"He shall from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient."

— Article II, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution

The U.S. Constitution states that the President of the United States shall "from time to time" deliver an address to the Congress. The word "deliver" was interpreted differently from president to president, with George Washington doing so orally and in person, while Thomas Jefferson decided to have a letter delivered to Congress. Over time, however, presidents have needed and chosen to be in communication with the American public on a more regular basis. From telegraphs to television to Twitter, how, why, and when presidents address the nation and global community has changed across U.S. history. This lesson examines the messages and mediums used by presidents and asks students to engage in point of view and change over time analyses as part of their evaluation. Analyze presidential addresses in order to create inquiry questions for research and discussion.
Why do presidents deliver a State of the Union Address?
How have changes in technology affected how presidents communicate with the public and how the public communicates with a president?
To what extent do presidential addresses provide opportunity to develop civic and media literacy skills?
Analyze print and digital media sources to interpret motivations, messaging, and audience for presidential addresses.
Create a position statement on an issue that considers messaging, setting, means of communication, and audience.

In this video excerpt from NOVA, find out how the discovery of a gene defect has led to the development of a new drug to treat patients with cystic fibrosis.

Students learn why news matters and how to distinguish between the different media-related terms they might hear being thrown around.

This video from NASA describes the GLAST satellite, which is equipped with a gamma-ray telescope, and shares some background about the kinds of extreme universal phenomena indicated by the presence of gamma rays.

Generation Genius is a K-8 teaching resource that brings school science standards to life through fun and educational videos paired with lesson plans, activities, quizzes, reading material and more. Our videos are produced in partnership with the National Science Teaching Association (NSTA), and aligned to standards in all 50 states.

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In this animation produced by WGBH and Digizyme, Inc., see how bacterial plasmids are engineered to clone or express genes that code for proteins such as human insulin.

Following World War II, the international community declared ‘never again’ would we allow atrocities targeted against a group of people. They worked together to define genocide and agreed to intervene and stop any future such atrocities. In this lesson students research a case study and discuss with other groups which events qualify as genocide and decide what the appropriate international response should be.

GeoClimate is a developing community-based initiative that focuses on the importance of "deep time" for understanding today's climate and climate change. Earth's climate system operates on a continuum of temporal, spatial, and parametric scales. The deep-time geologic record preserves numerous examples of past climate transitions between states more extreme than those recorded in instrumental data, in historical records, or even in Quaternary archives. Critically, some of these transitions show evidence of having been abrupt--a major societal concern in light of the large changes currently occurring in atmospheric CO2 levels, which have now moved beyond the envelope of Quaternary variation, and into the realm of deep time. In this regard, an understanding of the details of large-scale transitions in deep time, and the processes involved in them, is critical to an informed assessment of future climate change.

Students learn about common geometry tools and then learn to use protractors (and Miras, if available) to create and measure angles and reflections. The lesson begins with a recap of the history and modern-day use of protractors, compasses and mirrors. After seeing some class practice problems and completing a set of worksheet-prompted problems, students share their methods and work. Through the lesson, students gain an awareness of the pervasive use of angles, and these tools, for design purposes related to engineering and everyday uses. This lesson prepares students to conduct the associated activity in which they “solve the holes” for hole-in-one multiple-banked angle solutions, make their own one-hole mini-golf courses with their own geometry-based problems and solutions, and then compare their “on paper” solutions to real-world results.

Kibera, a poor community, in Nairobi, was a blank spot on the map until recently. This video from Penn State Public Broadcasting’s Geospatial Revolution shows how geospatial technology enabled residents to map resources to help their community.

This brief Powerpoint lesson explains the ACP process for students, preparation needed for student conferencing, the process for family involvement, and other related expectation.

Students are challenged to think as biomedical engineers and brainstorm ways to administer medication to a patient who is unable to swallow. They learn about the advantages and disadvantages of current drug delivery methods—oral, injection, topical, inhalation and suppository—and pharmaceutical design considerations, including toxicity, efficacy, size, solubility/bioavailability and drug release duration. They apply their prior knowledge about human anatomy, the circulatory system, polymers, crystals and stoichiometry to real-world biomedical applications. A Microsoft® PowerPoint® presentation and worksheets are provided. This lesson prepares students for the associated activity in which they create and test large-size drug encapsulation prototypes to provide the desired delayed release and duration timing.

Paul Andersen attempts to explain Gibbs Free Energy. He begins by using three spontaneous reactions to explain how a change in enthalpy, entropy and temperature can affect the free energy of a system. He then applies this concept to cellular respiration and photosynthesis.

The Global Read Aloud Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed lends connects people globally through literature. The 80 slides take an instructor through six weeks of lessons integrating ELA Standards for literature and Information and Technology Standards.

Google Expeditions is an excellent app for giving students a virtual reality experience, allowing students to visit and experience new places and locations. This activity takes students on a virtual field trip through six different ecosystems. This resource was developed as a part of the Creating Lessons Using Transformative Technology - Platteville Public Schools OER Grant.

This lesson will ask students to think themselves as 'joy' dispersers, likening themselves to the different ways that seeds are dispersed. They will model both and reflect on how they 'spread' joy. One of the pursuits the people in these black literary societies worked towards was intellectualism. This means that they learn something but what they learned doesn't just sit there. It is used to change things, to see things differently or to get to know others and themselves. Another pursuit was joy. In this lesson, they will discuss how to spread joy from one person to the next so it will grow.

"In this lesson, students will learn the basic vocabulary of maps and the concepts of map projections and distortion. In exploring the Mercator and Peters' map projections, students will learn how looking at different projections can influence our thinking about the world."

A panel of experts from around the world, convened at the request of the National Science Foundation, announced 14 grand challenges for engineering in the 21st century. The challenges were unveiled on Feb. 15, 2008, at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting in Boston.

Granular materials--like sand, rice or powdered pharmaceuticals--are everywhere, yet their behavior is poorly understood. In some ways behaving like liquids, in other ways behaving like solids, such materials have unique properties and pose unique questions to answer. From clogged coal hoppers to powdered-snow avalanches, scientists and engineers are gaining new perspective on the fundamental nature of grains. In this video, see some of the latest research into the behavior of granular materials.

Students will learn how to graph linear equations using slope-intercept form. To do this, they will graph a line with their bodies using a giant coordinate plane created on the classroom floor. Students will also practice graphing similar equations to improve on the skill.