ELA.K12.EE.5.1

In this lesson, students create a fish tank for a fish supply company for a future sales campaign. They will use scale drawings and proportions to design the perfect fish tank.

• First, students have to complete a ranking activity of items that will be included in their scale drawing along with three types of fish.
• Next, students will conduct a pH lab activity to gain knowledge about how pH levels will affect population and the ecosystem within the tank.
• Finally, students will adjust their item selection and re-engineer their tank drawing to support their findings and additional information provided by the client. Students must determine what objects would be beneficial to the living things that the students chose in relation to available space and pH balance.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this MEA, students will work in groups to rank books using the following criteria: price, genre, number of pages, reading level and a summary provided for each book. The students must calculate the price for a class set of each book by multiplying each price by 20 students. There is a budget of $100. Students are then given a new budget and a new criteria and asked to re-evaluate their decision.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

This 5th grade MEA asks students to work as a team to figure out which product would be the best choice for their fundraiser for their field trip. They will compare vendors' products and rank the vendors according to which would be the best option for their school.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

Evan needs your help convincing his parents to rent a car for their family's vacation to Washington D.C. His parents are thinking of traveling in the family's old SUV that has no air and horrible gas mileage. Students will be asked to estimate each rental car's gas costs along with the weekly rental fee to rank the choices. In the twist, the students will be given safety information and must decide how to change their procedure with the new information.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

This series includes four parts focused on the Challenger explosion. Students will read President Reagan’s address to the nation presented on the evening of the Challenger Space Shuttle explosion in January 1986. Students will then analyze the speech and determine which relevant details support Reagan’s central idea. Additionally, students will complete close reading activities individually, with partners, and in small groups as they prepare to draft an expository essay outlining the relevant details that support Reagan’s central idea.

Type: Lesson Plan

Teams of students will use math to solve an open-ended, real-world problem to help their parent or caregiver choose the best babysitter. Students will apply mathematical skills of place value (two-digit number tens and ones) and counting to perform math calculations while analyzing data sets. This MEA will facilitate students demonstrating higher level critical thinking and problem solving during class discussions and in writing.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

Yum Pizza is looking for a better and healthier pizza to sell in stores around town. They are only able to promote one style and need help figuring out which one that should be. Students will practice subtracting dollar amounts and writing a letter explaining their reasoning.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

In the story Curious George and the Pizza Party (by Rey, H.A., and Margret Rey), Curious George attends a pizza party for a friend. Now the man with the yellow hat wants to plan his own pizza party for Curious George, but he needs the students' help. Help the man with the yellow hat use the data about the different pizza companies in his area to rank the options from best to worst, considering the toppings offered, crust options, prices, and customer satisfaction ratings. Then the students will use the special promotions from each pizza company and their math skills to figure out which pizza place offers the best deals. Each team of students will write letters to the man with the yellow hat explaining how they ranked the companies and why they chose their rankings to help him choose the best pizza for George's party.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will help choose the best value of connecting blocks by developing a procedure based on the following criteria: color, ease of use, variety of blocks, and number of blocks per set. They will reassess these blocks during the twist incorporating a new type of block. They will need to calculate the total costs of each set of blocks.

Students may arrange the criteria based on their teams’ interpretation of most important to least important. Students may have to make trade-offs based on these interpretations (i.e., price versus the other criteria in the data sets).

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

In the story Arthur's Pet Business, Arthur shows his parents that he is responsible enough to deserve a pet dog and his mom gives him permission to get one. However, Arthur needs your help choosing the perfect dog. Help Arthur meet all the requirements needed to find the perfect pet for his family from the research he shares with you about the breeds they are considering, taking into consideration size, shedding, barking, friendliness, etc. Then write a justification to describe why you chose the perfect pet for Arthur and his family.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students use problem solving skills, data sets presented in a chart, two and three digit addition, writing skills and money skills to determine which brand of jelly beans they would like to purchase. The jelly beans differ in taste, quantity, and cost. The students must then check their procedure to determine if it will work when given an additional piece of data.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this 4th grade MEA, students will work in groups to develop a procedure to rank which insect would be the best bug to farm for human consumption in the USA. Students will consider factors such as nutritional value, length of insect life cycle, stage of life cycle the insect can be served, notes from chefs, customer tasting notes, level of difficulty to farm, and price. This MEA allows students to apply scientific content, metamorphosis, in a real world application, while developing high-level problem solving skills.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this MEA, students will have the opportunity to apply what they learned about describing
the changes water undergoes when it changes state through heating and cooling. This MEA
is divided into four parts. In part 1, students will develop their hypothesis and receive
information on how to set up the cooler experiment. In part 2, students will use ice to test
the coolers they designed in Beat the Heat Engineering Design Lessons. Students will take
measurements and collect data on their cooler. In part 3, students will analyze the data
they collected. Finally, in part 4 they will develop a procedure for selecting the most
effective cooler to keep water frozen the longest at the beach. In the optional twist,
students will need to take the mass of the cooler into account.

This is a lesson in the Grade 3 Physical Science Unit on Water. This is a themed unit of SaM-1's adventures while on a Beach Vacation.  To see all the lessons in the unit please visit https://www.cpalms.org/page818.aspx.

Type: Model Eliciting Activity (MEA) STEM Lesson

In this MEA, students will have the opportunity to apply what they learned about describing
the changes water undergoes when it changes state through heating and cooling. This MEA
is divided into four parts. In part 1, students will develop their hypothesis and receive
information on how to set up the cooler experiment. In part 2, students will be asked to use
ice to test the coolers they designed in Beat the Heat Engineering Design Lessons.
Students will take measurements and collect data on their cooler. In Part 3 of this activity,
students will analyze the data they collected in Part 2 by drawing and interpreting a scaled
bar graph and line graph. Students will participate in a discussion about how to interpret the
data that was collected. Finally, in part 4 they will develop a procedure for selecting the best
cooler to keep water frozen the longest at the beach. In the optional twist, students will
need to take the mass of the cooler into account.

This is a lesson in the Grade 3 Physical Science Unit on Water. This is a themed unit of SaM-1's adventures while on a Beach Vacation.  To see all the lessons in the unit please visit https://www.cpalms.org/page818.aspx.

Type: Model Eliciting Activity (MEA) STEM Lesson

In this MEA, students will have the opportunity to apply what they learned about describing
the changes water undergoes when it changes state through heating and cooling. This MEA
is divided into four parts. In part 1, students will develop their hypothesis and receive
information on how to set up the cooler experiment. In part 2, students will be asked to use
ice to test the coolers they designed in Beat the Heat Engineering Design Lessons.
Students will take measurements and collect data on their cooler. In part 3, students will
analyze the data they collected. Finally, in part 4 they will develop a procedure for selecting
the best cooler to keep water frozen the longest at the beach. They will communicate their
findings and procedure via a letter to next year’s class. In the optional twist, students will
need to take the mass of the cooler into account.

This is a lesson in the Grade 3 Physical Science Unit on Water. This is a themed unit of SaM-1's adventures while on a Beach Vacation.  To see all the lessons in the unit please visit https://www.cpalms.org/page818.aspx.

Type: Model Eliciting Activity (MEA) STEM Lesson

In this MEA, students will have the opportunity to apply what they learned about describing
the changes water undergoes when it changes state through heating and cooling. Students
will be asked to rank coolers based on data to solve an open-ended, realistic problem, while
considering constraints and tradeoffs. In the optional twist, students will need to take the
mass of the cooler into account.

This is a lesson in the Grade 3 Physical Science Unit on Water. This is a themed unit ofSaM-1's adventures while on a Beach Vacation.  To see all the lessons in the unit please visit https://www.cpalms.org/page818.aspx.

Type: Model Eliciting Activity (MEA) STEM Lesson

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

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

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

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 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

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

This text resource from Cornell University includes brief information on the what, why, how, and when of documenting sources in a research paper. The resource provides information on what plagiarism is, when and how to document sources, the difference between primary and secondary sources, and definitions of the following words: documentation, citation, and reference. The resource also provides a quiz to identify whether the writing sample in each exercise uses sources properly.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area.

Type: Text Resource