This website was created by the Utah State Board of Education and includes information regarding development of instructional coaches.

This article helps educators answer questions about geometric thinking and the activities that develop it. It outlines the 3 levels of thinking about shape and space and the 5 phases of activities known as the van Hiele model. The tangram puzzle provides a vehicle for describing these phases and the types of thinking students achieve in each one. The article concludes with a suggestion about followup activity.

The author presents detailed lessons for engaging students in contrastive analysis and exploring code-switching in words by Zora Neale Hurston, Lorraine Hansberry, Harper Lee, and others.

Students practice data collection by gathering data within the classroom on common causes of allergies. They examine and interpret data charts on national trends in allergies.

This problem demonstrates the power of the 100 square (Hundred Chart) in helping children to recognize number properties and in beginning to reason carefully and form conjectures. Students look at sums of numbers located in a certain configuration within squares of the grid. There is a link to a printable hundred chart.

Students compare the traits fact and fiction by using a Venn diagram to compare fiction and nonfiction books about Native Americans.

An expert describes the carbon composition of diamonds, as well as the conditions necessary for diamond formation in this video segment from Nature.

Fanny Kemble was very troubled by slavery and wrote of her Georgia experiences in her diary. She was a renowned British Shakespearean actors performing in the United States when she caught the attention of Pierce Butler of Philadelphia. While Butler thought of slaves as tools for getting work done, Kemble thought of lost liberty. She was repulsed by the harsh conditions and treatment of slaves she witnessed, and spoke on their behalf as well as recording her thoughts in her diary, which was later published and helped rouse anti-slavery sentiment in the North.

This task supports students in correctly writing numbers. Because students have to trace the number, instead of coloring in a bubble with the number in it or circling the correct number, they gain handwriting practice as well as counting and addition practice.

This collection of 6 games develops place value, operation sense and fluency, estimation, and strategic thinking. It is played on paper with a 6- or 9-sided die (printable pdf game sheets included). Players choose a game grid with empty cells representing the digits of a computation (addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division). They take turns rolling a die and placing the resulting number in a cell on their own grids. The goal is to create a sum/difference/product/quotient that is closest to a target number. Variations include using a decimal point and scoring options. Teachers' Notes include suggestions for introducing the game, discussion questions, support suggestions, and a link to a more challenging extension (Countdown, cataloged separately).

This video segment from Greater Boston examines whether environmental toxins may be to blame for a rare skin disease.

The goal of this task is to interpret the mathematics behind a famous story from ancient mythology, giving rise to linear and quadratic expressions which model the story.

C3. Inquiry based lesson plan that includes several links and additional resources. Students evaluate why immigrants came to the U.S. and their experiences once they arrived at Ellis Island. Includes links to virtual tours of Ellis Island, primary sources (photographs), a poem to analyze, and an interactive resource that details immigrants' experiences. Excellent extension offered that connects wtih immigrants in present day.

Students analyze primary source texts, including excerpts from the Federalist papers, to investigate the purposes of the Necessary and Proper Clause, the ways in which the separation of powers limit government, and how factions and personal liberties affect the functioning of government. Next, students will write an essay or produce another type of product to answer the question the lesson title poses. Then students will create and deliver brief persuasive speeches in support of how our current federal government is either functional or dysfunctional.

This is a final lesson in a unit teaching German food and drink vocabulary and restaurant customs and vocabulary. Students will review the target vocabulary and create a story to present to the class and demonstrate their knowledge of the vocabulary and understanding of German restaurant customs.Utah World Languages Core Standards for ProficiencyLearning Indicator NH.IC.5I can interact with others in everyday situations.  c. I can order a meal.Learning Indicator NM.PS.2I can express my likes and dislikes using words, phrases, and memorized expressions.  c. I can state my favorite foods and drinks and those I don't like.Learning Indicator NM.PS.5I can present simple information about something I learned using words, phrases, and memorized expressions.  c. I can talk about animals, colors, foods, historical figures, or sports based on pictures or photos.Thumbnail photo "Woman buys fruits at a German food market in Munich Ludwigsvorstadt-Isarvorstadt" by verchmarco is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

This is an infographic that shows the differences between the Federalists and the Antifederalists are vast and at times complex. Federalists’ beliefs could be better described as nationalist. The Federalists were instrumental in 1787 in shaping the new US Constitution, which strengthened the national government at the expense, according to the Antifederalists, of the states and the people. The Antifederalists opposed the ratification of the US Constitution, but they never organized efficiently across all thirteen states, and so had to fight the ratification at every state convention. Their great success was in forcing the first Congress under the new Constitution to establish a bill of rights to ensure the liberties that the Antifederalists felt the Constitution violated.

In this video segment from Nature, learn about six different breeds of cattle.

In this segment from Curious, learn about creating energy from solar rays to meet the growing energy needs of the world.