This resource was created by Heidi Meyers, in collaboration with Dawn DeTurk, Hannah Blomstedt, and Julie Albrecht, as part of ESU2's Integrating the Arts project. This project is a four year initiative focused on integrating arts into the core curriculum through teacher education, practice, and coaching.

This comprehensive Open Source lesson plan is designed for Kindergarten through Middle School level students to learn about life cycles, plants needs, and plant structures & their functions through hands-on investigations with Wisconsin Fast Plants. Depending on the grade level, students engage at an appropriate depth with developing models and constructing arguments that plants have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction. This lesson is available as a Google Doc in the Gather, Reason, Communicate instructional model. You may copy the lesson Doc to your own Drive and edit/adapt for your own use--it is shared by the Fast Plants Program as an Open Education Resource" therefore, you are free to use and adapt for noncommercial purposes, provided you attribute the Wisconsin Fast Plants Programs website (www.fastplants.org) as your source and share openly (for noncommercial purposes) any materials you develop with ours.

This resource was created by Judy Prewett, in collaboration with Dawn DeTurk, Hannah Blomstedt, and Julie Albrecht, as part of ESU2's Integrating the Arts project. This project is a four year initiative focused on integrating arts into the core curriculum through teacher education, practice, and coaching.

3-D Mapping | Topography
By Dana Hoppe, Copyright 2018 by Dana Hoppe under Creative Commons Non-Commercial License. Individuals and organizations may copy, reproduce, distribute, and perform this work and alter or remix this work for non-commercial purposes only.

Download: 3-D_MappingTopography.pdfDelete

Topography - Design Challenge
Introduction - Expanded learning opportunities (ELOs) have the potential to be the great equalizer in American education. Regular participation in high quality before and afterschool learning, and enriching summer school programs have been shown to help low-income students succeed academically on par with their more affluent peers. These programs, characterized by strong school-community partnerships, can also help high-performing students stay engaged and achieve even greater levels of understanding. In short, high-quality ELOs are for everyone - and the benefits they create are critical to Nebraska's future economy. - Beyond School Bells I would like to thank Beyond School Bells as well as Nebraska Innovation Studio for providing me with the opportunity, resources, and encouragement to develop this program as an Innovation Fellow. Their willingness to give the intellectual and creative freedom to build upon my ideas and inspirations is what enabled this program to exist. I strongly believe that opportunities such as the Innovation Fellowship are planting the seeds for Nebraska's future. -Dana Hoppe, Program Creator

Concept and Purpose - Interdisciplinary Learning: This program is focused on developing fundamental STEM skills through interdisciplinary learning. The truth is that all areas of study overlap significantly in one way or another, and the cognitive skills that lead to success in one area surely extend to other areas. A recurring theme I have noticed through my personal experience of being and artist as well as a scientist is that I have heavily utilized my creative thinking abilities to solve challenging problems. Imagination and creativity, when combined with background knowledge and understanding, allow us to find solutions that often lie beyond the rigid structure often associated with mathematics and the sciences. Once we begin to see the overlap between these areas, we begin building bridges between them and new ideas and applications emerge from a formerly empty space. The concept of topography was always interesting to me. The strangeness of being able to discern the shape of the land simply from the distance between a hypnotizing assortment of lines on a flat piece of paper was immediately intriguing. How does this flat sheet of abstract shapes translate to the three-dimensional complexity of a mountain, a valley, or a bluff? Topography is the platform of this program because it is a very versatile concept and can be used to create art and models representing a diverse range of fields. The activities in this program focus on having the students follow processes often found in Computer Science. Every process they complete can be thought of as an algorithm, and when they repeat steps, it can be thought of as a loop. They are also recursively calling the same function on each resulting piece they create, mimicking the concept of dynamic programing. The permutation matrix activities will familiarize students with moving through the data in a matrix and adding data to stacks. While they are doing all of these activities, however, there will be no jargon they have to learn, and they will probably not even realize until they take their first Computer Science course that it is even related. To the students, they will simply be creating art in a new and interesting way.

Make a 3D printed bracelet holder using files from Thingiverse, Cura, and a Lulzbot Mini 2 printer

Learn how honey bees work together as a hive to provide for their own needs while pollinating our planet's flowers!  This lesson includes learning objectives, material and resource lists, background information, activities, reading selections, writing assignments, a game, assessments, and support documents. See the Educator's Guide for more video links and recommended readings. 

This resource was created by Jeanine Figueroa, in collaboration with Dawn DeTurk, Hannah Blomstedt, and Julie Albrecht, as part of ESU2's Integrating the Arts project. This project is a four year initiative focused on integrating arts into the core curriculum through teacher education, practice, and coaching.

In this lesson, students expand their understanding of solid waste management to include the idea of 3RC (reduce, reuse, recycle and compost). They will look at the effects of packaging decisions (reducing) and learn about engineering advancements in packaging materials and solid waste management. Also, they will observe biodegradation in a model landfill (composting).

These lesson plans and activities were developed by Janine Darragh, Gina Petrie, and Stan Pichinevskiy and were previously located on the Reaching for English app. Created for K-12 English teachers in Nicaragua, the materials may be used and adapted for any country's specific context and needs. 

 Unit Objective(s): Expose students to a variety of careers.Answer the question, “How do people find their careers?”Students will have new ideas for career pathways. Note: Teachers and students will need to have a Nepris account.The full lesson plan is attached.

The attached lesson plan is designed for 3rd grade English Language Arts students. Students will analyze informational text to determine the main ideas for a report, apply the concepts of the writing process, and communicate their research through an oral presentation to their classroom peers. This lesson plan addresses the following NDE Standards: NE LA 3.1.6.e, NE LA 3.2.1.a,c,d,e,j, NE LA 3.3.1.aIt is expected that this lesson plan will take five one-hour sessions to complete.

In this unit students will use what they know about how words are structured to read a variety of Expository Texts about the election process. Students will identify author’s point of view, explain why the author wrote the text and support their answer by citing proof in text. Students will then hold an election of their own, choose from a variety of topics they would like to vote on, then create digitally a campaign video communicating their point of view with details to support their point of view in hopes to persuade the audience to vote for their topic.

Related to standard AR.Math.Content.3.MD.C.7., this is a multisection lesson for the 3rd grade unit of study on area in relation to multiplication, complete with teacher notes.This lesson is designed to be taught with an 'I Do, We Do, You Do' format. Starting with an introduction slideshow, students will connect multiplication with previous concepts and skills such as repeated addition, skip counting, and equal groups. Then they will see a video and example problems which can be completed together as a class. Allow time for students to read and complete some of these example problems with a partner which will give time for questioning, addressing misunderstandings, and informal interventions. End the lesson with a preview of the next day's independent activity and an exit ticket using a quick image. 

Looking for a quick tool and resource to help with reading fluency? Check out this fun and easy poem for fluency development. 

Objectives:I expect the students to be able to illustrate and demonstrate 8/10 of the criteriaThey will draw their self portrait and demonstrate, Proportion, Symmetry, Realism, Texture, Balance, Value, Space, Emphasis, Effort, and Craftsmanship.Student will illustrate 8/10 properlyIntroduction:1: Motivational Device- Real world application…examples of artists who have done their own portraits.2: Connection To Prior Learning- Previous drawings with reflection and using a mirror.Vocabulary-Artist Statement, Shading, Reflection, Balance, Texture, Racial IdentityDate: 1/22/18 Grade Level: 3rd Grade ArtConcept: Self Portrait and Artist Reflection

Coders will solve four different maze challenges that focus on a combination of vertical and horizontal movement, then create their own unique mazes that peers will solve. The purpose of this project is to reinforce understanding of predicting and sequencing a sprite’s movement using the motion blocks.

Coders use a variety of blocks and sprites to create an interactive story about giving a gift to an alien visiting Earth. The purpose of this project is to reinforce understanding of message blocks.