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 unit was developed for a junior level pre-Calculus class to be taught during the first quarter of the 2016-17 school year. The lessons of the unit will culminate in each group of students creating and analyzing a mathematical model to predict the future impacts of climate change in New Hampshire and make a presentation as a group. The texts and historic data source, while specific to New Hampshire, may be of interest to other regions of the country. However, state climate change reports and climate data specific to your location may be available through state universities and meteorological stations.

This unit will explore the concepts of bias and confirmation bias and how they affect people's presentation and interpretation of data. It includes 5 days of lessons and independent work that culminate in students being able to show what bias and confirmation bias are and how they affect the way we interpret data.

This lesson on fingerprinting takes a unique approach to a standard topic in Forensic Science. While students will learn the basics of fingerprinting, how to lift a print and learn unique characteristics of fingerprints, they will become aware of the flaws of fingerprinting. By investigating the case of the Madrid Spain Bombing students will discover a match is not always accurate.

This lesson was created by School Library Media Specialist, Pam Harland, and Math teachers Rebecca Hanna and Carissa Maskwa to model text-based inquiry in STEM. Over the course of the unit, students will explore a variety of texts and grow in their knowledge of fractals, city design, and ability to use informational text to support their inquiry and research.The unit was created in year two of the School Librarians Advancing STEM Learning (SLASL) project, led by the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management (ISKME) in partnership with Granite State University, New Hampshire, and funded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS).

This lesson was created by School Library Media Specialist, Pam Harland, and Math teachers Rebecca Hanna and Carissa Maskwa to model text-based inquiry in STEM. Over the course of the unit, students will explore a variety of texts and grow in their knowledge of fractals, city design, and ability to use informational text to support their inquiry and research.The unit was created in year two of the School Librarians Advancing STEM Learning (SLASL) project, led by the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management (ISKME) in partnership with Granite State University, New Hampshire, and funded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS).

Using inquiry-focused reading, students will explore an anchor text and supporting resources to investigate the principles of transfer of heat energy with applications of the concept to solve real world problems.
The instructors will prepare a sample presentation and model for students the steps taken to go from a text to the final project. Students will learn annotations, two column notes, and citations, while learning about how chemistry is used to solve real world problems based on the instructor provided materials. The students will then apply those concepts to a different project assigned by the instructors and apply the same strategies to their own texts to demonstrate their application of learning to a different problem.
Over the course of the unit, students will explore a variety of resources to develop their knowledge of heat energy changes that accompany physical and chemical reactions, measurement of heat energy, and heat energy transfer between the system and the surroundings. They will expand their ability to use informational text to support their inquiry and research, explore scientific literature, and develop questions to determine how the application of energy transfer principles can be applied to solve real world problems.

Using inquiry-focused reading, students will explore an anchor text and supporting resources to investigate the principles of transfer of energy with applications of the concept to solve real world problems.

The instructors will prepare a sample presentation and model for students the steps taken to go from a text to the final project. Students will learn annotations, two column notes, and citations, while learning about how chemistry is used to solve real world problems based on the instructor provided materials. The students will then apply those concepts to a different project assigned by the instructors and apply the same strategies to their own texts to demonstrate their application of learning to a different problem.

Over the course of the unit, students will explore a variety of resources to develop their knowledge of energy, measurement of energy, and energy transfer. They will expand their ability to use informational text to support their inquiry and research, explore scientific literature, and develop questions to determine how the application of energy transfer principles can be applied to solve real world problems.

In this lesson students will learn about the human demands of freshwater and how clean drinking water is being impacted. Students will analyze the issues of cause and effect between human activities and water sustainability. Students will demonstrate this knowledge by create a presentation illustrating the effects of human activities on water resources.

This unit emphasizes literacy skills for STEAM students, using the Planeterella Experiment to learn about aurorae. Guided by text-dependent questions, students will study and gather evidence from anchor and supplemental texts on the Planterella’s design, purpose and history, magnetic currents and their role in aurorae, the Van Allen Belt, the Lorenz Effect, and how global warming impacts aurorae. Students will perform experiments with magnetic currents and create a lab simulation of the aurora borealis using textual evidence and data from the anchor and supplemental texts. Students will present their findings and their experiments using the Tricaster TC40.

This unit emphasizes literacy skills for STEAM students, using the Planeterella Experiment to learn about aurorae. Guided by text-dependent questions, students will study and gather evidence from anchor and supplemental texts on the Planterella’s design, purpose and history, magnetic currents and their role in aurorae, the Van Allen Belt, the Lorenz Effect, and how global warming impacts aurorae. Students will perform experiments with magnetic currents and create a lab simulation of the aurora borealis using textual evidence and data from the anchor and supplemental texts. Students will present their findings and their experiments using the Tricaster TC40.

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.

The lessons in this unit were developed by teachers at Souhegan High School for junior/senior level Physics classes, to be taught during the first trimester of the 2016-17 school year. This unit culminates with small groups of students presenting their plans for the ideal power grid for the state of New Hampshire. While the anchor text and performance assessment may be specific to New Hampshire, texts specific to other regions are likely accessible through state universities, government websites and/or local publications, making this unit highly adaptable.

This unit includes four lessons that culminate in students crafting a letter, video or article expressing their viewpoint on a business’s responsibilities towards the citizens and the environment.
Using inquiry-focused reading, students will explore an anchor text, additional resources, then develop their own essential and supporting questions to guide their research.
Over the course of the unit, students will explore a variety of texts and grow in their knowledge of governmental and small business economic practices, the legal rights of citizens, the interdependencies within an ecosystem and the uses of renewable and nonrenewable energy sources.

This unit includes three lessons that culminate in students crafting a letter, video or article expressing their viewpoint on a business’s responsibilities towards the citizens and the environment.

Using inquiry-focused reading, students will explore an anchor text, additional resources, then develop their own essential and supporting questions to guide their research.

Over the course of the unit, students will explore a variety of texts and grow in their knowledge of governmental and small business economic practices, the legal rights of citizens, the inter-dependencies within an ecosystem and the uses of renewable and nonrenewable energy sources.

This unit uses text-based inquiry to examine water quality issues through the lens of an engineer.

This unit includes 5 lessons that culminates in a persuasive argument in the form of letter to congressional member or grant proposal to Duke Energy.

This unit includes 4 lessons where in Biology, students design a proposal or program to help the environment at a tourist location and in Math, students will calculate how tourism affects the economy.

Using inquiry-based reading, students will explore an anchor text and then develop their own essential and supporting questions to guide their research.

Over the course of the unit, students will explore a variety of texts and grow in their knowledge of the impact of tourism on the environment and the economy. They will also grow in their ability to use informational text to support their inquiry and research.

This unit includes four lessons and two student working days that culminate in students designing an interactive audio and visual display using emaze. The purpose of this visual display is to document their journey throughout the process of becoming familiar with the traceability (and sometimes lack thereof) of beef, produce, and seafood regulations. With their visual displays, they will be able to educate their family, peers, and the public about food consumption choices and provide background knowledge about its origins.

Using inquiry-based reading and reading apprenticeship strategies, students will explore an anchor text as well as two supplemental texts which they will use to develop their own essential and supporting questions to guide their research. AP Environmental students will explore a variety of texts and resources to increase their knowledge and awareness of where our food (seafood, beef, and produce) in the United States originally is located, how it was obtained, and the laws that govern the process behind the scenes.

This unit includes 10 lessons that culminate in a student created final product presentation on the factors that influence climate change through the lens of chemistry and oceanography using literacy strategies to conduct inquiry level research.

Using inquiry-based reading, student will examine an anchor text to formulate a question to guide their research and development of student driven projects. Throughout the unit, students will use a variety of texts, websites, and other resources to develop a product and presentation that exhibits their literacy and inquiry skills. Using inquiry-based reading, students will explore an anchor text and then develop their own essential and supporting questions to guide their research. Over the course of the unit, students will explore a variety of texts and grow in their knowledge of cellular organelles and in their ability to use informational text to support their inquiry and research.