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Course Standards
General Course Information and Notes
General Notes
Special Notes:
Instructional Practices
Teaching from a range of complex text is optimized when teachers in all subject areas implement the following strategies on a routine basis:
- Ensuring wide reading from complex text that varies in length.
- Making close reading and rereading of texts central to lessons.
- Emphasizing text-specific complex questions, and cognitively complex tasks, reinforce focus on the text and cultivate independence.
- Emphasizing students supporting answers based upon evidence from the text.
- Providing extensive research and writing opportunities (claims and evidence).
Science and Engineering Practices (NRC Framework for K-12 Science Education, 2010)
- Asking questions (for science) and defining problems (for engineering).
- Developing and using models.
- Planning and carrying out investigations.
- Analyzing and interpreting data.
- Using mathematics, information and computer technology, and computational thinking.
- Constructing explanations (for science) and designing solutions (for engineering).
- Engaging in argument from evidence.
- Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information.
Florida’s Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking (B.E.S.T.) Standards
This course includes Florida’s B.E.S.T. ELA Expectations (EE) and Mathematical Thinking and Reasoning Standards (MTRs) for students. Florida educators should intentionally embed these standards within the content and their instruction as applicable. For guidance on the implementation of the EEs and MTRs, please visit https://www.cpalms.org/Standards/BEST_Standards.aspx and select the appropriate B.E.S.T. Standards package.
Teachers are required to provide listening, speaking, reading and writing instruction that allows English language learners (ELL) to communicate information, ideas and concepts for academic success in the content area of Science. For the given level of English language proficiency and with visual, graphic, or interactive support, students will interact with grade level words, expressions, sentences and discourse to process or produce language necessary for academic success The ELD standard should specify a relevant content area concept or topic of study chosen by curriculum developers and teachers which maximizes an ELL's need for communication and social skills. To access an ELL supporting document which delineates performance definitions and descriptors, please click on the following link: https://cpalmsmediaprod.blob.core.windows.net/uploads/docs/standards/eld/sc.pdf
General Information
- Class Size Core Required
Educator Certifications
Student Resources
Original Student Tutorials
Explore and compare objects in the solar system, including planets, moons, the Sun, comets, and asteroids, with this interactive research page.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore how weathering and erosion may have affected Pnyx Hill, the ancient Greek democratic meeting place which influenced our modern government with this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore excerpts from the extraordinary autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, as you examine the author's purpose for writing and his use of the problem and solution text structure. By the end of this interactive tutorial, you should be able to explain how Douglass uses the problem and solution text structure in these excerpts to convey his purpose for writing.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Continue to study George Vest's "Eulogy of the Dog" speech and his use of rhetorical appeals. In Part Two of this two-part series, you'll identify his use of ethos and pathos throughout his speech.
Make sure to complete Part One before beginning Part Two. Click HERE to launch Part One.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Read George Vest's "Eulogy of the Dog" speech in this two-part interactive tutorial. In this series, you'll identify and examine Vest's use of ethos, pathos, and logos in his speech. In Part One, you'll identify Vest's use of logos in the first part of his speech. In Part Two, you'll identify his use of ethos and pathos throughout his speech.
Make sure to complete both part of this series! Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Continue to study epic similes in excerpts from The Iliad in Part Two of this two-part series. In Part Two, you'll learn about mood and how the language of an epic simile produces a specified mood in excerpts from The Iliad.
Make sure to complete Part One before beginning Part Two. Click HERE to view "That's So Epic: How Epic Similes Contribute to Mood (Part One)."
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn about how epic similes create mood in a text, specifically in excerpts from The Iliad, in this two-part series.
In Part One, you'll define epic simile, identify epic similes based on defined characteristics, and explain the comparison created in an epic simile.
In Part Two, you'll learn about mood and how the language of an epic simile produces a specified mood in excerpts from The Iliad. Make sure to complete both parts!
Click HERE to view "That's So Epic: How Epic Similes Contribute to Mood (Part Two)."
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Continue to read the famous short story “The Bet” by Anton Chekhov and explore the impact of a fifteen-year bet made between a lawyer and a banker. In Part Two, you’ll cite textual evidence that supports an analysis of what the text states explicitly, or directly. You'll also make inferences, support them with textual evidence, and use them to explain how the bet transformed the lawyer and the banker by the end of the story.
Make sure to complete Part One before beginning Part Two. Click HERE to view Part One.
Make sure to complete Part Three after you finish Part Two. Click HERE to view "Risky Betting: Analyzing a Universal Theme (Part Three)."
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore forces and how changes in forces can affect the motion of objects in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Read the famous short story “The Bet” by Anton Chekhov and explore the impact of a fifteen-year bet made between a lawyer and a banker in this three-part tutorial series.
In Part One, you’ll cite textual evidence that supports an analysis of what the text states explicitly, or directly, and make inferences and support them with textual evidence. By the end of Part One, you should be able to make three inferences about how the bet has transformed the lawyer by the middle of the story and support your inferences with textual evidence.
Make sure to complete all three parts!
Click HERE to launch "Risky Betting: Text Evidence and Inferences (Part Two)."
Click HERE to launch "Risky Betting: Analyzing a Universal Theme (Part Three)."
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Identify rhyme, alliteration, and repetition in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" and analyze how he used these sound devices to affect the poem in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Study excerpts from the classic American novel Little Women by Louisa May Alcott in this interactive English Language Arts tutorial. Using excerpts from chapter eight of Little Women, you'll identify key characters and their actions. You'll also explain how interactions between characters contributes to the development of the plot.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Examine how allusions contribute to meaning in excerpts from O. Henry's classic American short story “The Gift of the Magi." In this interactive tutorial, you'll determine how allusions in the text better develop the key story elements of setting, characters, and conflict and explain how the allusion to the Magi contributes to the story’s main message about what it means to give a gift.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn to identify imagery in William Shakespeare's "Sonnet 18" and explain how that imagery contributes to the poem's meaning with this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Study William Shakespeare's "Sonnet 18" to determine and compare two universal themes and how they are developed throughout the sonnet.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore the form and meaning of William Shakespeare's “Sonnet 18.” In this interactive tutorial, you’ll examine how specific words and phrases contribute to meaning in the sonnet, select the features of a Shakespearean sonnet in the poem, identify the solution to a problem, and explain how the form of a Shakespearean sonnet contributes to the meaning of "Sonnet 18."
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Analyze how O. Henry uses details to address the topics of value, sacrifice, and love in his famous short story, "The Gift of the Magi." In this interactive tutorial, you'll also determine two universal themes of the story.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore key story elements in more excerpts from the classic American short story “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry.
In Part Two of this two-part series, you'll analyze how important information about two main characters is revealed through the context of the story’s setting and events in the plot. By the end of this tutorial, you should be able to explain how character development, setting, and plot interact in "The Gift of the Magi."
Make sure to complete Part One before beginning Part Two. Click HERE to launch Part One.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore key story elements in the classic American short story “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry. Throughout this two-part tutorial, you'll analyze how important information about two main characters is revealed through the context of the story’s setting and events in the plot. By the end of this tutorial series, you should be able to explain how character development, setting, and plot interact in excerpts from this short story.
Make sure to complete both parts! Click HERE to view "How Story Elements Interact in 'The Gift of the Magi' -- Part Two."
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Identify the results of environmental changes on different types of plants as you gain a deeper understanding of how environmental changes allow some organisms to survive and reproduce, while others die, in this interactive tutorial.
This is part 3 in a 3-part series. Click below to explore the other tutorials in the series.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore the different ways plants respond to changes in the environment in this interactive tutorial.
This is part 2 of 3. Click below to open the other tutorials in this series.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn what an environment is, how different environments meet the needs of animals that live there, and how environmental changes can impact the animals that live there with this interactive tutorial.
This is part 1 in a 3-part series. Click below to explore the other tutorials in the series.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Read more from the fantasy novel The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald in Part Two of this three-part series. By the end of this tutorial, you should be able to compare and contrast the archetypes of two characters in the novel.
Make sure to complete all three parts of this series in order to compare and contrast the use of archetypes in two texts.
Click HERE to view "Archetypes -- Part One: Examining an Archetype in The Princess and the Goblin."
Click HERE to view "Archetypes -- Part Three: Comparing and Contrasting Archetypes in Two Fantasy Stories."
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn to determine the important traits of a main character named Princess Irene in excerpts from the fantasy novel The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald. In this interactive tutorial, you’ll also identify her archetype and explain how textual details about her character support her archetype.
Make sure to complete all three parts of this series in order to compare and contrast the use of archetypes in two texts.
Click HERE to view "Archetypes -- Part Two: Examining Archetypes in The Princess and the Goblin."
Click HERE to view "Archetypes -- Part Three: Comparing and Contrasting Archetypes in Two Fantasy Stories."
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn to identify aspects of setting and character as you analyze several excerpts from “The Yellow Wallpaper," a chilling short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman that explores the impact on its narrator of being confined to mostly one room. You'll also determine how the narrator’s descriptions of the story’s setting better reveal her emotional and mental state.
This interactive tutorial is Part One in a two-part series. By the end of Part Two, you should be able to explain how the narrator changes through her interaction with the setting. Click below to launch Part Two.
The Power to Cure or Impair: The Importance of Setting in 'The Yellow Wallpaper' -- Part Two
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Continue to examine several excerpts from the chilling short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, which explores the impact on its narrator of being confined to mostly one room. In Part Two of this tutorial series, you'll determine how the narrator’s descriptions of the story’s setting reveal its impact on her emotional and mental state. By the end of this tutorial, you should be able to explain how the narrator changes through her interaction with the setting.
Make sure to complete Part One before beginning Part Two. Click HERE to launch "The Power to Cure or Impair: The Importance of Setting in 'The Yellow Wallpaper' -- Part One."
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore the mysterious poem “The House on the Hill” by Edwin Arlington Robinson in this interactive tutorial. As you explore the poem's message about the past, you’ll identify the features of a villanelle in the poem. By the end of this tutorial, you should be able to explain how the form of a villanelle contributes to the poem's meaning.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore the relationship between mass, forces, and motion on the soccer field in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Continue to explore the significance of the famous poem “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus, lines from which are engraved on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty.
In Part Two of this two-part series, you’ll identify the features of a sonnet in the poem "The New Colossus." By the end of this tutorial, you should be able to explain how the form of a sonnet contributes to the poem's meaning.
Make sure to complete Part One before beginning Part Two.
Click HERE to launch "A Giant of Size and Power -- Part One: Exploring the Significance of 'The New Colossus.'"
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Continue to examine how setting influences characters in excerpts from The Red Umbrella by Christina Diaz Gonzalez with this interactive tutorial.
This is part 2 in a two-part series. Make sure to complete Part One first. Click HERE to launch "Analyzing the Beginning of The Red Umbrella -- Part One: How Setting Influences Events."
Type: Original Student Tutorial
In Part One, explore the significance of the famous poem “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus, lines from which are engraved on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty.
This famous poem also happens to be in the form of a sonnet. In Part Two of this two-part series, you’ll identify the features of a sonnet in the poem. By the end of this tutorial series, you should be able to explain how the form of a sonnet contributes to the poem's meaning. Make sure to complete both parts!
Click HERE to launch "A Giant of Size and Power -- Part Two: How the Form of a Sonnet Contributes to Meaning in 'The New Colossus.'"
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore excerpts from the beginning of the historical fiction novel The Red Umbrella by Christina Diaz Gonzalez in this two-part series. In Part One, you'll examine how setting influences events. In Part Two, you'll examine how setting influences characters.
Make sure to complete both parts! Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore the integral role Earth's oceans play in the water cycle in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Investigate how the flow of electricity requires a closed circuit in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
This SaM-1 video provides the students with the optional "twist" for Lesson 17 and the Model Eliciting Activity (MEA) they have been working on in the Grade 3 Physical Science Unit: Water Beach Vacation.
To see all the lessons in the unit please visit https://www.cpalms.org/page818.aspx.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
This video introduces the students to a Model Eliciting Activity (MEA) and concepts related to conducting experiments so they can apply what they learned about the changes water undergoes when it changes state. This MEA provides students with an opportunity to develop a procedure based on evidence for selecting the most effective cooler.
This SaM-1 video is to be used with lesson 14 in the Grade 3 Physical Science Unit: Water Beach Vacation. To see all the lessons in the unit please visit https://www.cpalms.org/page818.aspx.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore different kinds of forces, including pushes, pulls, magnetism, gravity, and friction in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Discover why it's important for scientists to replicate the procedures used in earlier scientific investigations to validate the findings or results in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Investigate electrical energy and how it can be transformed into different forms including heat, light, sound, and motion energy in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how water moves into the atmosphere as it moves through the water cycle. This is part 2 of a three-part interactive tutorial series.
Click to open part 1
Click HERE to open part 3 (Coming Soon)
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore different sources of water as it travels through Earth's water cycle. Discover the importance of the oceans and other water sources as you follow water's journey in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Come along and explore the amazing adaptations of freshwater life in this interactive tutorial
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Come along and explore how lands animals are adapted to changing environments all around the globe in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Come along and explore amazing adaptations of marine animals with a biologist as your guide in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Join a biologist to explore amazing adaptations among plants in this interactive student tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore Robert Frost's poem "Mending Wall" and examine words, phrases, and lines with multiple meanings. In this interactive tutorial, you'll analyze how these multiple meanings can affect a reader’s interpretation of the poem.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Examine the topics of transformation and perfection as you read excerpts from the “Myth of Pygmalion” by Ovid and the short story “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. By the end of this two-part interactive tutorial series, you should be able to explain how the short story draws on and transforms source material from the original myth.
This tutorial is the second in a two-part series. Click HERE to launch Part One.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Examine the topics of transformation and perfection as you read excerpts from the “Myth of Pygmalion” by Ovid and the short story “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. By the end of this two-part interactive tutorial series, you should be able to explain how the short story draws on and transforms source material from the original myth.
This tutorial is the first in a two-part series. Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn more about that dreaded word--plagiarism--in this interactive tutorial that's all about citing your sources, creating a Works Cited page, and avoiding academic dishonesty!
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore the basics of air pressure in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore how temperature and humidity affects biomes like the tundra and desert, and learn how computers use NAND and NOR logic gates to make decisions.
This is part 4 of 4 in a series about biomes and logic gates. Click below to open parts 1-3.
- Traveling With Boolean Logic Part 2: AND Gates
- Traveling With Boolean Logic Part 3: OR Gates
- Traveling With Boolean Logic Part 4: NAND and NOR Gates
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore how temperature, wind speed and other weather data affects a biome like the temperate grasslands. While exploring the different aspects of the biome, learn the OR logic gate that computers use to make decisions.
This is part 3 of 4 in a tutorial series on biomes and logic gates.
- Traveling With Boolean Logic Part 2: AND Gates
- Traveling With Boolean Logic Part 3: OR Gates
- Traveling With Boolean Logic Part 4: NAND and NOR Gates
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how AND Boolean logic can be used to evaluate two different inputs resulting in a true or false output. While exploring the logic of a computer system in this interactive tutorial, you will learn about different biomes and how computers can make decisions based on the attributes of the biomes.
This is part 2 of 4 in a tutorial series about biomes and Boolean logic.
- Traveling With Boolean Logic Part 2: AND Gates
- Traveling With Boolean Logic Part 3: OR Gates
- Traveling With Boolean Logic Part 4: NAND and NOR Gates
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Expand your coding skills with Boolean logic as you use the inverter NOT function to make decisions while learning about different biomes.
This is part 1 of 4 in a tutorial series about Boolean logic and biomes.
- Traveling With Boolean Logic Part 1: NOT Gates
- Traveling With Boolean Logic Part 3: OR Gates
- Traveling With Boolean Logic Part 4: NAND and NOR Gates
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn more about that dreaded word--plagiarism--in this interactive tutorial that's all about citing your sources and avoiding academic dishonesty!
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore excerpts from Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay "Self-Reliance" in this two-part series. This tutorial is Part Two. In this tutorial, you will continue to examine excerpts from Emerson's essay that focus on the topic of traveling. You'll examine word meanings and determine the connotations of specific words. You will also analyze the impact of specific word choices on the meaning of this portion of the essay.
Make sure to complete Part One first. Click HERE to launch Part One.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore excerpts from Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay "Self-Reliance" in this two-part interactive tutorial series. You will examine word meanings, examine subtle differences between words with similar meanings, and think about the emotions or associations that are connected to specific words. Finally, you will analyze the impact of specific word choices on the meaning of these excerpts.
Make sure to complete both parts! Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore excerpts from Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay "Self-Reliance" in this interactive two-part tutorial. This tutorial is Part Two. In this two-part series, you will learn to enhance your experience of Emerson's essay by analyzing his use of the word "genius." You will analyze Emerson's figurative meaning of "genius" and how he develops and refines the meaning of this word over the course of the essay.
Make sure to complete Part One before beginning Part Two. Click HERE to view Part One.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore excerpts from Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay "Self-Reliance" in this interactive two-part tutorial. In Part One, you’ll learn to enhance your experience of a text by analyzing its use of a word’s figurative meaning. Specifically, you'll examine Emerson's figurative meaning of the key term "genius." In Part Two, you’ll learn how to track the development of a word’s figurative meaning over the course of a text.
Make sure to complete both parts of the tutorial! Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore the differences between an experiment and other types of scientific investigations as you complete this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how electrical energy is produced from earth's natural resources. In this interactive tutorial, explore the process to power buildings and other electronic devices.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Practice analyzing word choices in "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe, including word meanings, subtle differences between words with similar meanings, and emotions connected to specific words. In this interactive tutorial, you will also analyze the impact of specific word choices on the meaning of the poem.
This is Part Two of a two-part series. Part One should be completed before beginning Part Two. Click HERE to open Part One.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Practice analyzing word choices in "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe in this interactive tutorial. In this tutorial, you will examine word meanings, examine subtle differences between words with similar meanings, and think about emotions connected to specific words. You will also analyze the impact of specific word choices on the meaning of the poem.
This tutorial is Part One of a two-part series on Poe's "The Raven." Click HERE to open Part Two.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to create a Poem in 2 Voices in this interactive tutorial. This tutorial is Part Three of a three-part series. In this tutorial, you will learn how to create a Poem in 2 Voices using evidence drawn from a literary text: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson.
You should complete Part One and Part Two of this series before beginning Part Three.
Click HERE to launch Part One. Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Get ready to travel back in time to London, England during the Victorian era in this interactive tutorial that uses text excerpts from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. This tutorial is Part Two of a three-part series. You should complete Part One before beginning this tutorial. In Part Two, you will read excerpts from the last half of the story and practice citing evidence to support analysis of a literary text. In the third tutorial in this series, you’ll learn how to create a Poem in 2 Voices using evidence from this story.
Make sure to complete all three parts! Click to HERE launch Part One. Click HERE to launch Part Three.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how authors create mood in a story through this interactive tutorial. You'll read a science fiction short story by author Ray Bradbury and analyze how he uses images, sound, dialogue, setting, and characters' actions to create different moods. This tutorial is Part One in a two-part series. In Part Two, you'll use Bradbury's story to help you create a Found Poem that conveys multiple moods.
When you've completed Part One, click HERE to launch Part Two.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Practice writing different aspects of an expository essay about scientists using drones to research glaciers in Peru. This interactive tutorial is part four of a four-part series. In this final tutorial, you will learn about the elements of a body paragraph. You will also create a body paragraph with supporting evidence. Finally, you will learn about the elements of a conclusion and practice creating a “gift.”
This tutorial is part four of a four-part series. Click below to open the other tutorials in this series.
- Drones and Glaciers: Eyes in the Sky (Part 1)
- Drones and Glaciers: Eyes in the Sky (Part 2)
- Expository Writing: Eyes in the Sky (Part 3)
- Expository Writing: Eyes in the Sky (Part 4)
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Practice citing evidence to support analysis of a literary text as you read excerpts from one of the most famous works of horror fiction of all time, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
This tutorial is Part One of a three-part tutorial. In Part Two, you'll continue your analysis of the text. In Part Three, you'll learn how to create a Poem in 2 Voices using evidence from this story. Make sure to complete all three parts!
Click HERE to launch Part Two. Click HERE to launch Part Three.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to write an introduction for an expository essay in this interactive tutorial. This tutorial is the third part of a four-part series. In previous tutorials in this series, students analyzed an informational text and video about scientists using drones to explore glaciers in Peru. Students also determined the central idea and important details of the text and wrote an effective summary. In part three, you'll learn how to write an introduction for an expository essay about the scientists' research.
This tutorial is part three of a four-part series. Click below to open the other tutorials in this series.
- Drones and Glaciers: Eyes in the Sky (Part 1)
- Drones and Glaciers: Eyes in the Sky (Part 2)
- Expository Writing: Eyes in the Sky (Part 3)
- Expository Writing: Eyes in the Sky (Part 4)
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to identify the central idea and important details of a text, as well as how to write an effective summary in this interactive tutorial. This tutorial is the second tutorial in a four-part series that examines how scientists are using drones to explore glaciers in Peru.
This tutorial is part two of a four-part series. Click below to open the other tutorials in this series.
- Drones and Glaciers: Eyes in the Sky (Part 1)
- Drones and Glaciers: Eyes in the Sky (Part 2)
- Expository Writing: Eyes in the Sky (Part 3)
- Expository Writing: Eyes in the Sky (Part 4)
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn about how researchers are using drones, also called unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs, to study glaciers in Peru. In this interactive tutorial, you will practice citing text evidence when answering questions about a text.
This tutorial is part one of a four-part series. Click below to open the other tutorials in this series.
- Drones and Glaciers: Eyes in the Sky (Part 1)
- Drones and Glaciers: Eyes in the Sky (Part 2)
- Expository Writing: Eyes in the Sky (Part 3)
- Expository Writing: Eyes in the Sky (Part 4)
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to avoid plagiarism in this interactive tutorial. You will also learn how to follow a standard format for citation and how to format your research paper using MLA style. Along the way, you will also learn about master magician Harry Houdini. This tutorial is Part Two of a two-part series on research writing.
Be sure to complete Part One first. Click to view Part One.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn about paraphrasing and the use of direct quotes in this interactive tutorial about research writing. Along the way, you'll also learn about master magician Harry Houdini. This tutorial is part one of a two-part series, so be sure to complete both parts.
Check out part two—Avoiding Plaigiarism: It's Not Magic here.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to create a Found Poem with changing moods in this interactive tutorial. This tutorial is Part Two of a two-part series. In Part One, students read “Zero Hour,” a science fiction short story by author Ray Bradbury and examined how he used various literary devices to create changing moods. In Part Two, students will use words and phrases from “Zero Hour” to create a Found Poem with two of the same moods from Bradbury's story.
Click HERE to launch Part One.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Cite text evidence and make inferences about the "real" history of Halloween in this spooky interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Investigate and explain that when a force is applied to an object but it does not move, it is because another opposing force is being applied by something in the environment so the forces are balanced. This interactive tutorial also includes practice items to check your knowledge.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn more about that dreaded word--plagiarism--in this interactive tutorial that's all about citing your sources and avoiding academic dishonesty!
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore the connection between energy and motion and help Thomas the turtle win the race by using your knowledge of energy and work in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to cite evidence and draw inferences in this interactive tutorial. Using an informational text about cyber attacks, you'll practice identifying text evidence and making inferences based on the text.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to define and identify claims being made within a text. This tutorial will also show you how evidence can be used effectively to support the claim being made. Lastly, this tutorial will help you write strong, convincing claims of your own.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn to identify explicit textual evidence and make inferences based on the text. In this interactive tutorial, you'll sharpen your analysis skills while reading about the famed American explorers, Lewis and Clark, and their trusted companion, Sacagawea. You'll practice analyzing the explicit textual evidence wihtin the text, and you'll also make your own inferences based on the available evidence.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Take a journey and investigate the objects that call our solar system home. In this interactive tutorial, you'll visit the Sun, planets, satellites, asteroids and comets and learn new and exciting information about our exploration of the solar system.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to prepare a natural disaster plan of your own and identify reasons for having one in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore the mystery of muscle cell metabolism and how cells are able to meet the need for a constant supply of energy. In this interactive tutorial, you'll identify the basic structure of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), explain how ATP’s structure is related it its job in the cell, and connect this role to energy transfers in living things.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn to identify and analyze extended metaphors using W.B. Yeats' poem, "The Stolen Child." In this interactive tutorial, we'll examine how Yeats uses figurative language to express the extended metaphor throughout this poem. We'll focus on his use of these seven types of imagery: visual, auditory, gustatory, olfactory, tactile, kinesthetic, and organic. Finally, we'll analyze how the poem's extended metaphor conveys a deeper meaning within the text.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn to identify components within a galaxy such as gas, dust, stars and objects that orbit stars with this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn to identify a control group and explain its importance in an experiment with this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn about the importance of repeated trials in a scientific experiment with this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn to identify and analyze the central idea of an informational text. In this interactive tutorial, you'll read several informational passages about the history of pirates. First, you'll learn the four-step process for pinpointing the central idea. Then you'll analyze each passage to see how the central idea is developed throughout the text.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Investigate and describe some basic forms of energy, including light, heat, sound, electrical, chemical, and mechanical, at the amusement park in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how heat is a form of energy. You will also look at other examples of energy as they are found during a camping trip.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Discover how air temperature, air pressure, humidity, wind, and precipitation determine the weather in a particular place and time as you complete this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to recognize and explain that science is based on testable observations and that explanations for observations must be linked to evidence in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to make inferences based on the information included in the text in this interactive tutorial. Using the short story "The Last Leaf" by O. Henry, you'll practice identifying both the explicit and implicit information in the story. You'll apply your own reasoning to make inferences based on what is stated both explicitly and implicitly in the text.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Join Baby Bear to answer questions about key details in his favorite stories with this interactive tutorial. Learn about characters, setting, and events as you answer who, where, and what questions.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
In this tutorial, you will practice identifying relevant evidence within a text as you read excerpts from Jack London's short story "To Build a Fire." Then, you'll practice your writing skills as you draft a short response using examples of relevant evidence from the story.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to make inferences using the novel Hoot in this interactive tutorial. You'll learn how to identify both explicit and implicit information in the story to make inferences about characters and events.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to make inferences when reading a fictional text using the textual evidence provided. In this tutorial, you'll read the short story "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin. You'll practice identifying what is directly stated in the text and what requires the use of inference. You'll practice making your own inferences and supporting them with evidence from the text.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Identify the basic needs of living things,the ways living things protect, support and reproduce. Also compare and contrast how plants and animals meet their basic needs in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to identify explicit evidence and understand implicit meaning in a text.
You should be able to distinguish weather conditions among different climates.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn and demonstrate that mixtures of solids can be separated by observable properties in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn to:
- identify the heart as an important organ for life.
- describe the features of the heart including the four chambers, pulmonary artery and veins, the aorta and the valves.
- explain functions of the various parts of the heart.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn to identify precipitation as rain, snow, sleet and hail in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn to describe the relationship between latitude and annual mean temperatures on Earth with this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how authentic scientific investigations do not always follow the steps of the traditional "scientific method" with this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how adaptations can help animals survive in their environments in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
In Part Two of this two-part series, you'll continue to explore excerpts from the Romantic novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. In this tutorial, you'll examine the author's use of juxtaposition, which is a technique of putting two or more elements side by side to invite comparison or contrast. By the end of this tutorial, you should be able to explain how the author’s use of juxtaposition in excerpts from the first two chapters of Jane Eyre defines Jane’s perspective regarding her treatment in the Reed household.
Make sure to complete Part One before beginning Part Two. Click HERE to view Part One.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Dive deeper into the famous short story “The Bet” by Anton Chekhov and explore the impact of a fifteen-year bet made between a lawyer and a banker.
In Part Three, you’ll learn about universal themes and explain how a specific universal theme is developed throughout “The Bet.”
Make sure to complete the first two parts in the series before beginning Part three. Click HERE to view Part One. Click HERE to view Part Two.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Educational Game
Students have an opportunity to discover plants from around the world that are housed at the New York Botanical Gardens. Students learn about the kinds of plants and then try seven different Plant Challenges where they show their knowledge about plant leaves, plants we eat, plants we use in our lives, how plants reproduce, how plants have evolved, plants and pollinators and plants in specific biomes.
Type: Educational Game
Image/Photographs
This website uses images of many insects to illustrate various forms of coloration or patterning for camouflage, mating, communication, mimicry, and other purposes. Examples for entomological use include walking sticks, katydids, moths, ambush bugs, and many others.
Type: Image/Photograph
This PDF included at this site has information about family preparedness plans and safety rules, and information about thunderstorms, tornadoes, and lightning such as facts, when and where they occur, and how they form.
Type: Image/Photograph
Lesson Plan
In this lesson plan, students will explore the history and meaning behind various patriotic holidays and make personal connections with those holidays including, Constitution Day, Memorial Day, Veteran’s Day, Patriot Day, President’s Day, Independence Day, and Medal of Honor Day.
Type: Lesson Plan
Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast
Ancient weapons technologies developed by humans proved that they were better at physics than the saber-toothed cats.
Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.
Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast
Presentation/Slideshows
This is an accessible, easy-to-read book about the water cycle. It can be downloaded in Power Point, Impress, or Flash formats. For struggling or non-readers the book can be read aloud in a variety of voices. All of the books on the Tar Heel Reader site can be used with the Intellikeys keyboard with a custom overlay, a touch screen, and 1-3 switches. The text and background colors can be modified for students with visual impairments.
Type: Presentation/Slideshow
This is an accessible, easy-to-read book about some of the adaptations animals make in order to survive and thrive. It can be downloaded in Power Point, Impress, and Flash formats. For struggling or non-readers the book can be read aloud in a variety of voices. All of the book on the Tarheel Reader site can be used with an Intellikeys keyboard and a custom overlay, a touch screen, and up to three switches. The text and background colors can be modified for students with visual impairments.
Type: Presentation/Slideshow
Text Resources
This is an informational resource for teachers and students. It contains descriptions and pictures of different biomes, examples of some of the plants that live there, and some of the adaptations those plants have. This resource only covers plant adaptation not animals.
Type: Text Resource
Using this case study students can discuss "How can an employee"s behaviors and actions drive their career stability and path?"
Type: Text Resource
Using this case study, students can answer the question, "What are the limits of fair use regarding copyright protection?"
Type: Text Resource
Using this case study, students can answer the question, "How does the composition of a scene influence how the viewer feels?"
Type: Text Resource
Tutorials
The Treehouse Weather Kids is designed for teachers and students in the 5th – 8th grades. It provides basic information on weather topics such as winds, moisture, air pressure, seasons, and storms. This tutorial discusses clouds, humidity, and precipitation.
Type: Tutorial
The Treehouse Weather Kids is designed for teachers and students in the 5th – 8th grades. It provides basic information on weather topics such as winds, moisture, air pressure, seasons, and storms. This tutorial discusses air pressue and wind.
Type: Tutorial
Video/Audio/Animations
This four minute video features a great explanation and demonstration of static electricity. The video also includes a great activity suggestion: create your own electroscopes to test for the presence of static electricity.
Type: Video/Audio/Animation
Cocos Island, a remote volcanic summit in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, serves as a beacon for hungry predators, including thousands of hammerhead sharks that travel here each year in search of prey. This video segment from NOVA: "Island of Sharks" depicts some of the common predator-prey interactions that take place in the nutrient-rich waters surrounding the island and focuses on the advantages and disadvantages of one behavioral adaptation common among prey fishes: schooling.
Type: Video/Audio/Animation
This video segment from NOVA: "A Desert Place" details the behaviors and habitats of some of the Sonoran Desert's creatures, focusing on the adaptations they use to survive in one of the most extreme environments in the world.
Type: Video/Audio/Animation
This video segment from ZOOM compares and contrasts some of the more interesting climatic and ecological characteristics of the Death Valley desert with those found in the temperate rainforest of the Pacific Northwest. Adapatations used by plants and animals in these climates are discussed and further highlighted in the background essay.
Type: Video/Audio/Animation
The beaver is often referred to as nature's own engineer. This video segment focuses on the beaver's ability to transform its environment to suit itself. The beaver does so with an innate ability to construct dams -- a feat no creature, save humans, is able to achieve.
Type: Video/Audio/Animation
In this ZOOM-adapted video clip, a student explains how her interest in weather observation led her to volunteer at a local weather center so she could get practical experience with weather instruments and learn from a practicing meteorologist how forecasts are created.
Type: Video/Audio/Animation
Precipitation is water that falls from the sky, such as rain or snow. Precipitation can affect your day-to-day life, even though it is just one aspect of the weather. However, precipitation is also vital to the water cycle as it returns water from the atmosphere back to Earth's surface. In this video clip three different types of precipitation are observed - rain, hail, and snow.
Type: Video/Audio/Animation
This video segment explores the world of camouflage, including some of the methods and benefits of this important evolutionary strategy. Footage from NOVA: "Animal Impostors."
Type: Video/Audio/Animation
In this ZOOM-adapted video clip, guest Tommy takes you into Florida's Everglades, describing the animals, plants, and weather he observes while in swamps and marshy grasslands. Connections between other regions are made, such as bird migration from one ecosystem to another.
Type: Video/Audio/Animation
The process that moves water around Earth is known as the water cycle. I this ZOOM-adapted video clip, the cast uses a homemade solar still to separate pure water from a saltwater mixture, mimicing this natural process.
Type: Video/Audio/Animation
While commonly referred to as "shooting stars," meteors and meteor showers are, in fact, unrelated to stars. Instead, these streaks of light are the glow of interplanetary debris crashing into Earth's atmosphere. In this animated video adapted from NASA, learn about these "shooting stars" and the reasons behind annual meteor showers.
Type: Video/Audio/Animation
Virtual Manipulatives
This resource provides a collection of games based on identifying the parts of the eye and their functions, understanding the vision process, and learning about some of the protective eye wear associated with certain sports and daily activities.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
This virtual manipulative will help the students learn some important concepts of classical mechanics, such as gravitational acceleration, energy conservation and so on. This activity will also help in students learning via the process of making predictions (about number of pendulum swings), discussing outcomes and sharing results.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
Friction is important in enabling the movement of objects. Friction is a force that acts in an opposite direction to movement. Friction is everywhere when objects come into contact with each other. Observe what happens when the surfaces are very smooth or slippery, it reduces the friction and thus it makes harder to stop the motion.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
This online manipulative models and simulates common static electricity concepts such as transfer of charge.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
This interesting game require the students to help the comet get to the sun, by answering some simple questions regarding to the solar system.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
This resource provides an interactive tool for the exploration of the solar system. To navigate the interactive solar system move the mouse to hover the target over different objects, to learn more about each click to access images, information about scientists, homework help, articles, news, missions, time lines, and important facts.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
This virtual manipulative will help you learn why the lights turn on in a room as soon as someone flip the switch. This virtual manipulative will allow you to flip the switch and watch the electrons.
Some of the sample learning goals can be:
- Explain what happens when you turn on the switch.
- Determine whether the blue spheres are positive or negative charges. Explain your thinking.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
This resource will build the following skills:
- Describe the relationship of mass and volume to density.
- Compare objects of same mass and different volume and vice versa.
- Explain that density of a certain object does not vary with its mass or volume.
- Measure the volume of an object from fluid displacement.
- Use density to identify an unknown material.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
Play with objects on a teeter totter to learn about balance.
- Predict how objects of various masses can be used to make a plank balance.
- Predict how changing the positions of the masses on the plank will affect the motion of the plank
- Write rules to predict which way plank will tilt when objects are placed on it.
- Use your rules to solve puzzles about balancing.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
Students can create an applied force and see how it makes objects move. They can also make changes in friction and see how it affects the motion of objects.
- Identify when forces are balanced vs. unbalanced.
- Determine the sum of forces (net force) on an object with more than one force on it.
- Predict the motion of an object with zero net force.
- Predict the direction of motion given a combination of forces.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
This website is designed by NASA for student use, so it provides the most current, accurate information regarding the objects in our solar system. Each object in the solar system is available on the first screen. Click on any of the names of the objects, and it links to a description of the object.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
This is a virtual manipulative which demonstrates the principles of force. Students can click on a man and push different objects of varying masses across the screen. The resulting forces (frictional and total force) are shown. Graphs show forces, position and acceleration as a function of time. Free body diagrams of all the forces can also be viewed.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
An electronics kit in your computer! Build circuits with resistors, light bulbs, batteries, and switches. Investigate conductivity of various materials. Take measurements with the realistic ammeter and voltmeter. View the circuit as a schematic diagram, or switch to a life-like view.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
Through this website, students learn about different weather disasters and what to do before, during, and after an emergency.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
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