Students will read from an Alabama newspaper about President James Monroe's surprise visit to Huntsville. The article discusses the purposes of the visit, the locals who welcomed and entertained the President, and his discussion of current (1819) events. This lesson was created in partnership with the Alabama Department of Archives and History.
Students will discuss the effects of sunlight. Next, they will be introduced to the task of designing and constructing a device to reduce the effect of sunlight. In groups, students will design and then construct a tent that will keep an ice cube from completely melting before the uncovered control ice cube melts. Students will test the effectiveness of their tents. This lesson results from the ALEX Resource Gap Project.
Magnets are fun to play with, but how can we use magnets to improve our lives? In this lesson, students explore magnets to determine their strength, polarity, and how they attract and repel each other. Then they use the engineering design process to create inventions that use magnets to accomplish a task. This lesson results from a collaboration between the Alabama State Department of Education and ASTA.
The lesson will begin with students comparing and contrasting the physical properties of ice and water using a Venn diagram graphic organizer. Next, the students will describe the physical properties of ingredients needed for a microwave mug cake. The students will bake a chocolate microwave mug cake to demonstrate that some changes in matter caused by heating and cooling are irreversible. Lastly, the students will create a written and pictorial response comparing the water and ice to the microwave mug cake to provide evidence that some changes in matter can be reversed, while others can not. This lesson results from the ALEX Resource Gap Project.
Students will describe features shown on topographic maps as they plan a route for a bicycle race around the school neighborhood. First, they will create clay mountains and learn how to make topographic maps of their landforms. Then they will interpret topographic maps made by other students in the class to match each mountain to its map. Finally, they will use topographic maps of the school campus to plan an exciting but safe bike race route. This lesson results from a collaboration between the Alabama State Department of Education and ASTA.
During this lesson, students will recount a Paul Bunyan tall tale, an entertaining way to identify bodies of water and landforms in the United States. Although Paul Bunyan's Tales did not focus on Alabama, students will create their own narratives after viewing photographs of major mountain ranges, rivers, and lakes throughout Alabama (ACOS 3.2). This lesson will utilize ol der maps of the United States and Alabama, which are used to remind us that this folk tale was handed down orally until the early 1900s when a newspaper printed several accounts of the tall tale. This lesson was created in partnership with the Alabama Department of Archives and History.
This lesson is designed to teach students to measure angles with a protractor. The student will be taught how to read the protractor correctly by using either the top or bottom set of numbers. The lesson will reinforce classifying angles as acute, right, and obtuse. The student will sketch angles given a specified measure. This lesson results from the ALEX Resource Gap Project.
This lesson will begin by introducing students to the impact of the interaction of the hydrologic and rock cycles on Earth's materials. Students will categorize the mechanical and chemical impacts of the hydrologic cycle on Earth's lithosphere using a jot chart. Students will participate in an outdoor geologic field study to locate examples of mechanical and chemical effects of the hydrologic cycle on their school's grounds. Lastly, students will analyze and interpret the data gathered during the geologic field study through the creation of a bar and circle graph. This lesson results from a collaboration between the Alabama State Department of Education and ASTA.
Under the Unity and Diversity DCI, students are asked to evaluate data comparing similarities in developing embryos across different organisms. While this is a classic component of understanding evolution, the modern, real-world reason to learn it is to understand the why and how of using model organisms like zebrafish. Students will learn about how model organisms have been used to find treatments to medical problems in the past, how they are used and selected now, and will be able to draw their own conclusions about the similarities among vertebrates vs. other types of animals. This is a stand-alone lesson/investigation but it would be a great bridge between genetics and evolution and could connect to 7th-grade content. This lesson results from a collaboration between the Alabama State Department of Education and ASTA.
In this lesson, students will demonstrate an understanding of the transfer of matter (energy) in various ecosystems by constructing a model food chain. In the food chain, students must show how an ecosystem provides energy from a producer to the consumers and ending with a decomposer. The students will begin by working in groups to compete with their peers by sorting food chain picture cards (producers, consumers, decomposers of an ecosystem) in the correct order. Students will be assessed at the conclusion of the lesson with a multiple choice exit ticket quiz. This unit was created as part of the ALEX Interdisciplinary Resource Development Summit.
Students will design and conduct an experiment to see how temperature can affect the particle motion of water. The students will test molecular motion in different temperatures of water by adding food coloring to the water and observing the motion of the water molecules. This investigation will allow the students to see the movement of food coloring in water and how an increase or decrease in temperature will affect that movement. This lesson results from a collaboration between the Alabama State Department of Education and ASTA.
In this hands-on investigation, students will demonstrate how forces have an effect on objects. This lesson, "Move It!" is Day 1 in a series of lessons that help to explain how forces affect objects. Students will identify objects that can be moved and demonstrate how movement puts objects in motion. In Day 2, " Push Me, Pull You ", students demonstrate that objects can be moved by pushing or pulling them. In Day 3, " Tug of War! " students describe relative strengths and directions of the push or pull applied to an object. This lesson results from a collaboration between the Alabama State Department of Education and ASTA.
In this lesson, students will examine time lapse photos and videos to see the movement of stars during the night. Students will use star wheels to track the visibility of constellations throughout the year and graph the number of days a constellation is visible each month. Using data from the graphs, they will collaboratively construct a large-scale model of the sun, Earth, and constellations to better understand the role Earth's movement and axial tilt play in the visibility of stars. Finally, students will draw a diagram and write an explanation of the apparent movement of stars using data from the graphs and class model. This lesson results from the ALEX Resource Gap Project.
Students will develop an understanding of volume and density by analyzing, calculating, and measuring a gummy bear. The students will determine the cause and effect of a water-soaked gummy bear. Students will measure water and gummy bear with accuracy, record data, and communicate their results. This lesson results from collaboration between the Alabama State Department of Education and ASTA.
In this lesson, students will research one Native American group from each of the six main biomes in North America. Students will use their developing technology and language arts skills to find reliable sources on the internet, evaluate and integrate information from these texts, select a suitable digital platform to share their findings, and create a cohesive presentation showcasing their mastery of the learning outcomes. Students will discover the climate, landforms, water, and other natural resources available within each region and how they were used by the natives living there. Students will explore the relationships between the cultures found within each region and its resources. This unit was created as part of the ALEX Interdisciplinary Resource Development Summit.
This lesson looks at the natural resources that drew settlers to Alabama. Students will explore the 1818 letter from Joseph Noble to his friend, Samuel B. Bidgood, describing the town at Tuscaloosa Falls. Students will explain ideas within this historical text based on specific information presented in this primary source. Follow up lesson - Alabama: A Boundless Field of Speculation This lesson was created in partnership with the Alabama Department of Archives and History.
Each student becomes an expert on a natural disaster, investigating and discovering how they can prepare for it. Students initially create traditional motivational posters using paper, pencils, markers, and crayons. Then, students create an electronic version to motivate others to prepare for natural disasters. Next, students create storyboards/scripts and digital stories on a natural disaster of their choosing to inform others of ways to prepare for natural disasters. This lesson was created as part of a collaboration between Alabama Technology in Motion and ALEX.
In terms of life science content, evolution is essentially where genetics meets ecology. In this introduction to evolution, students will take on the role of both research biologists and predators to simulate how environmental conditions affect and change a population of model frogs and traits. Students will encounter the impacts of mutations and changes to the environment affecting the survival as well. This lesson results from a collaboration between the Alabama State Department of Education and ASTA.
Students will begin by brainstorming a list of needs that must be met for an animal to survive in its habitat. Next, the students will observe an ant farm, created by the teacher prior to the lesson, and determine how the ants' needs are being met through their environment. Then, students will create a list of needs that must be met for a plant to survive in its habitat and compare this list to animals' survival needs. Lastly, the teacher will assist students in developing a plan to build a natural habitat conducive to meeting the needs of a plant. At the conclusion of the lesson, the students will construct a plant terrarium. This lesson was created as part of the 2016 NASA STEM Standards of Practice Project, a collaboration between the Alabama State Department of Education and NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.
The lesson content is connected to Alabama Course of Study SS2010 (4) which will explain why significant leaders of the Creek War disrupted the Alabama Creek Indian Headsmen and the government. The disruption would be solved through negotiation. The negotiating Creek Indians did not obtain full restoration of their land, however, they did accept a compromise. This lesson was created in partnership with the Alabama Department of Archives and History.