Authentic Lessons for 21st Century Learning
In this professional development session, participants discover how various instructional strategies can be used as authentic tools to create and facilitate student-centered lessons with the 5E Instructional Model. Individually, participants will choose a component of the 5E Instructional Model (Engage,... Read more »
Created by: Lindsay Hawkins
Date Updated: November 10th, 2021
This 9th Grade Campus Visit Activity focuses on increasing students’ postsecondary education (PSE) awareness and preparation. Participants will recognize the factors that influence the accessibility of PSE options, identify solutions for funding PSE, and create actionable steps for increasing their... Read more »
Created by: Lacy Pennington
Date Updated: May 19th, 2021
The Parent Leadership Academy designs and engages a school team consisting of parents, community members, and school leaders to forge the commitment and involvement of parent-school-community partnerships. This event will lead and educate the parent leadership teams through a data driven decision-making... Read more »
Created by: Lindsay Hawkins
Date Updated: September 14th, 2020
This session provides an overview for staff at site recipients of 2018 GEAR UP projects. Through a series of activities, staff will be introduced to the K20 Center, understand what GEAR UP is, share the value of authentic teaching and learning, and also communicate the value of college-going culture. Read more »
Created by: Jane Baber
Date Updated: November 9th, 2021
This professional development activity is designed to introduce participant educators to the components of project-based learning (PBL). The professional development immerses the participant in a mini-project based learning and then introduces the essential components. Participants are also given... Read more »
Created by: Susan McHale
Date Updated: December 18th, 2020
The Creating 5E Lessons PD focuses on familiarizing participants with the 5E instructional model. The goal of the session is to immerse participants in an authentic 5E activity with an emphasis on each element of the 5E model. Participants will identify and describe the components of a 5E lesson and... Read more »
Created by: Robyn Hilger
Date Updated: July 15th, 2021
This Authenticity and Chromebooks professional development session focuses on the relationship of authentic instruction and technology implementation in the classroom. Participants will identify, analyze, and apply components of authenticity in lessons and activities to further their pedagogical knowledge. Read more »
Created by: Chelsee Wilson
Date Updated: October 21st, 2021
This session focuses on using strategies and questioning techniques that will actively engage young students in the learning process. Read more »
Created by: Lindsey Link
Date Updated: March 16th, 2022
This professional development session applies research-based practices to support the use of educational technology (EdTech) in the classroom. Through exploring Scratch coding on a Raspberry Pi, 3D printing with TinkerCAD, and Swivl robots, participants will connect EdTech to science and engineering... Read more »
Created by: Lindsay Hawkins
Date Updated: October 27th, 2021
In this GEAR UP Overview session, high school faculty and staff will be asked to identify the activities and experiences that students need to be prepared for a career and postsecondary education. They will also recognize how GEAR UP supports schools and their staff in creating these experiences. Read more »
Created by: Lindsay Hawkins
Date Updated: May 7th, 2021
This activity aims to prepare faculty to design effective, technology-integrated project-based learning (PBL) experiences that leverage the opportunities afforded by a robust Makerspace or STEM lab. It is based on the "Design a Project" Project-Based Learning PD, which introduces participants to the... Read more »
Created by: Christina Naruszewicz
Date Updated: July 21st, 2021
This professional development session focuses on instilling an understanding of the framework of authentic learning through multiple tools, such as the 5E Model and LEARN Strategies, while keeping in mind the Oklahoma Academic Standards for Mathematics. The interactive session will give participants... Read more »
Created by: Brittany VanCleave
Date Updated: November 19th, 2021
This professional development session focuses on authentic instruction and implementation of technology in the classroom. During this session, participants explore the K20 Center Mentoring Team’s materials, resources, and activities through a digital breakout session. Participants will have an opportunity... Read more »
Created by: Lindsey Link
Date Updated: November 11th, 2021
Participants will actively engage in formative assessments and reflect on how formative assessment strategies can be used in their specific content area and with their students. Read more »
Created by: Lindsey Link
Date Updated: October 29th, 2021
This professional development session applies research-based practices to support the use of educational technology (EdTech) in the classroom.Through exploring Scratch coding on a Raspberry Pi, 3D printing with TinkerCAD, and Swivl robots, participants will connect EdTech to science and engineering... Read more »
This professional learning session will focus on how to incorporate a love of reading and student choice into all classes. Participants will explore a variety of authentic strategies that support reading comprehension, substantive conversations, and student choice to gain a deeper understanding that... Read more »
Created by: Patricia McDaniels-Gomez
Date Updated: February 16th, 2022
College and career readiness is a predictor of a student’s success in postsecondary endeavors. Critical thinking and analysis are two powerful skills that support college and career readiness. In this session, participants will be placed in the role of their students and be asked to explore and apply... Read more »
Created by: Patricia McDaniels-Gomez
Date Updated: April 4th, 2023
In this session, participants will learn about the benefits of postsecondary education scholarships, identify potential scholarships that could benefit their student(s), and review the requirements for the FAFSA. Read more »
Created by: Allie Bishop
Date Updated: July 6th, 2023
Students explore the top 10 benefits of continuing their education after high school through an interactive overview. Students are given a brief introduction into the seven year GEAR UP grant and take a class photo. Students also participate in student stations that include: a note to their future... Read more »
Created by: Lindsay Hawkins
Date Updated: September 14th, 2020
This 9th-grade campus visit focuses on increasing students’ postsecondary education (PSE) awareness and preparation. Students will recognize the factors that influence the accessibility of PSE options, identify solutions for funding PSE, and create actionable steps for increasing their chances of success... Read more »
Created by: Lacy Pennington
Date Updated: July 18th, 2022
Through small-group activities, research, and discussion, students will be exposed to a variety of careers, along with their average salaries, educational institutions, and postsecondary requirements. Students will learn about a variety of jobs in eight career clusters and the educational institutions'... Read more »
Created by: Patricia McDaniels-Gomez
Date Updated: September 22nd, 2023
Students will listen to an engaging speech and record their thoughts. Students will then choose a topic of their interest and write down all they know about the topic in a two-minute paper. Students will learn more about preparing a speech and discuss their learning with their peers. They will create... Read more »
Created by: Daniel Schwarz
Date Updated: October 21st, 2022
In this first ACT prep reading activity, students will focus on setting a goal for a future ACT. First, students review and reflect on the ACT process of superscoring. Then students review their existing reading scores before setting a goal to reach on the ACT and the reading test when they take the... Read more »
Created by: Laura Halstied
Date Updated: August 11th, 2023
After reading a poem and article about the death of an African American man, students read an article about the death of an African American boy and write an elegy for him in response. While this lesson is currently aligned only to 9th grade standards, it would be appropriate to teach in grades 9th... Read more »
Created by: K20 Center
Date Updated: June 21st, 2023
Reading & Writing Poetry
Students will need prior knowledge of the six principles of the Constitution for this lesson to be successful. During this lesson, students will deepen their understanding of the six principles of the Constitution. The lesson begins with a video, then uses a Gallery Walk and discussion. Lastly, students... Read more »
Created by: K20 Center
Date Updated: September 23rd, 2020
Government: Six Principles of the Constitution
This lesson utilizes a current events video that allows students to investigate federal policies towards Native Americans. This lesson pairs well with discussions over the transformation of the West during the nineteenth century. To ensure success of this lesson, students will need to have some background... Read more »
Created by: Chelsee Wilson
Date Updated: February 27th, 2023
Native Americans in the U.S.
In this lesson, students will connect to the essential question, "What do the effects of life events look like?" through the skill of summarizing. To answer that question, students will summarize a slam poem, a short story, and a recent Presidential speech. To make a personal connection to the skill... Read more »
Created by: K20 Center
Date Updated: June 26th, 2023
Summarizing
To assist students in their ability to determine a theme in literature, this lesson will introduce the concept of theme by using a children's book, although any piece of literature can be used with this lesson. Students will listen to a children's book, collaboratively distinguish between topic and... Read more »
Created by: K20 Center
Date Updated: June 14th, 2023
Themes in Literature
This lesson is designed to take place after completion of another K20 lesson, "Arguing With Evidence." Students will read an article from the New York Times and integrate knowledge of key terms to construct an argument based on a claim, evidence, and reasoning. Read more »
Created by: Keristy Nieto
Date Updated: June 28th, 2023
Part 2: Constructing Arguments
This lesson explores the stories in history that are often forgotten. Frequently, textbooks include the "winners" of history, but the stories and perspectives of the "losers" of history are left out. Students will explore those stories in this lesson and look at all sides of history in an attempt to... Read more »
Created by: Chelsee Wilson
Date Updated: June 28th, 2023
Teaching Perspective in the Social Studies Classroom
Elements of an Essay
In this lesson, students will engage in multiple independent and group strategies to both identify and analyze essential structural elements of an essay. By doing this, students will both practice and gain a clearer perspective of how to write with greater clarity and effectiveness. Read more »
Created by: Jane Baber
Date Updated: August 10th, 2023
This lesson should be taught as a culminating project after the novel "The Great Gatsby" has been read completely. In this lesson, students will explore the essential question "What can one's observations about a person reveal about their character?" to create a multimodal composition that explores... Read more »
Created by: Jane Baber
Date Updated: August 10th, 2023
The Great Gatsby and the Sense of Sight
This lesson provides an overview of the key events and concepts of the Vietnam War. Using hands-on activities and discussions, students are able to explore the vocabulary and multiple perspectives of the war. This lesson is meant to be taught after this era and subject have been introduced to students.... Read more »
Created by: Chelsee Wilson
Date Updated: June 26th, 2023
The Vietnam War
In this lesson, students use drawing to help them understand key events and analyze the mood and style of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart." Read more »
Created by: K20 Center
Date Updated: June 5th, 2023
Using Drawing to Understand an Author's Style
Students will discover the three different types x-intercepts that happen on polynomial functions. Read more »
Created by: K20 Center
Date Updated: August 17th, 2023
Polynomial Graphs
Rethinking the Words of the Declaration of Independence
Students, working in groups, use a "paired-text" strategy to analyze letters between Abigail and John Adams and the song "The Schuyler Sisters." Students create a "third text" by creating a hypothetical conversation between Abigail Adams and Angelica Schuyler regarding political and social issues facing... Read more »
Created by: Sarah Brewer
Date Updated: April 18th, 2023
Rethinking the Words of the Declaration of Independence
How do you persuade others? How did the characters in Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" use ethos, pathos, and logos to sway the minds of the Roman people? This lesson explores the three modes of persuasion and invites students to analyze and notate the speeches in Shakespeare's tragedy for ethos, pathos,... Read more »
Created by: Chelsee Wilson
Date Updated: June 12th, 2023
Julius Caesar
Students will use primary sources to explore and help them explain the Boston Massacre. They will compare two images depicting the event and draw conclusions about what happened based on what the artist chose to depict. Students will examine the roles of perspective and propaganda with regard to the... Read more »
Created by: K20 Center
Date Updated: September 29th, 2020
Primary sources
Through collaborative research, students will locate, evaluate, and create effective, engaging hooks for a variety of texts. Students will also write a personal narrative and share their openings with fellow classmates. While this lesson is currently aligned only to 9th grade standards, it would be... Read more »
Created by: K20 Center
Date Updated: June 14th, 2023
Writing Personal Narratives
This lesson focused on the understanding of alternation of generations in plants, and began by examining non-vascular plants, including mosses and liverworts. It is intended for a botany or a phylogenic science class, and is not intended for introductory biology classes. Read more »
Created by: K20 Center
Date Updated: August 28th, 2023
Alternation of Generations: Non-Vascular Plants
This is an introduction to karyotypes and what uses they have. Prerequisite knowledge would be basic genetic structures, such as chromatids, genes, and alleles. Using this lesson would lead nicely into having a discussion/next lesson about the ethics of gene therapy and CRISPR in humans. Read more »
Created by: K20 Center
Date Updated: August 28th, 2023
Karyotype for Chromosomal Disorders
Students will employ a variety of reading strategies to analyze the poem, "The New Colossus." Their analysis will determine the author's perspective. This lesson also offers technology options for teachers, who may choose to use a Kindle E-reader, Google Doc, or Google Expeditions. While this lesson... Read more »
Created by: Susan McHale
Date Updated: April 12th, 2023
Determining Author's perspective
This lesson addresses rules for exponents. Students will discover the rules for exponents through an exploration of numerical expressions and visual representations of exponents. Prerequisites for this lesson include an understanding of the components of an exponent. This lesson allows students to explore... Read more »
Created by: Amber Stokes
Date Updated: July 12th, 2023
Exponent Rules: Digital Breakout
Observing a polyurea-coated watermelon dropping from a 148-foot drop as a phenomenon, students will develop an understanding of how the coating is formed via a chemical reaction and what properties make the substance so durable. Through models and observational data, students will explain how the molecular... Read more »
Created by: Heather Shaffery
Date Updated: March 15th, 2023
Chemical Properties and Reactions
Students will make observations of various plants and animals to determine how their environments meet their needs. They will then decide which animal would make the best class pet and design a living environment for that animal. Read more »
Created by: K20 Center
Date Updated: March 4th, 2021
Ecosystems
In this lesson, students will look at phenomena using a weather simulation in order to learn more about descriptive statistics and measures of central tendency. The lesson focuses on extreme weather in different parts of the United States. Read more »
Created by: Cacey Wells
Date Updated: November 9th, 2022
Measures of Central Tendency
Literacy Practices
In this lesson focused on literacy practices, students engage in a variety of reading strategies. Students consider their reading processes before discovering annotation techniques, and then read and annotate a short story and craft a multimodal response. Read more »
Created by: K20 Center
Date Updated: June 12th, 2023
In this lesson, students will learn about the concepts of growth mindset and neuroplasticity, how to identify their own mindsets, and methods to change them. Students will play through Advance U: The TALENT Machine, a digital game-based learning (DGBL) module, to explore these concepts in an interactive... Read more »
Created by: William Thompson
Date Updated: June 28th, 2022
Mindset and Neuroplasticity
In this lesson, students toss balls of trash, or "trashballs," into the trashcan, recording their shooting percentage at various distances from the basket. With distances measured and percentages figured, students create a scatter plot and a line of best fit to make a linear model of the shooting skills... Read more »
Created by: K20 Center
Date Updated: November 17th, 2022
Scatter Plots and Lines of Best Fit
Students will investigate animal behavior by conducting experiments to see how worms respond to stimuli. Read more »
Created by: Danny Mattox
Date Updated: May 17th, 2022
Animal Behavior
This lesson invites students to think about what they know about nouns, verbs, adjectives, and other components of a sentence. Students study a picture prompt and work as a class to compose sentences describing it. Then, students practice diagramming their sentence by drawing color-coded "train cars"... Read more »
Created by: K20 Center
Date Updated: September 29th, 2020
Composing Grammatically Correct Sentences
In this financial literacy lesson, students will explore the need to plan for retirement and discuss the amount of money that will be needed to retire comfortably. Students will investigate traditional ways to save for retirement, including personal savings, Social Security, mutual funds, 401K, IRAs,... Read more »
Created by: Susan McHale
Date Updated: January 24th, 2023
Standard 6: Planning for Retirement
In this lesson about the growth and development of organisms, students will gather evidence from research about specific plant phenomena, then use research and in-class investigations to explain the relationship between environmental conditions and plant growth. Activities throughout the lesson will... Read more »
Created by: Heather Shaffery
Date Updated: August 28th, 2023
Growth and Development of Organisms
Students develop questions about the phenomenon of wolf reintroduction into Yellowstone National Park. They explore published data to explain how different organisms interact to change the entire park ecosystem. Using this students take the role of a community member to engage in a role-play and provide... Read more »
Created by: Heather Shaffery
Date Updated: May 11th, 2022
Ecosystem Interactions
Students will construct a watershed and discover how water flow impacts humans. IMPORTANT NOTE: Parts of the lesson are adjusted to meet each grade level's specific standard, so be sure to do the parts that correlate with your grade level. Read more »
Created by: K20 Center
Date Updated: September 25th, 2020
Earth and Human Activity
This lesson is the first in a series of lessons, Wave Inventions, related to light and sound waves and inventors. In this lesson, using household objects, students will plan and conduct investigations to provide evidence that vibrating materials produce sound. The lesson will culminate with students... Read more »
Created by: K20 Center
Date Updated: September 30th, 2020
Sound
In this lesson, students use their prior knowledge to identify shapes and their attributes. "What Shape is it Anyway?" provides students with ample group discussion as well as individual assessment. The end goal of this lesson is to have students correctly identify, sort, and explain their understanding... Read more »
Created by: K20 Center
Date Updated: August 4th, 2021
Shapes
Colonial History
This lesson compares the various roles that colonists played in the Southern Colonies. Students will begin by examining the economy of the Southern Colonies. They will then compare various roles within the Southern Colonies and will write a RAFT strategy prompt to share what they learned about the colonists. Read more »
Created by: K20 Center
Date Updated: September 17th, 2020
Colonial History
Students will use protractors to discover, identify, and define angles and lines. Using vocabulary developed through this activity, students will identify different types of quadrilaterals. Read more »
Created by: K20 Center
Date Updated: September 14th, 2020
Angles and Quadrilaterals
In this lesson, students discover what tax dollars are used for and evaluate which tax-funded community services they feel are important. These services include libraries, police and fire departments, roads, water/sanitation services, and schools. Read more »
Created by: K20 Center
Date Updated: September 21st, 2020
Taxes and the Community Services They Provide
In this lesson, students will begin by analyzing two images depicting the conflict at the Washita River to generate hypotheses about what happened during this historical event. Next, students will read and analyze an article and complete a corresponding history frame graphic organizer. As an extension,... Read more »
Created by: Sarah Brewer
Date Updated: April 12th, 2023
The Indian Wars in Indian Territory
In this lesson, students learn to compare and contrast geographical features found among different regions in the United States. Students will then apply these skills by comparing their home state's features with those of another state in the nation. Read more »
Created by: Delia Gietzen
Date Updated: May 31st, 2023
In this lesson, students will explore and explain why plants lean toward a window and discuss other adaptations of plants. This lesson can take up to six weeks if you choose to study the full plant growth cycle with students. Read more »
Created by: Delia Gietzen
Date Updated: April 2nd, 2021
Plant Adaptations, Growth, and Tropisms
Computer programming helps young learners to understand how to think things through step-by-step, solve problems, and make adjustments based on feedback. There are many great resources now for both online and offline coding and using algorithms to solve problems for learners of all ages. These lessons... Read more »
Created by: Teresa Lansford
Date Updated: February 17th, 2022
Programming and Algorithms
During this interactive science lesson, students will learn about the patterns of the moon and lunar phases. Over the course of one month, students will observe the moon, look for patterns, and make predictions about the changes in the moon each night. Read more »
Created by: Lindsey Link
Date Updated: May 5th, 2023
Phases of the Moon
Students will investigate the similarity of reproduction, embryonic development, and DNA sequences to illustrate the indirect evidence for evolution. This lesson is adapted for a middle school class. Read more »
Created by: K20 Center
Date Updated: August 28th, 2023
Evolution: Embryonic Development