HOME BASE NCDPI-Vetted OER Resource Samples
Home Base: Mathematics Resources
Investigating Equivalent Fractions with Relationship Rods
This resource is a lesson plan, one of a multi-part unit from Illuminations, where students investigate the length model by working with relationship rods to find equivalent fractions. Students develop skills in reasoning and problem solving as they explain how two fractions are equivalent (the same length). Relationship rods are wooden or plastic rods in ten different colors, ranging in length from one to ten centimeters.
Base Ten Blocks
This is an interactive resource where students use base ten blocks to make the numbers shown on the screen.
What’s Poppin’?
This resource is a lesson plan in which students determine and compare weights and volumes of popped and unpopped corn to make predictions and solve problems.
Bubble Mania
This resource is a lesson plan where students are given opportunities to practice measurement skills as they examine a soap bubble print. Students follow a recipe to make a soap bubble solution. They use the soapy solution to blow large bubbles with a plastic drinking straw until they pop leaving behind a circular print. Students find the diameter, circumference, and area of the bubble print.
Growing, Growing, Gone
This resource is a unit plan which consists of several task involving linear and exponential models. This task in particular is a solidify understanding task for students to use their understanding of linear and exponential patterns of growth to model the growth of a population. Students are given two data points and asked to create both an exponential and a linear model containing the points. Students may draw upon their experience with arithmetic and geometric means to develop new points in the model. The task provides opportunities to create tables, equations, and graphs and use those representations to argue which model is the best fit for the data. The lesson begins on page 44.
Key Visualizations: Geometry
In this animation, students use transformations to show two triangles are similar. The resource also provides a teaching and question guide under the “About This Animation” heading.
NOTE: You will need to click on the play button to see the animation. Choose one of the transformations and the animation will begin.
Exponential Stations--Comparing Graphs
In this online activity, students learn about the parts of exponential functions by graphing groups of graphs in different stations and identifying similarities and differences of the graphs. Teacher video is also provided to help guide the lesson.
Home Base: Science Resources
Item ID: 389681 – Engineering for the Three Little Pigs
The purpose of this activity is to demonstrate the importance of rocks, soils and minerals in engineering and how using the right material for the right job is important. The students build three different sand castles and test them for strength and resistance to weathering. Then, they discuss how the buildings are different and what engineers need to think about when using rocks, soils and minerals for construction.
Item ID: 381891 – Exploring Cause and Effect Using Expository Texts About Natural Disasters
In this lesson students explore expository texts about natural disasters that focus on cause-and-effect relationships. As a class students record their understandings in a graphic organizer. Students then work in small groups and write paragraphs outlining the cause-and-effect relationships they have found.
Item ID: 380951 – Containers
This performance task assesses students' abilities to make and record measurements of temperature and probes their understanding of the concept of insulation. Hot water is poured into three containers (metal, ceramic, and plastic) and temperature is taken and recorded over a 10-minute interval to investigate the effect of different container materials on heat transfer and insulating capacity.
Item ID: 183691 – Antarctic Food Web Game
NOTE: You will need to click on View and the interactive will open in a new window.
This interactive resource provides students with information about the ways that energy flows through an ecosystem and how organisms are interconnected within a food web. Students are challenged to complete an Antarctic food web by placing producers and consumers in the correct position in the web.
Item ID: 116151 - Amusement Park Ride: Ups and Downs in Design
This STEM lesson plan outlines an inquiry-based activity where students explore the concepts of kinetic and potential energy as they design and test model roller coasters constructed from foam tubing. After completing the coaster, students will use math calculations to complete a cost analysis of production.
Item ID: 387611 – Organelles in the Cytoplasm
This video segment from "An Introduction to the Living Cell" explores some of a cell's most important structures. Supplemental resources, including a background essay and discussion questions, are also provided.
Item ID: 387681 – Organelle Matching Game
In this activity, students will create cards and play a matching game to identify the structure and function of the organelles of an eukaryotic cell. This is recommended as a reinforcement activity at the conclusion of a unit on cells. Instruction and resources to complete a webquest on the Cells Alive! website are also provided.
Item ID: 401381 – Using Properties to Identify Ionic and Molecular Compounds
In this activity, students will test the physical properties of several samples of compounds, such as melting point and conductivity to help them classify the chemicals as ionic or covalent compounds. The students will write their own set of procedures for the tests, and construct data tables to display their results. They will then write up the evidence and discuss its meaning in a formal conclusion.
Home Base: Social Studies Resources
Touring Ancient Egypt -
Life in Old Babylonia: The Importance of Trade -
Geological Time and Archaeology -
Creating a Mandala of Hindu Beliefs -
World Map (Interactive) -
Hieroglyphs and Communication -
The Cuneiform Writing System in Ancient Mesopotamia: Mesopotamia Timeline -
Egypt's Greatest Leaders -
Tracking Early Hindusim -
Home Base: English Language Arts Resources
Lit2Go :
The Great Fire:
Because of Winn-Dixie:
Breaking Down Complex Literature:
Using a Word Journal to Create a Personal Dictionary:
Analyzing Texts: Overview of a Lesson Series:
Double Entry Journals & Most Important Quotes:
SOAPSTone Analysis:
Home Base: STEM Resources
Marble Ride -
Faucet Flow Rate -
Title: / Dirty Water ProjectResource URL: /
Summary: / In this STEM activity, teams of students investigate different methods (aeration and filtering) for removing pollutants from water, then design and build their own water filters. Civil, chemical, and environmental engineers work together to develop new water treatment systems or to improve existing ones.
Title: / Keep-a-Cube
Resource URL: /
Summary: / In this STEM lesson plan students design a box that will keep an ice cube from melting.
Title: / Protect That Pill
Resource URL: /
Summary: / In this STEM activity, students reinforce their knowledge of the different parts of the digestive system and explore the concept of simulation by developing a pill coating that can withstand the churning actions and acidic environment found in the stomach. Teams test the coating durability by using a clear soda to simulate stomach acid.
Home Base: ARTS Resources
Tambuco Percussion
Among the finest percussion quartets today, the musicians of the three-time Grammy-nominated ensemble refuse to be tied down to one style, with a repertoire ranging from structuralist percussion music to a wide range of ethnic drum music and avantegarde sound interpretation.
Elements, Compounds, and Pigments
Essential Question: How did advances in technology during the Industrial Revolution affect the development of the new pigments used by painters? Abstract: Students will understand how the discovery of new elements (such as cobalt, cadmium, and chromium) in the 1700s and early 1800s led to the creation of new artistic materials, which led to the innovations in artistic style made by impressionist painters in the late 1800s.
A Folktale Play
Listening to folktales from around the world can enrich children's understanding of many cultures. Decide on a story with your children, and work with them to turn it into a play. Students will adapt a folktale into written dialogue.
Home Base: ESL Resources
The Language of Science: Sid the Science Kid Balancing Act
In this interactive activity, students will move cocoons and birds to balance the rod and fill up the bird feeder. There is a pop-up window which explains what a lever is and gives examples.
The Language of Science: Solids and Liquids
In this interactive activity, students drag and drop chocolate and other substances into a beaker and add heat to see what happens. Students can also click cool to solidify the melted substance. A quiz is available at the end of the activity. Audio provided.
The Language of Mathematics: Exponents
This multimedia mathematics resource includes a video that illustrates how math is used by paleontologists in the study of dinosaurs. An interactive activity allows students to sort and then order numbers that are expressed in scientific notation. A print activity about exponents is provided. Also, This interactive mathematics resource uses the scenario of a paleontological dig to allow the user to explore the laws of exponents. The resource also includes print activities, solutions, and learning strategies.This resource explores the meaning of positive and negative exponents. Students can complete patterns of base 10 exponents in different forms and then view the powers in a real world context. The resource also includes print activities, solutions, and learning strategies.
Home Base: HEALTHFUL LIVING Resources
The Body-Mind Connection of Stress
In this activity, students will fill out their own “physical reactions to stress” inventory and graph the class results. Then they will work in pairs to learn more about the body mechanisms that cause physiological stress symptoms, such as a fast heartbeat, cold hands, and dry mouth, or even longer-lasting symptoms such as a headache and sleeplessness. Finally, students will discuss their own reactions to stress and understand that many physiological stress reactions are part of the body’s normal functioning. Students will also look at ways of dealing with stress.
Crawford Washes His Hands
This video emphasizes the importance of hand washing. After gardening, Crawford the Cat sits down to lunch only to discover he has forgotten to wash his very dirty hands. He makes a quick trip to the bathroom and demonstrates a good and fun way to wash hands.
Island Basketball
In this activity, the class will be divided into two teams: the "Sharks," who play defense and the "Swimmers," who play offense. The "Swimmers" attempt to cross the ocean and avoid the "Sharks."
Home Base: WORLD LANGUAGES Resources
Mandarin Chinese Greetings
Students who view this video will learn expressions and etiquette to greet and address someone appropriately in a Chinese community. Students will watch and be able to learn how to say hello and ask and answer some simple questions about themselves and others. Students will be able to find out if someone is a student and where he or she is from. Students will view how to signal in a polite way that you are going to ask a question and compare the nonverbal gestures commonly used when greeting someone in Chinese and American communities.
Cicero, Oration against Catiline, I.1-2, Audio and Latin text
Cicero’s 1st Catilinarian (intro) read by Professor Richard Tarrant, Audio and Latin Text
The Bakeries of Mexico
In this lesson, students will listen to or read about bakeries in Mexico, types of pastries and bread baked daily. There are short and long passages with audio, scripts in Spanish and scripts in English. Short passages have about 125 words while long passages about 375 words. Included are comprehension questions and related links.
Home Base: FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT Resources
Title: / Finding Equations of Parallel and Perpendicular LinesResource URL: /
Summary: / This lesson unit is intended to help you assess how well students are able to understand the relationship between the slopes of parallel and perpendicular lines and, in particular, to help identify students who find it difficult to: Find, from their equations, lines that are parallel and perpendicular; Identify and use intercepts; It also aims to encourage discussion on some common misconceptions about equations of lines.
Title: / Assessing 2.G.1
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Summary: / This page contains items for assessing 2.G.A.1 including formative assessment tasks, a task rubric, exit tickets, and a teacher recording sheet.
Title: / NC FALCON Formative Assessment Plans: Science - 5.P.1.1
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Summary: / This formative assessment plan provides grade 5 science teachers with resources to assist students in demonstrating knowledge of force, motion, and the relationship between them. A template is included indicating learning targets, criteria for success, evidence collection activities, and evidence documentation samples. Common misconceptions and how to address them are also discussed. Educators will need to login to NC Education in order to access these documents. The first URL referenced links to the plan itself; the second URL links to the support document for the plan.
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