Lesson Plans

Students research and create a brochure project on an endangered species of their choice integrating aspects of math, science, social studies, art, reading and writing. This project allows the students to make connections across the curriculum. Students present their ideas to a group of peers persuading the group to help save or become interested in helping the endangered species. Students are also encouraged to make connections between the activities of the human population and their effect on the natural world. 

This lesson results from a collaboration between the Alabama State Department of Education and ASTA.

Students will compare and contrast similarities between the eight different human blood types and be able to explain how these differences affect blood transfusions. Students will complete the online modules in The Blood Type Game and hunt for answers to a worksheet on The Red Cross website. After the lesson, students will be assessed with an online quiz on Quizziz. 

This lesson was created as part of a collaboration between Alabama Technology in Motion and ALEX.

Lesson author recommended by TIM Trainer Courtney Winn Hamilton.

Students will conduct survey-based research and compile data that compares the responses that the knights from The Wife of Bath's Tale received to the response of persons in modern day society.   

This is a College- and Career-Ready Standards showcase lesson plan.

Are cell phones really safe for humans to use frequently? In this mock trial lesson, students will use claim, evidence, and reasoning to construct a scientific argument on the safety of the electromagnetic waves involved in cell phone technology. During the lesson process, students will hold a “trial” and each individual student will construct their own written “verdict” based on the evidence presented at the mock trial.

This lesson results from the ALEX Resource Gap Project.

In this lesson, students construct balloon-powered rockets to launch the greatest payload possible to the classroom ceiling. Student teams receive identical parts to build rockets. Then the teams compete to launch the greatest number of paper clips to space (the ceiling).

By utilizing this lesson, the students begin to understand that the scientific progress achieved is not a static process but a fluid one that has developed and changed overtime.  They also begin to realize that scientific advancement has incorporated a variety of scientists throughout history and time periods.

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.

During this activity, the students will use drag and drop computer code to create an interactive ecological energy pyramid model that shows how the 10% law applies to the energy available at each trophic level.  As part of the hour of code, students can use this activity to participate in the Hour of Code week during their biology class.  

This lesson plan results from a collaboration between the Alabama State Department of Education and ASTA.

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.

This lesson will demonstrate that in order to find the coordinates of the special angles on the unit circle, students will need a knowledge of the first quadrant angles only. Students will use special right triangle relationships for 30° - 60° -90° or 45° - 45° - 90° triangles to find the first quadrant coordinate values. These values will then be reflected across the x- and y-axis to locate the coordinates in the remaining quadrants. Students will also convert the angle measurements from units in degrees to units in radians.  They will become familiar with finding angles in the quadrants by using reference angles (π-x, π+x. 2π-x).

This lesson results from the ALEX Resource Gap Project.

This lesson allows students to investigate functions and their inverses by hand and using graphing calculators.  Students will also use equations and graphs.  Students will collaborate to develop and justify ideas/conjectures about functions and inverses.

Students will create a Rube Goldberg Machine while working in a small group through this lesson.  They will then explain the energy transformations present in their own machine and in those of their classmates.  This will ensure their understanding of the law of conservation of energy as well as energy transformations.  

This lesson results from a collaboration between the Alabama State Department of Education and ASTA.

In this activity, students will model how the directness of sunlight affects the heating of Earth’s atmosphere at the equator. Students will demonstrate that Earth’s shape has a direct effect on the unequal heating of the atmosphere. The students will discover how the tilt of Earth’s axis affects the amount of sunlight that reaches different regions of the earth’s surface thus causing different seasons.

This lesson results from the ALEX Resource Gap Project.

After researching the formation of each type of rock, students use the evidence from knowledge of the rock cycle to write a story about a pet rock. The story will include the rock changing from magma to each type of rock including igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic. Students will present their pet rock story to the class.

This lesson results from a collaboration between the Alabama State Department of Education and ASTA.

This lesson will provide information that will prove the concept of sine and cosine is equal to the complementary angles of a right triangle. The lesson will examine the proper techniques for writing trigonometric ratios. The lesson will enhance background knowledge of proportions as well as use the terminology of means and extremes.

This lesson results from the ALEX Resource Gap Project.

This lesson is part of a larger unit dealing with Early American Literature. In this lesson, students will become familiar with the figurative devices and strategies used by 17th Century Puritan poets when creating closed or fixed form poetry. 

This is a College- and Career-Ready Standards showcase lesson plan.

The lesson will make the connection between isolating a guilty person in a “who-dun-it” with isolating a given variable in an equation. In addition, this lesson will involve students creating a list of procedures to use when solving for a given variable. At this time it is not necessary for students to know the formal names for the properties. It is important for students to understand the concepts and take part in creating a set of procedures for isolating a variable and solving equations.

This lesson results from the ALEX Resource Gap Project.

Students will construct 3-dimensional representations of each known element of the periodic table using cereal-sized boxes as their mediums. By creating these models, students will gain an in-depth understanding of their chosen element's discovery, history, unique properties, and place on the Modern Periodic Table. Students will also be able to identify and describe basic periodic trends.

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.

This lesson will lead students on a guided discovery to find the inverse of a function given the graph or a table of values. Students will relate the inverse of a graph to finding the reflection of the graph over the line y=x. They will identify characteristics of functions whose inverses are also functions (One-to-One Functions) and will be introduced to the horizontal line test. Students will also apply their knowledge of a graph to a table of values to determine if the table represents a One-to-One Function.

This lesson results from the ALEX Resource Gap Project.

In this hands-on activity, the students will become Linnaeus by dividing into groups to create their own "Six Kingdom" classification system using various types of fasteners.  They will group the fasteners based on similar characteristics and divide them into domains, kingdoms, phyla, classes, orders, families, genera, and species. They will also have to "name" each taxon for their classification system as well as give the scientific name for each "species" of a fastener.  

This lesson results from a collaboration between the Alabama State Department of Education and ASTA.

The lesson will begin by engaging students with a video of a natural landform in Alabama called Neversink Pit. Students will then research the natural and human-made causes and effects of sinkhole formation in Alabama. Lastly, students will create a video PSA to communicate information about sinkhole dangers and methods to protect people and property from sinkhole damage.

This lesson results from a collaboration between the Alabama State Department of Education and ASTA.

This lesson will lead students through a review of the proof of the Law of Sines. This proof will remind them that they can use the right triangle relationship for Sine to find the height of a triangle. They will then apply this knowledge to find the area of a triangle when given two sides and an included angle. Finally, they will be asked to find the area when no values are given. This result should produce the Area Formula for a triangle given two sides and the included angle.

This lesson results from the ALEX Resource Gap Project.

This lesson allows students to investigate the slope criteria and characteristics of perpendicular lines using graphing calculators and rectangle/square tiles.  Students will also use equations and graphs.  Students will work cooperatively to develop and justify ideas/conjectures.

This is a College- and Career-Ready Standards showcase lesson plan.

In this lesson, students are asked to provide a written description of both an exponential function and its inverse. They are then introduced to the logarithmic function and will practice writing exponential functions as logarithms and logarithms as exponential functions. Students will evaluate logarithmic expressions and will solve logarithmic equations.

This lesson results from the ALEX Gap Resource Project.

Students will be conducting a series of investigations in order to compare and contrast the various intermolecular forces that exist between compounds. First, students will rank 4 substances according to their melting points. Second, students will work together using the jigsaw research approach to understand the 4 types of intermolecular forces. And lastly, students will use the information gained to go back to their data collected and compare their original compounds and type of intermolecular bond they exhibit.

This lesson plan results from a collaboration between the Alabama State Department of Education and ASTA.

Students will consider the marketing campaigns of Gatorade to help identify what makes a substance an electrolyte.  Students will plan and conduct an investigation to test common ionic and covalent substances to determine if the substance is an electrolyte or non-electrolyte when dissolved in solution.  

This lesson results from a collaboration between the Alabama State Department of Education and ASTA.

Students will design an experiment to relate the voltage difference and current in a circuit. They will collect data, then create and analyze a graph in order to arrive at Ohm's Law. They will create circuits and determine the voltage difference, current, and resistance in the circuit using Ohm's Law.

This lesson results from the ALEX Resource Gap Project.

This lesson allows students to investigate the slope criteria and characteristics of parallel lines using graphing calculators and school staircases.  Students will also use equations and graphs.  Students will work cooperatively to develop and justify ideas/conjectures.

This is a College- and Career-Ready Standards showcase lesson plan.

This lesson is designed to teach the students that some quadratic equations will have imaginary solutions. The lesson will examine the concept of complex numbers in terms i. The student will use the quadratic formula to solve the equations and write the the solutions in the form a +bi.

This lesson results from the ALEX Resource Gap Project.

In this activity, students try to work their way out of a circular maze, thereby modeling the movement of a photon as it travels through the radiative zone of the sun. Classroom discussion after they complete the activity is focused on the Standard Solar Model and its importance in further scientific studies of the sun. 

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.

This lesson provides a review of evaluating functions and finding function rules as well as an introduction to the composition of functions. The review is accomplished through the use of an online exploration using a function machine. The idea of a function machine is also used to explain the composition of functions. Instruction is provided in finding the composition using several different representations of functions (input/output tables, graphs, and function rules). 

This lesson results from the ALEX Resource Gap Project.

In this lesson, students will gather quantitative information to construct a graph to show the period trends in electronegativity, electron affinity, and ionization energy. Once the trends are recognized, they will construct a model of these periodic trends using the Alabama Science in Motion Lab (Periodic Trends: Graphs and Straws). 

This lesson results from a collaboration between the Alabama State Department of Education and ASTA.

This lesson will require students to research the Big Bang Theory and the three main pieces of scientific evidence that support this theory. After students complete their research, they will engage in all steps of the writing process, including prewriting, outlining, revising, and editing. At the conclusion of the lesson, students will create a five paragraph argumentative essay to examine the Big Bang Theory and the scientific evidence that supports this theory.

This lesson results from a collaboration between the Alabama State Department of Education and ASTA.

This lesson will provide an introduction to finding the inverse of a function or a relation. Through a combination of teacher-led instruction and collaboration, students will discover a method for finding the inverse of a function or relation. The use of an online graphing calculator will aid students with their discovery.

This lesson results from the ALEX Resource Gap Project.

Students will be motivated to learn how to build new linear functions from existing linear functions.  Students will bring pictures of themselves and their parents from home to personally involve them in the lesson.  Students will learn to use the patterns inherent in functions to quickly and accurately graph linear functions.  This lesson will only deal with vertical shifts and the steepness of the line.  Horizontal shifts will be dealt with in future lessons. In addtion, in future lessons  students will transfer this knowledge to also graph exponential, quadratic, and absolute value functions.

This is a College- and Career-Ready Standards showcase lesson plan.

This lesson is an introduction to Binomial Expansion and the Binomial Theorem. Students begin by expanding binomials using multiplication. They will examine the expansions looking for patterns. These patterns will be used to develop the Binomial Theorem. Both Pascal's Triangle and Combinations will be used to complete the Binomial Expansion.

This lesson results from the ALEX Resource Gap Project.

Students will be able to locate the sun by using the Hertzsprung-Russel diagram to plot the sun's location.  This lesson can be an opening activity, review activity, or a quick lab.

This lesson results from a collaboration between the Alabama State Department of Education and ASTA.