This article describes the features, adaptation, nutrition, hybernation habits of one of the most typical German animals: the hedgehog. It also explains how to take care for hedgehogs that would not survive the winter and how to provide natural winter shelter for wild hedgehogs.The text is written for natural speakers age 8 and up.

This scientific article focuses on the adaptive capabilities of animals using the example of the Ichtyosaur. It first explains how the Ichtyosaur found a new territory with better survival chances in the sea and, thus adapted its bodily features to life in the sea. It then explains how the Ichtysaurus eventually lost the competition over food to a new species, which was better adapted and of comparable size. In consequence the Ichtysaurus died out long before the mass dying of dinosaurs.

This scientific article provides anatomical features and the adaptive advantages of those features of owls and giraffes. The text is written for native speakers 9 years and up.

This scientific article iluminates with three different examples, how animals produce venom and for which reason: poison dart frogs absorbs it by feeding on venomous plants; spitting cobras produce their own venom within the system; puffer fishes probably eat bacteria that produce the venom. The text is written for native speakers 9 years and up.

The article attends to three topics: 1. the smallest dinosaur in the world found in Bavaria, 2. the largest dinosaur found in Bavaria, and 3. types of rhinoceros that lived in Bavaria. Each part has a link to more detailed information on an additional page. The text is written in child-friendly language and appropriate for children age 8 and up.

This cross-curricular lesson combines Social Studies and Language Arts to demonstrate how the study of an historical topic can be developed to make learning nonfiction more exciting, and also improve fluency and comprehension. This project about Benjamin Franklin includes a series of lessons in which the students: 1) read for information from multiple texts, 2) write a script for a Readers Theater play, 3) read for expression and fluency by using their script, 4) enhance their reading with visual arts, and 5) demonstrate dramatic interpretation through role-play. This approach engages students throughout in active participation and collaboration. Included are many supporting resources, such as a read-aloud rubric, an audition sheet, and ideas for student assessment and reflection.

Students are presented with an opportunity to investigate one of North Carolina's great mysteries, the Lost Colony of Roanoke. They are tasked with an application process to research various theories. Throughout the study/unit, students gain an understanding of a key event in their state's history. They are able to share and teach others about this mysterious event. They develop the understanding of looking for key details and clues to make connections with various theories, relating to the work of a CSI detective/forensic scientist.

Students read and discuss a magazine article about Earth Day. They discuss environmental problems that affect their daily lives and brainstorm ways to make every day Earth Day by making small changes that have a big impact on the environment.

Students will read a passage and examples, and then write to answer questions and apply a strategy based on the passage. This resource supports English language development for English language learners.

Students will research lighthouses of North Carolina using print and digital resources and create a digital presentation on the NC lighthouse of their choice. After studying basic electric circuits, students will use cardboard and Makedo tools to design and build a model of this lighthouse and wire it to light using a kit of electronic supplies. Students will showcase their final products with friends and family using digital photography, Google Presentations and a screencast video on Flipgrid or another platform of the teacher’s choosing. Students will submit a Seesaw documenting their experience with the Design and Engineering Process while building their lighthouse.

This is a multi-day culminating activity based on unit 3 of the 4th grade Wonders curriculum. Students will work in groups to research a given landmark in Beaufort County, NC. After researching the landmark, they will record their data in the Google Slides presentation attached in the lesson for each landmark. After recording their research, students will use the DASH Robots to move throughout the Beaufort County, NC map, stopping at their destination. Groups will then use the DASH Robots to record audio of themselves describing the landmark. A rubric accompanies this activity so teachers have guidelines on how to assess student work.

NCpedia is an online encyclopedia that covers a broad spectrum of topics and resources about North Carolina, including: historical time periods, subjects, and events; biographies; geography and environment; business and economy; historical places and monuments; natural resources and natural heritage; and many others. NCpedia also includes thousands of images. NCpedia's articles are all written by trusted contributors that include professional and independent historians, librarians and archivists, museum professionals and many subject specialists.

Students are introduced to our planet's structure and its dynamic system of natural forces through an examination of the natural hazards of earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, tsunamis, floods and tornados, as well as avalanches, fires, hurricanes and thunderstorms. They see how these natural events become disasters when they impact people, and how engineers help to make people safe from them. Students begin by learning about the structure of the Earth; they create clay models showing the Earth's layers, see a continental drift demo, calculate drift over time, and make fault models. They learn how earthquakes happen; they investigate the integrity of structural designs using model seismographs. Using toothpicks and mini-marshmallows, they create and test structures in a simulated earthquake on a tray of Jell-O. Students learn about the causes, composition and types of volcanoes, and watch and measure a class mock eruption demo, observing the phases that change a mountain's shape. Students learn that the different types of landslides are all are the result of gravity, friction and the materials involved. Using a small-scale model of a debris chute, they explore how landslides start in response to variables in material, slope and water content. Students learn about tsunamis, discovering what causes them and makes them so dangerous. Using a table-top-sized tsunami generator, they test how model structures of different material types fare in devastating waves. Students learn about the causes of floods, their benefits and potential for disaster. Using riverbed models made of clay in baking pans, students simulate the impact of different river volumes, floodplain terrain and levee designs in experimental trials. They learn about the basic characteristics, damage and occurrence of tornadoes, examining them closely by creating water vortices in soda bottles. They complete mock engineering analyses of tornado damage, analyze and graph US tornado damage data, and draw and present structure designs intended to withstand high winds.

This is a project that was worked on in a group to come up with a short lesson for a science lesson in a fourth grade classroom. This project focuses specifically on being able to see how land changes and develops over time and applying this knowledge.

This informational text introduces students to photosynthesis and lichens-plant-like organisms resulting from a symbiotic relationship between an alga and a fungus. The text is written at a grade four through grade five reading level. This version is a full-color PDF that can be printed, cut and folded to form a book. Each book contains color photographs and illustrations.

Students will work or in learning teams to design and build a cardboard ship bow using Makedo tools to transform their desk or a copy paper box into a pirate ship for the classroom museum. Students will research historic North Carolina pirates including Blackbeard using multiple print and digital texts to prepare a written entry for their exhibit.Family and other classes will be invited to view the museum.  Students will share their experience with the Design and Engineering Process through class discussion and by publishing a digital record of the DEP on Seesaw.

Students listen to a read aloud of a children's science book and watch a short video on how plankton migrate in the ocean. Students write a poem describing their feelings about what they heard and saw.

The teacher will introduce students to the two web articles with perspectives about slavery (one from the perspective of a slave and one from the perspective of slave owners).  Then the higher level will have a discussion about the two perspectives. Higher-level students will write a R.A.F.T, assuming a ROLE and using the R.A.F.T and the rubric to guide their writing.  This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.