People may participate in politics in many ways. They can write their Representative or Senator, or work in for a candidate or political party. They can make presentations to their local school board or city council, or call the police to complain about the neighbor's dog. Partly because of our federalist system, people have many opportunities to participate in our democracy on federal, state, and local levels. Some forms of participation are more common than others and some citizens participate more than others, but almost everyone has a voice in government.

A rubric in student language written for middle school students to self-assess biography presentations.

In this BrainVenture student take a look at the manatee and its environment in the Everglades of Florida. Students read and watch videos about the manatee then do a comparison of the sea cow and the cow. Students are also prompted to help save the manatees by writing a letter.

A look at two elephants that were at the Detroit Zoo. The elephants were moved to a reserve out in California. The Roadmap discusses the idea of keeping animals in captivity, especially elephants. At the end students will create a PSA.

In this lesson, the students will summarize their experiences in the Amazon rainforest by developing and presenting a briefing for a T.V. evening news program.

In this 6th grade seasonal lesson, students use teamwork to collectively press cider and learn about apples.

In this 6th grade science lesson, ESY staff bring visual aids and props to the classroom to teach guidelines for applying the school’s 4BEs (Be Safe, Be Respectful, Be Responsible and Be an Ally) in the garden. It is important that each student receive this lesson before they come to the garden for their first hands-on class.

Using their new skills in deconstructing advertisements, students will look at advertisements through the lens of gender.  Students will be encouraged to critically analyze the cultural stereotypes for men and women. Students will deconstruct advertisements based on gender representation.Rationale: Students will begin to see how believing in stereotypes can lead towards a negative self image for men and women.  This is Part 4 of a 5 part Unit: Media Manipulation: What Are They Really Saying?

This wiki page documents the STEAM Design Challenge Activity ISKME facilitated during the SLANT Summer Institute at San Francisco Unified School District July 19-23, 2010.Participants designed prototypes for an arts integration project for students and posted their ideas on the wiki.

In this 6th grade humanities lesson, students complete the seed to table cycle by preparing sautéed greens and serving them over grains that have been grown in the Edible Schoolyard garden.

Behind many of the apparently simple stories of Robert Frost's poems are unexpected questions and mysteries. In this lesson, students analyze what speakers include or omit from their narrative accounts, make inferences about speakers' motivations, and find evidence for their inferences in the words of the poem.