Learning expeditions are the signature EL Education curricular structure. They make standards come alive for students. These long-term, in-depth studies offer real-world connections that inspire students toward higher levels of academic achievement. Learning expeditions involve students in original research, critical thinking, and problem solving, and they build character along with academic skills. All learning expeditions explicitly focus on building literacy skills particularly in reading and writing nonfiction text and writing from evidence.

CREATE for STEM is a Michigan State University-sponsored research institute with a broad mandate for Collaborative Research in Education, Assessment and Teaching Environments for the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.
CREATE has five major focus areas for its work: Creating and Investigating Change in K-16 STEM Education, Educational Policy in STEM fields, Discipline-Based Undergraduate STEM Education, Developing Innovative and Digital Materials, and International Engagement with the Global STEM Education Community.

Within each of these areas, we build interdisciplinary and intergenerational research groups, foster new talent, provide seed money for initial work and support the grant writing process. CREATE is also a hub for the exchange of information and ideas, sponsoring conferences, workshops, seminars, and visiting scholars to enhance the interest in STEM Education and develop capacity in these fields here at MSU.

This film features a cross-disciplinary project which resulted from a collaboration between a mathematics teacher and an art teacher, celebrating the beauty of both fields. Although its sub-title is Making Calculus Delicious, the math featured in the book is primarily geometry and algebra, with students creating artistic interpretations of mathematical concepts and formulas. The translation of mathematics to art promoted fresh conceptual discussion and creative thinking, and inspires consideration of the elegance in mathematics.

Data inquiry teams are teams of teachers that meet regularly to analyze student data, to reflect on student progress, and to create action plans that will improve instructional effectiveness. Data inquiry teams focus exclusively on analyzing data for the students they teach and developing plans for responding to the needs and strengths of individual students, groups of students, and particular areas of curriculum. However, data inquiry teams are part of a larger system for using data to raise student achievement and close achievement gaps. In EL schools, data is defined as information that has been systematically collected and organized to support analysis, inquiry, and decision-making.

Leadership teams increase the achievement and engagement of every student through continuous improvement of curriculum, instruction, assessment, and culture in alignment with the EL Core Practices and each school’s unique mission. They represent one form of shared leadership; model healthy practices in all interactions; and make leadership a function rather than a person in a school.

This film features an interdisciplinary project in which a student created the life history—fictional, but realistic—of a person—in this case, a young Deaf girl. In addition to addressing Common Core writing standards, the project explored the College and Career Readiness Habit, “They come to understand other perspectives and cultures.” The project provided a deep, transformational, real-world immersion into Deaf culture. The film itself is ASL-interpreted through picture-within-picture technology.

This resource provides mentors with strategies for fostering online relationships, planning conversations around school, and facilitating online interventions. There are three focus areas:
1. Creative relationship building
2. Structured conversations
3. Interactive interventions

Tenth grade students from San Diego, CA created a professional-quality book that fuses chemistry and history in an exploration of the power of chemical elements and compounds to shape our world. In science and humanities classes, students explored how chemical substances, such as carbon, have been instrumental in human progress and conflict.The book is illustrated with student-created, oxidized copper etchings. This film asks the question: What if learning in school was like learning in life?

Using the language of choice and giving students options builds maturity and ownership.

Created through a partnership between the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress, Chronicling America offers visitors the ability to search and view newspaper pages from 1690-1963 and to find information about American newspapers published between 1690"“present using the National Digital Newspaper Program.

ofrece las ltimas noticias de la ciencia. La clase de jueves proporciona nuevos planes y actividades de la leccin basados en una historia actual del ttulo y conecta la ltima investigacin de NASA con la instruccin. Pasados asuntos incluyen Buck Rogers, Cuidado!, Adis a la MIR, Despus de tres intentos, se retira La Nia?, y ms.

Ciensación fue creado con el apoyo de UNESCO Brasil para promover una cultura de experimentos cortos «para poner las manos en la masa» y una educación científica que estimule el desarrollo de habilidades.

El sitio web es un compilado de REA con actividades cortas de investigación —se llevan a cabo en menos de 10 minutos— que pueden incorporarse con facilidad a la enseñanza del día a día en las clases regulares. En vez de simplemente ilustrar conceptos científicos o fenómenos naturales, estos experimentos prácticos traen preguntas para que los alumnos se involucren en debates sobre la búsqueda de evidencias. Fueron elaborados para estimular el pensamiento crítico y las mentes curiosas y para que los alumnos sientan el placer de descubrir. En otras palabras: para enseñar ciencias como una actividad, como un arte fascinante que los alumnos querrán dominar.

Los docentes están invitados a publicar sus propios experimentos para «poner las manos en la masa» en Ciensación. Los experimentos enviados que pasen el proceso de revisión serán publicados como REA en portugués, español e inglés, bajo la licencia internacional Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0.

This video shows primary students using the Back-to-Back and Face-to-Face protocol as a simple and fun way for all students to get a chance to move, think, talk, and learn from others. The teacher first has students model: stand back-to-back with a partner, listen to the question and think, turn face-to-face, taking turns speaking and listening, then turning back-to-back. The class next practices with an easy question from personal experience, then with one that is text-based. This video is narrated by students, and can be shown to students to help them learn this simple routine for productive conversations.

This video shows primary students using a Science Talk protocol as way to collectively theorize, build on each others' ideas, work out thoughts, build literacy, and think, wonder, and talk about how things work. First, the teacher revisits the guiding question ("How does a spider's body help it survive?") and has students review information. She then reviews the Science Talk norms and has a small group of students model. She reviews sentence frames (e.g., "I agree with... because...") that will help students speak like scientists. Students then participate in Science Talks in small groups; the teacher circulates to listen, probe, and coach. We see students building on each others' ideas in a format that promotes equitable conversation. Finally, students reflect on their learning, revisiting the guiding question and the big idea (every part of a spider has an important function that helps it survive).

This video shows primary students learning and using the Think-Pair-Share protocol as a simple way for all students to get a chance to think, talk, and learn from others. Students first practice with an easier question from personal experience, and then with one that is text-based. This video is narrated by students, and can be shown to students to help them learn this simple routine for productive conversations.

This video shows primary students using an Interactive Word Wall, a protocol, with words related to the unit of study (both domain specific and academic vocabulary). Students manipulate the words as they discuss relationships among the words and ideas. There are many ways to use an Interactive Word Wall; this video shows students doing concept mapping. First, the teacher restates the guiding question "How does a spider use its body to survive?" She has students pantomime to review key ideas and vocabulary. She then reviews with students the purpose of concept mapping: to articulate how the words are related to each other. Next, students work in small groups, manipulating vocabulary cards and symbols (e.g., arrows, equals) that help convey the relationships. The teacher circulates to check for understanding, clarifying misconceptions, and push student thinking. The teacher ends the class with students reviewing other groups' concepts maps to give specific feedback on what they thought was strong.

This is the first video in a two-part series that features Sara Metz and her Kindergarten class at Explore Elementary in Thornton, Colorado. Using the EL Education Language Arts Curriculum and its Close Read-Aloud guide, Sara and her students engage in analysis of the text, Come On, Rain!, as part of a module on the topic of weather. Sara strikes a balance of rigor and joy as she guides her students through a carefully crafted sequence of text-dependent questions driving toward a focus question, total participation techniques to engage all learners, and a culminating task. To hear Sara describe her process, watch the companion video, Behind the Practice: Close Read-Aloud in the Primary Grades with Sara Metz.

This is the second video in a two-part series that features Sara Metz and her Kindergarten class at Explore Elementary in Thornton, Colorado. Using the EL Education Language Arts Curriculum and its Close Read-Aloud guide, Sara and her students engage in analysis of the text, Come On, Rain!, as part of a module on the topic of weather. Sara strikes a balance of rigor and joy as she guides her students through a carefully crafted sequence of text-dependent questions driving toward a focus question, total participation techniques to engage all learners, and a culminating task. To hear Sara describe her process, watch the companion video, Behind the Practice: Close Read-Aloud in the Primary Grades with Sara Metz.

Instructional coaching in EL schools increases the achievement and engagement of every student by bringing out the best performance of every teacher. Coaches use both student-centered and teacher-centered methods to help teachers improve the decisions they make about their instruction.