Lessons

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  Seeing Eye to Eye with the Umpire

  6-8  |  Hands-On
  In this activity, students have an opportunity to compare the human system of calling balls and strikes with the electronic umpire system.
• 

  Endangered Languages

  6-8  
  This lesson introduces students to the science of linguistics and endangered languages.
• 

  The Illusion of Race

  6-8  |  Interactive
  The goal of this lesson is to have students investigate both genetic and societal consequences of these often-artificial and evolving classifications.
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  My School as a System

  6-8  
  In this lesson, students will explore systems; they will think about their schools as systems, focusing on a social rather than scientific understanding of the concept.
• 

  Lying

  6-8  
  In this lesson, students learn about many different aspects about lying—what it is, why we do it, and how we do it.
• 

  Exploring Learned and Innate Behavior

  6-8  
  This lesson explores the differences and similarities between innate and learned behavior and skills among humans and monkeys.
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  Environment, Technology, and Culture of the Chumash People

  6-8  
  In this lesson, students develop an understanding of the interrelatedness of technology, culture, and environment as illustrated by the Chumash culture.
• 

  Learn to Think Like an Archaeologist

  6-8  |  Hands-On
  In this lesson, students will practice artifact analysis and interpretation by studying prehistoric and historic artifacts.
• 

  Understanding Stereotypes

  6-8  
  In this lesson, students will confront age-related stereotypes, explore how stereotyping impacts their lives, and discuss how they can make changes to reduce overgeneralizations, unfair assumptions, and uncritical judgments about groups.
• 

  Belonging to a Group

  9-12  
  In this lesson, students will look at group behaviors, dynamics, and purpose.
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  Influencing Cultures

  9-12  
  In this lesson, students explore what factors influence a change in culture amongst a community or group of people.
• 

  Novice Drivers

  9-12  
  In this lesson students explore the concept of social trade-offs in the context of graduated driver licensing.
• 

  Social Class, Social Change, and Poverty

  9-12  |  Video
  In this lesson, students can begin to explore poverty and its implications on society and future generations.
• 

  Exploring Human History

  9-12  |  Website
  In this lesson, students will learn that anthropology is divided into four main subdivisions and anthropologists often work in more than one subdivision at the same time.
• 

  Immigration

  9-12  
  In this lesson, students will explore some of the effects that immigration in the United States has had on immigrants and American society as a whole.
• 

  Opinion Surveys

  9-12  
  This lesson introduces students to factors that can affect the accuracy of opinion surveys.
• 

  Population Dynamics

  9-12  
  In this lesson, students will consider the complex forces that contribute to the growth of the world’s human population.
• 

  Genes, Environments, and Behavior 1

  9-12  
  This lesson focuses on how behavior is defined by scientists and on the genetic and environmental forces that interact to shape behavior.
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  Genes, Environments, and Behavior 2

  9-12  
  This lesson helps students understand how scientists study the genetic and environmental factors that interact to produce variation in behavior across a population.

Tools

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  Chimps, Humans, Thumbs, and Tools

  6-8  |  Hands-On
  This resource is a lesson plan for teachers that includes hands-on activities to help students learn about tools.
• 

  Dexterity and Early Tools

  6-8  |  Website
  This resource from the PBS Evolution Library discusses how early stone tool making marks an important juncture in evolution.
• 

  Center for Desert Archaeology Exhibits

  6-12  |  Website
  This resource, developed by The Center for Desert Archaeology, consists of online exhibits that illustrate key concepts in preservation archaeology and the prehistory of the American Southwest and Mexican Northwest.
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  Conflict in the Modern World

  6-12  |  Website
  This module from the Making the Modern World website examines the role that conflict has played in the making of the modern world.
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  Exploring Nonverbal Communication

  6-12  |  Website
  This resource gives you a chance to learn more about nonverbal communication.
• 

  Graph Skills For Introductory Economics

  6-12  |  Interactive
  This resource provide a pretest for you to assess your graphing skills before embarking on an introductory course in economics.
• 

  Greek Vase Painting Project

  9-12  |  Website
  This project, created by an archaeologist and a ceramicist, is multidisciplinary in nature and introduces students to Greek vase painting and culture.
• 

  Migration Station

  6-12  |  Interactive
  This resource from the National Geographic uses a virtual train station to promote understanding of why people migrate.
• 

  Population Pyramids and Us

  6-12  |  Website
  Introduce students to a basic tool in demography—the population pyramid—which is used as a blueprint for interpreting the dynamics of a population.
• 

  African Language Diversity

  9-12  |  Website
  In this resource, students are introduced to the study of languages, known as linguistics, and explore the linguistic categorization of African languages—including an examination of the possible causes for, and effects of, such language diversity.
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  Can You Behave Randomly?

  9-12  |  Website
  Chris Wetzel, from the Rhodes College Department of Psychology, created this resource to help you understand the concept of randomness by having them try to behave randomly.
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  Economics Interactive Tutorials

  9-12  |  Interactive
  This resource, created by Samuel L. Baker of the University of South Carolina, consists of 13 interactive tutorials on economics.
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  The Economics of Income: If You're So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?

  9-12  |  Interactive
  These lesson help students explore the relationship between education and income.
• 

  The Economics of Voting: What Do You Mean, My Vote Doesn't Count?

  9-12  |  Website
  This resource explores the costs and benefits associated with voting in national elections from an economics perspective.
• 

  Economic Sectors and International Development

  9-12  |  Teaching Aid
  From EconEdLink, this resource is actually a lesson in which students, using poverty rate as a measure of development, compare how resources are allocated to three economic sectors: agriculture, industry, and service.
• 

  Estuaries: Finding the Balance

  9-12  |  Teaching Aid
  Students can use this resource from the National Geographic to examine the conflict between development and the environment by focusing on estuaries across the United States.
• 

  Kinship and Social Organization

  9-12  |  Website
  In this tool, students are introduced to kinship, defined as the most basic principle of organizing individuals into social groups, roles, and categories.
• 

  MapMachine

  9-12  |  Interactive
  This MapMachine resource from National Geographic provides maps of basically any location on earth.
• 

  Peanuts & Crackerjacks

  9-12  |  Interactive
  This tool teaches basic economics through the economics of professional sports (baseball, football, basketball, and hockey).
• 

  Thinking About Segregation and Integration

  9-12  |  Website
  In this resource, use a computer model to investigate how people tend to cluster into groups of similar people.
• 

  The United States/Mexico Border

  9-12  |  Teaching Aid
  In this lesson, students research daily life, industries, and the political situation along the United States/Mexico border.
• 

  Virtual Laboratories in Probability and Statistics

  9-12  |  Interactive
  The goal of this tool is to provide a set of web-based, standards-compliant resources for students and teachers of probability and statistics.

Science Updates

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  Kids & Marshmallows Revisited

  6-12  |  Audio
  Update on a landmark experiment that probes the roots of delayed gratification.
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  Marshmallows Revisited, Again

  6-12  |  Audio
  Children in the classic “Stanford Marshmallow Study” may have been more strategic than we thought.
• 

  Precise Negotiations

  6-12  |  Audio
  Using precise numbers may give you an advantage in negotiations.