Middle School Resource

Interior Angles of a Triangle by Math Open Reference

This interactive web page demonstrates the properties of the interior angles of a triangle. The page shows a triangle where the user can drag the vertices to reshape it. As it is being changed, the angles are continually updated, along with an expression showing that they always add to 180°.

The web page can be enlarged to full-screen size for use with a classroom projector. After use in the classroom, students can access it again from any web browser at home or in the library with no login required.

Related NY State Academic Standards: 4.MD.5.a, 4.MD.5.b, 4.MD.6, and more!

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Middle School Resource

The End Of The Civil Rights Movement? by Discovery Education

In this activity, students will understand the following:

1. Close observation is an important tool for social scientists and for others who comment on American society.
2. The laws that leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. worked for are in place but don’t always determine how people interact with one another.

Related NY State Academic Standards: SS.8.9.a.1, SS.8.9.a.2, SS.8.9.a.3, and more!

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Middle School Resource

Heroes & Heroines by NGA

In this activity, students will look at works of art depicting military, religious, political, and everyday heroes and heroines and discuss their lives and the effects of their deeds. Teachers can use these lessons to introduce or examine in depth the concept of heroism through discussions of heroic actions and character.

Related NY State Academic Standards: NAS.VA.Cr1.2.7.a, NAS.VA.Cr2.1.8.a, NAS.VA.Cr2.3.8.a, and more!

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Middle School Resource

Managers of the Future

In this activity, students will develop problem-solving strategies and interact effectively with business partners.

Activity:

• Students are divided into groups. The teacher provides students with several pictures of people in different types of dress (e.g., business, casual, sloppy), and with the names of different occupations, mounted on heavy paper. (Have more pictures than occupations.) Students match the pictures of people (explaining they are only to look at dress) with the occupations they think they will hold.
• Teacher asks students why they made the specific matches, moving the discussion to professional images and the importance of “dressing for success.”
• Students identify the criteria for appropriate dress for business.
• Teacher and students identify one day as “Dress for Success Day,” and the students are to dress according to the criteria.
• Students discuss any reactions they had to their dress and how dressing up impacted their feelings toward their work (school work) and interactions with others.
• Students interview managers of community businesses concerning their roles and responsibilities. They also discuss appropriate and inappropriate behavior in the workplace.
• Teacher reads examples of possible “business–related problems,” and the students propose solutions. The managers talk with the students about their solutions.
• Students develop an “Appropriate Behavior Checklist” for the classroom.
• Students discuss both appropriate dress and behavior in the workplace.

Related NY State Academic Standards: W.7.7, W.7.11, CDOS.I.1.1.E, and more!

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Middle School Resource

Blackboards and Butcher Blocks

In this activity, students will gain information about the jobs available in the foodservice industry and demonstrate knowledge of basic accounting skills, product management, and health issues.

Activity:

• Students visit a local restaurant and get a behind-the-scenes look at a restaurant operation.
• The restaurant manager, or representative, conducts a career tour highlighting skills necessary for each job. Students record information on an inventory sheet with four columns. Headings include “Job Title,” “Responsibilities,” “Necessary Skills,” and “School Preparation.” (see Job Inventory Sheet)
• Students work with a local nutritionist and the school’s cafeteria manager to determine a nutritional meal for senior citizens that the students could prepare in the school’s cafeteria (with assistance and guidance from the cafeteria’s staff).
• Working with the restaurant manager as a mentor, students create a mock restaurant in the school cafeteria, hosting a meal for the elderly.
• Students complete the following activities:
  • establish a budget
  • order supplies (identify prices)
  • create advertisements and menus
  • develop spreadsheets for accounting revenues and expenditures
  • work with cafeteria staff on preparation of meal
  • set up the cafeteria as a restaurant
  • greet, seat, and serve senior citizens
  • clean up

Related NY State Academic Standards: HPF, HPF.FC.I.2, HPF.FC.I.2.1, and more!

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Middle School Resource

Origins of Hanukkah by History.com

This video, from History.com’s archives, focuses on the history of the Jewish holiday, Hanukkah.

Related NY State Academic Standards: SS.5.5.a.1, SS.6.4, SS.6.4.a, and more!

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Middle School Resource

Where Does It Come From? Where Does It Go?

Objectives:

In this activity, students will

• Gain an awareness of how work relates to providing for the needs and wants of a family.
• Be able to prepare a balanced monthly budget that provides for the needs and wants of the individual.

Activity:

• Students brainstorm how people support themselves financially.
• Teacher explains the purpose and basic components of budgets.
  • Food
  • Housing
  • Clothing
  • Utilities
• Students brainstorm other expenses they might need or want to include in a monthly budget.
• Students are divided into small groups to work on budgets. Each group is given a different situation (e.g., number of children, if any; amount of monthly paycheck after taxes) to use in creating a monthly budget.
• Students are provided with resources to use in determining their budgets.
  • Grocery ads
  • Clothing ads
  • Classified ads indicating various rents or mortgages
  • Cost information from local utilities
  • Internet sites with prices for various items (e.g., Peapod for groceries, clothing companies)
• Groups work to create monthly budgets based upon their resources and personal situations.
• Students present their budgets to the class, discussing each component.
• The class discusses the reasons for any variations. Teacher instructs students on how individual banking accounts, both checking and savings, work.
• Teacher explains how to write a check.
• Students are given blank, mock checks to use in “making their monthly payments.”

Related NY State Academic Standards: W.7.7, W.7.11, CDOS.I.1.1.A, and more!

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Middle School Resource

Classics for Kids: Beethoven: Symphony No. 8: Second Movement

In this activity, students listen to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 8 and read background information about the composer and the piece.

Related NY State Academic Standards: NAS.MU.Re7.1.3.a, NAS.MU.Re7.1.4.a, NAS.MU.Re7.1.5.a, and more!

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Middle School Resource

Karpeles Document: George Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation

Signed by President George Washington on October 3, 1789, this was the first national Thanksgiving Day proclamation under the Constitution. William Jackson authored the original draft.

Related NY State Academic Standards: SS.11.2.d.1, SS.SSP.4.1.7, SS.SSP.4.2.1, and more!

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Middle School Resource

Issues Presentations

In this activity, students work in groups of four. Each group is assigned an issue of concern to the school community. For example; the book bag ban, the dress code, the quality of school lunch food, the need for metal detectors, etc. Group members first agree on the side or stand they will take, then brainstorm the main arguments supporting that stance. They also brainstorm anticipated objections and propose counter arguments. Groups give ten-minute presentations and then field questions from the class.

Related NY State Academic Standards: SL.5.1, SL.5.1.b, SL.5.1.c, and more!

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