This presentation is a proposal for the use of document cameras to enhance instruction and learning in math classrooms.

Students learn about the many types of expenses associated with building a bridge. Working like engineers, they estimate the cost for materials for a bridge member of varying sizes. After making calculations, they graph their results to compare how costs change depending on the use of different materials (steel vs. concrete). They conclude by creating a proposal for a city bridge design based on their findings.

This is an assignment for a proposal essay to be used in a composition I class.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Can your country’s tax laws help you find true love? A research team based in Europe has found that a government’s tax scheme surrounding marriage could affect a couple’s decision to tie the knot. The majority of countries across the globe have a tax code that changes according to marital status -- usually in the form of either a tax penalty or tax bonus. With a penalty, a couple will end up paying more in taxes than two similarly compensated single individuals, and with a bonus, they will pay less. To get to the heart of whether the financial implications connected to such tax laws influence a couple’s desire to get married, the researchers applied a rigorous theoretical model they called the marriage proposal game. In the game, two potential spouses – Sam and Robin – can either get married, live together without formal marriage, or break up..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This lesson plan and activity are designed to help students understand the writing and completing process of a report by creating a proposal. An Internal, Unsolicited report gives them more free-range with formatting.

School Districts (Public or Private)

Participation in OER: Collaboration through Open Educational Resources (OER) is beneficial in many ways for the district and for the education community in Nebraska.  The Educational Service Unit Coordinating Council (ESUCC) and the Nebraska Department of Education (NDE) have provided a platform to share educational materials with OER designation which can be reviewed and aligned to Nebraska’s state standards.  The board authorizes the superintendent to allow staff members to participate in OER, at the superintendent’s discretion, both by incorporating OER materials into the curriculum adopted by the board and by sharing materials and resources owned by the district.  Those materials and resources include works made for hire by district employees. Unless the superintendent or superintendent’s designee(s) determines otherwise, materials owned by the district may be shared to the ESUCC-NDE OER Collection(s) with the Creative Commons Attribution License designation of either (1) “Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike,” which is universally noted as “CC BY-NC-SA”; or (2) “Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivatives,” which is universally noted as “CC BY-NC-ND.”

Participation in OER. Collaboration through Open Educational Resources (OER) is beneficial in many ways for the ESU’s member districts and for the education community in Nebraska.  The Educational Service Unit Coordinating Council (ESUCC) and the Nebraska Department of Education (NDE) have provided a platform to share educational materials with OER designation which can be reviewed and aligned to Nebraska’s state standards.  The board authorizes the administrator to allow staff members to participate in OER, at the administrator’s discretion, both by incorporating OER materials into the services provided by the ESU to member districts and by sharing materials and resources owned by the ESU.  Those materials and resources include works made for hire by ESU employees.  Unless the administrator or administrator’s designee(s) determines otherwise, materials owned by the ESU may be shared to the ESUCC-NDE OER Collection(s) with the Creative Commons Attribution License designation of either (1) “Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike,” which is universally noted as “CC BY-NC-SA”; or (2) “Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivatives,” which is universally noted as “CC BY-NC-ND.”

Student pairs reverse engineer objects of their choice, learning what it takes to be an engineer. Groups each make a proposal, create a team work contract, use tools to disassemble a device, and sketch and document their full understanding of how it works. They compile what they learned into a manual and write-up that summarizes the object's purpose, bill of materials and operation procedure with orthographic and isometric sketches. Then they apply some of the steps of the engineering design process to come up with ideas for how the product or device could be improved for the benefit of the end user, manufacturer and/or environment. They describe and sketch their ideas for re-imagined designs (no prototyping or testing is done). To conclude, teams compile full reports and then recap their reverse engineering projects and investigation discoveries in brief class presentations. A PowerPoint(TM) presentation, written report and oral presentation rubrics, and peer evaluation form are provided.

Students research the feasibility of installing a wind-turbine distributed energy (DE) system for their school. They write a proposal (actually, the executive summary of a proposal) to the school principal based on their findings and recommendations. While this activity is geared towards fifth-grade and older students, and Internet research capabilities are required, some portions of this activity may be appropriate for younger students.