All Activities

Students learn about common inaccuracies in how slavery is taught and then strengthen their own knowledge and media literacy skills by working together to distinguish myths from facts, using credible sources.

Each student reads about a person who failed at first but later went on to achieve success. Students present 1 surprising fact about this person to the whole group, and the group tries to guess who the person is. This activity builds reading and summarizing skills as well as speaking and listening skills.

Students learn the warning signs of depression. They create a drawing, a poster, a public service announcement (PSA), or other work to communicate information about depression.

A well-known saying in business is “the customer is always right.” Unfortunately for many businesses and entrepreneurs, sometimes the customer decides that they no longer want to buy a product or items from a particular brand. Students will explore the history of certain brands that once were popular and successful but then declined or failed.

The Founding Fathers established the electoral college in the Constitution, in part, as a compromise between the election of the president by a vote in Congress and the election of the president by a popular vote of qualified citizens. Every state gets at least 3 electoral votes because a state's number of electors is identical to the total number of its senators and representatives in Congress. Seven states have the minimum 3 electors. Washington, D.C., also has 3 electoral votes because of the 23rd Amendment, which gave the nation's capital as many electors as the state with the fewest electoral votes. California has the most electoral votes with 55. Texas is next with 38. New York and Florida have 29 apiece. The founders were concerned that average Americans would lack enough information about the candidates to make intelligent choices. So informed "electors" would stand in for them. Has the electoral college become obsolete in the age of mass communication and a more educated citizenry? We will look at that question in this lesson.

Students examine modern "textspeak," an abbreviated and symbol-laden language, to communicate in electronic media. They read aloud "An Emoji Tale," a traditional fairy tale retold in textspeak, and practice writing in textspeak and interpreting one another's work.

Teams work together to solve clues and puzzles to escape from a room. This activity builds collaboration, creative thinking, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills.