab, who was awarded a design badge by the Next Generation Science Standards for high quality curricula. It has activities that are designed to cultivate scientific literacy skills alongside building content. Read More
Underrepresentation Curriculum Project (URC)
The URC lessons are created to address underrepresentation of BIPOC folks in science classrooms. The lessons are designed to break down a daunting topic into less daunting instructional steps that other instructors have found to be successful. Each unit comes with detailed lesson plans that teachers can customize to fit the needs of their students. Read More
CUNY HSE Social Studies Curriculum Framework: Integrating Reading & Writing
The Social Studies: Integrating Reading & Writing Curriculum Framework is a free resource that incorporates social studies content with various reading and writing skills. The curriculum is designed for HSE teachers but lessons and activities could be adapted for other levels. Units 1-3 all include lesson plans and supporting materials and cover the colonial period, the Constitution, and westward expansion. Each provides topical social studies content and then uses it to reinforce reading, writing, and vocabulary skills. For Units 4-12, while there are no lessons or materials, there is a curriculum map with guidelines. Also included is a comprehensive resource guide for HSE social studies. Read More
Smithsonian for Educators
The Smithsonian offers a wealth of free educator resources from their museums and other facilities including the African American Museum, American Indian Museum, American History museum, and many others. Generally, each museum's educator resource section has curriculum guides and a wide range of standards-based, multi-level lessons and activities in both print and digital forms. The site also provides links to many professional development opportunities (online and in-person) to help teachers incorporate museum learning into their instructional planning and delivery. Read More
Minnesota Historical Society History Education
The Minnesota Historical Society's education site offers free classroom-ready resources along with other supplemental curriculum materials on topics of Minnesota and American history. Many of the secondary and elementary ready-to-go classroom activities engage students in primary source analysis, while others focus on students' reading, writing, and research skills. In addition to classroom lessons, the site provides ideas for teaching Native American history and culture, guidance on taking field trips to historic sites and museums around the state of Minnesota, and a regularly updated list of teacher professional development opportunities. Read More
Civics Renewal Network
The Civics Renewal Network is a consortium of nonpartisan, nonprofit organizations that is committed to providing free high-quality learning materials. In their repository, teachers have access to a wide-range of civics and government resources along with others related to history, citizenship, and media literacy. Based on the number of items, teachers can narrow their search by subject, grade level, resource type, standard, or by a specific teaching strategy such as debate, whole class, project-based learning or role play. Read More
Digital Civics Toolkit
The Digital Civics Toolkit is a free collection of resources and activities that encourage learners to recognize the connection between their digital presence life and their civic life. The curriculum is designed for high school level learners but can definitely be adapted for students at other levels. The five modules provide students with the opportunity to identify civics issues that matter to them, analyze civics issues online, navigate diverse perspectives, consider what content they share online, and think about strategies to enact on civics issues. Each module contains a sentence starter, several activities, and a closing reflection. In addition, the site provides a teacher background information section to provide further support through other resources. Read More
BEETLES Project
The BEETLEs project is an excellent resource for activities, lessons, and curriculum that explore the natural world. Designed for K-12 and informal science spaces, content focuses on the natural world and how humans understand it. Read More
Bill of Rights Institute
The goal of the Bill of Rights Institute is to provide a better understanding of the Constitution and Bill of Rights through 4000 resources that are free and generally leveled for the middle/high school classroom. Educators can access primary source-based lessons and and current event articles that are frequently updated. There is also an extensive collection of videos and podcasts to introduce and engage students on a variety relevant topics. Moreover, teachers can pull individual lessons from ready-made curricula that are generally based on America's founding principles. For professional development, the site provides eLearning for teachers to support their planning and delivery on topics related to U.S. Government. Read More
Custodian Preparation
This course works with students to gain familiarity with vocabulary and concepts related to cleaning school buildings. Students will also work on skills related to reading and math in a custodial context. Student activities include online activities with Nearpod, Edpuzzle, and G Suite (Forms, Docs). || AUTHOR: Paula Freiermuth, Osseo ABE Read More