Notice, Wonder: Burton Island
A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!
Notice, Wonder: Tenzing
A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!
Power and Traditions
We compare the power of traditions shared by millions with smaller traditions shared by perhaps just one family.
Power in Autumn
Autumn was once powerful because of the harvest. What gives Fall its power now?
Power Can Be Fast, Slow, Loud, or Quiet
Power may seem loud and fast, but it can also be slow and quiet.
Power can be Visible or Invisible
What are examples of unseen Power? And can invisible power be more powerful than visible power?
Hero or Not A Hero?
Students will determine what makes a hero a hero.
Notice, Wonder: Brooklyn
A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!
New Uses For A Cardboard Tube
So, what can a cardboard tube be used for other than holding wrapping paper?
What’s In My Brain: Ball vs Book
Let’s look at Kinetic vs Potential Energy!
How to Reset Your Brain When You’re Flooded
Allison Edwards explains how changing your senses can reset your brain.
A Character’s Playlist
What playlist of songs best goes with a character’s change over time?
New Uses For A Chair
So, what can a chair be used for other than, you know, sitting in?
Notice, Wonder: Barringer
A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!
Categorize and Re-Categorize Animals
Put these animals into groups. Then do it again. Then… do it one more time. How does re-re-grouping the same creatures reveal new patterns and give new insights?
Discussing An Important Decision from History
How would people with two different perspectives discuss a decision from history?
Famous Structures
The Eiffel Tower, the Colosseum, the Sydney Opera House — group them, pick the best from each group, then design your own.
What’s In My Brain!? Walnut vs Clouds
Let’s look at living vs non-living things.
Notice, Wonder: Critter
A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!
Notice, Wonder: A House
A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!
Concept Attainment: Hornet vs Tiger
Can your class spot the vertebrates vs invertebrates?
Notice, Wonder: SLS Test
A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!
Plant Adaptation Tournament
Who will win in a tournament of eight plants with Interesting adaptations!?
Notice, Wonder: Bloom
A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!
Notice, Wonder: Skylight
A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!
Drawing Knots, Level 3
How to draw the final version of the twisty Henri Matisse knot!
Notice, Wonder: Krzywy Las
A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!
Notice, Wonder: Scales
A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!
Notice, Wonder: Swirls
A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!
What’s In My Brain: Owl vs Eagle
Some of these animals are nocturnal and some are diurnal.
Notice, Wonder: Green Circles
A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!
Notice, Wonder: An Orange Thing
A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!
Thinking With Art: Head Down
One artist, two paintings. Notice details, compare, synthesize, then find a parallel in another creator’s work.
Art Lesson: Two-Point Perspective
Let’s get students’ art really popping with two-point perspective!
An Escher-Style Tessellation Project
Create a piece of repeating art in the style of MC Escher!
Self Portraits Part One: Line Drawings
Anyone, yes anyone, can create a (somewhat) realistic self-portrait using these steps. Anyone!
Self Portraits: Pointillism
Turn your students into a bunch of Monets with q-tips and some tempera paint.
The Pros and Cons of Producers and Consumers
Sure, students might know the difference between a producer and a consumer… but have they considered how they feel about each other? What, in a producer’s opinion, are the pros and cons of a consumer?
Notice, Wonder: Kuiseb
A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!
Game: Snakes
In this grid-based strategy game, who will be the last to add to the snake?
Writing Sample: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Falling)
A passage from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.
Writing Sample: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Shrinking)
A passage from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.
Writing Sample: The Velveteen Rabbit (The Toys)
A passage from The Velveteen Rabbit to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.
Writing Sample: White Fang (The Wild)
A passage from White Fang to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.
Writing Sample: The Jungle Book (Bagheera)
A passage from The Jungle Book to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.
Notice, Wonder: A Long Line
A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!
Generalization: Change Leads to More Change
Can you think of a time in your life when “Change lead to more change?”
Order Can Be Natural or Constructed
When is order natural and when is it designed by people?
Generalization: Systems Are Made up of Other Systems
A clock is a system. So is a rainforest. So is your school. Once you see systems inside systems, you can’t unsee it.
How Renewable Is That Resource?
Which resource is more renewable? And which is easier to find?
Notice, Wonder: Akron
A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!
Writing Sample: The Wind in the Willows
A passage from The Wind in the Willows to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.
Writing Sample: Moby Dick
A passage from Moby Dick to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.
Writing Sample: Peter Pan
A passage from “Peter Pan” to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.
Writing Sample: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
A passage from “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.
Writing Sample: The Fall of the House of Usher
A passage from “The Fall of the House of Usher” to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.
Notice, Wonder: Climber
A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!
Writing Sample: Anne of Green Gables
An intriguing passage from Anne of Green Gables to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.
Notice, Wonder: A River
A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!
Notice, Wonder: Michael
A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!
Notice, Wonder: A Ship
A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!
Chomp
Chomp away at your opponent in this grid-based strategy game.
Game: Notakto
What if you only played Tic-Tac-Toe with Xs and you could play on multiple boards?
The Resiliency Tournament
Your students will set up a tournament to determine which person or character best demonstrated resiliency.
Academic Love Letters
What if Kylo Ren wrote a love letter to Abe Lincoln or the Sahara Desert wrote one to the Moon?
Content Imperatives: Paradox
How can one idea pull in opposite directions, being both true and false or right and wrong at the same time? It’s time to explore Paradoxes!
Depth and Complexity: 📚 Across Disciplines
No topic is an island! With the 📚 Across Disciplines prompt, students note connections within and across multiple fields.
Creating A Realistic Flower and Pollinator
Your students will create a new flower, designed to attract a specific pollinator.
Drawing Natural Curves Like Andy Goldsworthy
Andy Goldsworthy turns leaves and stones into art. Your students will learn to draw his signature natural curves — then build on them.
How to Play Go
Ready to learn a 2,500-year-old Chinese board game? Let’s… Go!
Reduce Anxiety: Brain Plate (Tool 3)
When a student’s brain is full of worries, everything feels urgent. Brain Plate helps them sort what’s real from what’s noise — and actually do something about it.
Reduce Anxiety: Change The Channel (Tool 2)
Reduce anxiety by learning to “change the channel.”
Reduce Anxiety: Square Breathing (Tool 1)
Reduce anxiety by breathing in a square pattern.
Building Brush Bots and Art Bots
What if we turned a tooth brush into a robot… that could do art?
Asynchrony: Developing At Different Rates (For Students)
For students! In some areas, a student may be shockingly advanced, while in others… surprisingly average. This is asynchrony in action.
Intellectual Intensity
Do you know someone who becomes a bit overexcited by ideas?
Think Like An Economist
How would an economist read Goldilocks? How would they see a rainforest? How would they study the American Revolution?
Engineering: Build A Bridge
Using real bridges as their starting point, students will construct bridges out of straws and paperclips.