Guide to Curriculum Units by Fellows of the Yale National Initiative 2026

by Shannon Allison

Throughout American history, groups have struggled to fully realize the ideals of equality, popular sovereignty, and limited government as promised in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. People got angry and were compelled to act—to fight for their rights. Advocates pushing for greater reforms have changed the country. One lesser-known group, the National Indian Youth Council, brought young Native American students together in the 1960s and 1970s, using direct action and community programming to change history. The NIYC sparked the Red Power Movement, established native students as political forces, defended treaty rights, and paved the way for self-determination.

This unit focus on how democracy, through direct action and community programming, by way of fish-ins and environmental activism, reaffirmed tribal sovereignty and pushed for self-determination. Background information on federal Indian policy is provided to orient the learner on how federal policies created challenging conditions for Native people to survive and thrive throughout history.

Consequently, the unit adds a missing voice to the study of social advocacy in the United States and provides a modern indigenous voice to the curriculum.

(Developed for Social Studies, grade 8; recommended for American History and Native American Studies, grades 8-11; and American Government, grades 8-12)

by Tina Berry

Students explore the history of the 1960s and the impact of protests, rallies, and demonstrations associated with the Civil Rights, Voting Rights, and Equal Rights movements through art, music, and writing.  Instruction is aligned with the Oklahoma Academic Standards for Visual Art, which emphasize artistic expression, cultural awareness, and the communication of diverse perspectives through a variety of media.  Historical movements show evidence that the most successful protests and demonstrations were carefully planned and organized, and students will learn about individuals and groups who led these efforts. Students will discover that many influential activists and participants were of a similar age, helping to make meaningful connections between the past and present. Through the study of screenprinting and printmaking, students will examine different perspectives on these movements and consider how art and visual communication inspire social change and civic engagement. Students will design and print flyers, signage, buttons, and posters. They will create a visual tri-fold presentation of their various prints, along with a culminating piece of art that reflects their perspective on the movement of their choice.

(Developed for Art; recommended for Art, History, and Civics, grades 8-12)

by Shondra Cooper

The New Resistance: Protest through Performance is an integrated 5-6-week Literacy and Social Studies unit that was created for 7th and 8th grade scholars. The goal is for scholars to evolve from casual consumers of media to proactive civic change-makers. The unit is designed for teachers to use regional music and writings based on their geographical location along with other supplemental materials they feel is relevant. Scholars will research how youth have been framed as threats in the media throughout history, despite evidence that shows they have been at the forefront of many protests that have changed the country. They will also analyze how these biased narratives negatively framed our youth in addition to public policy. Lastly, scholars will express their "protest" through creative mediums, including song, photography, drama, and visual art in a public showcase.

(Developed for Reading and Social Studies, grade 8; recommended for Reading and Social Studies, grades 7-8)

by Raven Dorman

Representation takes on many meanings in this unit—statistically speaking, it refers both to those represented in a population sample as well as the ways in which students choose to represent the data in visual form to persuade the dissenting or apathetic population. Further, representation refers to the cultural relevance students will experience seeing themselves in young changemakers of the past, and in turn, envisioning themselves as the new kids who can investigate ideas and articulate their findings. 

At the outset of the unit, the teacher will create a shared community experience as students engage in polling community members about prescribed topics. Students will follow a process through which they refine an investigative statistical question while grounding their knowledge of statistical terms and processes in experiential learning. Students will be presented with various representations of statistical data from freedom movements led by young people. Before diving into mathematical representations such as scatterplots and histograms, students will be presented with pictorial representations.

To conclude the unit, in keeping with the spirit of the Freedom Schools and community organizing principles, the teacher will model for students how to generate questions and help them determine routes of investigation. Students will then decide how to represent their data to change-makers and stakeholders visually, using traditional graphs and/or infographics, and in writing. The culminating activity aims to illustrate to students how representations of data can serve to legitimize the claims and concerns of young people who might otherwise be written off as idealistic and irrational.

(Developed for Algebra I and Math 8, grade 8)

by Erik Harris

Anchored in the history of racial segregation, this unit aims to teach students about the causes and consequences of the Freedom Summer of 1964. After analyzing the Freedom Schools that were established by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to help Black Mississippians exercise their right to vote, students will explore the history of segregation in Richmond, Virginia and determine similarities and differences between the history of those two places. From there, students will identify major issues facing their communities today and design their own version of a Freedom School within the modern context. This unit relies on historical analysis to contextualize the Freedom Schools within the Civil Rights Movement, but it becomes interdisciplinary as students are encouraged to focus on any modern problem that speaks to their passions and to be creative in designing a lesson to teach the class.

(Developed for AP African American Studies, grades 10-12, recommended for African American Studies and U.S. History, grades 9-12, and AP U.S. History and AP African American Studies, grades 10-12)

by Mark Hartung

This unit will start with a wide historical lens and then quickly focus on more local and more recent examples of student protest and activism. Using the course readings students will begin their journey looking at the Civil Rights Movement and the prominence of youth activism in the formation of SNCC and the involvement of the Bennett College women in sit-in protests. In addition, students will have the opportunity to look at an overview of black youth activism in the United States from the 1930s onward. Once students have learned about the long history of youth activism, they will begin to look at more recent events such as the HIV/AIDS crisis, the Black Lives Matter protests, the push for LGBTQ+ equal rights, and the conflict with immigration control, specifically

ICE activities. Students will examine what makes a college or high school campus a unique place to foment protest, and see examples of students their age (and a bit older) using their voices to fight for their rights. High school students can be limited in what methods are available to them because they are still minors, but they are far from voiceless and optionless. I want my students to know this and to know that they are following in worthwhile footsteps when they use their voice and take action. As mentioned above these examples will come from either the Bay Area or where necessary California at large, because I want this to be relevant and I want them to see what students like them can accomplish.

(Developed for World History, grade 10, and U.S. History, grade 11; recommended for Ethnic Studies, grades 9-12)

by Debra D. Jenkins

This curriculum unit is designed for Emergent Bilingual students at Hearne High School and grew out of my participation in Rod Ferguson’s seminar, The Kids Are Not the Threat. This unit asks students to consider who belongs, whose voices are heard, and why some young people are viewed as problems rather than possibilities. It asks students and educators to consider instead how young people are often misunderstood or blamed when the deeper failures are systemic and institutional.

Students will read selections from The Freedom Writers Diary, explore student narratives, examine the work of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Freedom Schools, and the Civil Rights Movement, and make connections to contemporary youth movements. They will consider how ordinary young people have organized, challenged injustice, and created change.

Through close reading, collaborative discussion, reflective writing, multimedia analysis, Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats, and evidence-based argument writing, students will strengthen their literacy skills and learn to communicate their ideas with confidence. The unit concludes with a civic action project in which students identify an issue that matters to them and develop an advocacy campaign or proposal for change.

(Developed for English I and II, ESL, and ESOL, grades 9-12; recommended for English I and II, ESL, and ESOL, grades 9-12)

by Willie J. Keener, Jr

In this unit, students will learn how people in fine arts and athletics used their voices to make a difference during the Civil Rights movement. This will be rooted in what was happening in Texas during this period. Students will also make real-world connections. Students will conduct research at an all-Black school named Blackshear in Hearne. That was during the time of segregation in the 1950s or 60s. This is one of the topics that will be selected because the students will learn about it; it is closed and no longer utilized, but it's still standing. Doing research on Blackshear will give students some background on what was going on in their own community at that time.

(Developed for Art/Photography, grades 5-12; recommended for Art/Photography, grades K-4)

by Jaimee Mendillo

This 8th-grade curriculum unit connects the history of youth activism to the conviction that young people are not a threat to democracy, but among its most vital defenders. Students first survey the national wave of youth organizing from the 1950s through the 1970s: from the roots of the sit-in movement through Black Power, anti-war organizing, and parallel movements including women’s liberation, Latino organizing, and gay liberation, learning to analyze how institutions respond to youth-led change through a “Shut It Down” (suppression) versus “Water It Down” (co-optation) framework. The unit then turns to New Haven’s own history, tracing a throughline from 1950s urban renewal through the Hill Parents Association, the Hillhouse High School rebellions, the Northern Student Movement, the Black Panthers and May Day 1970, and into more recent organizing around police accountability, institutional accountability, voting rights, and climate justice. Students build a map of New Haven across the unit, layering historical sites of youth organizing and Yale’s expansion alongside present-day essential and desirable resources, making visible the connections between historical decisions and present-day disparities. The unit culminates in a civic design project, in which students identify a real disparity in their own city and design an evidence-based proposal for change, applying historical and strategic thinking developed throughout the unit.

(Developed for United States History II, grade 8; recommended for United States History, grade 10)

by Christopher Snyder

In this unit, my students and I will be looking into both small and large ways that we can be activists and advocates for change. Our unit will focus first on how we can use the disciplines of the creative arts (visual art in particular) to make positive impacts on the immediate world around us. We will delve into this through an examination of various artists, our school community, our neighborhood and city. Grounded in a people-first perspective, we will inspect the ways artist-activists around the world use creativity and their work to enact positive and lasting differences. We will be asking ourselves how we can use our creativity to make our communities more welcoming, inclusive, and equitable places. We will consider the different localities of impact - from our neighborhood all the way up to the globe. How can we advocate, through art, for the acceptance and dignity of all humans? How can artmaking and creation make us all feel safer physically, emotionally, and spiritually as well as making us feel more connected to our world, nation, communities, and families? Most importantly, how can we use art and artmaking to find joy in an often-hurtful world?

(Developed for Elementary Visual Art, grade 5; recommended for Visual Art and Social Studies, grades K-12)

by Kati Steiner

This unit, designed for high school seniors, suggests that students have power to control the spaces in which they spend their time and to peacefully resist those who try to take those spaces from them. Students will learn to look with their eyes (and ignore what they think they see in favor of what’s in front of them,) listen with curiosity, read critically, and consider not only what they see and hear but what they do not see and hear; what voices and perspectives are missing. The curriculum covers the concept of third places, brief history of student resistance over space and place, Philadelphia specific history of resistance over spaces, and asks students to use what they know about history to change their own realities in terms of the places and spaces they occupy.

(Developed for English 4, grade12; recommended for English, grades 11-12)

by Sandy Alvarez

The United States has long been a country of immigrants and today has over 50 million foreign-born residents. For nearly a century, the immigrant share of the U.S. population has had a visible impact on the curriculum in certain public schools. Bancroft Elementary School—one of the District of Columbia’s top bilingual schools, notable for its large population of recent immigrants from Central America—has adapted to the changing demographic and embraced a bilingual model. The curriculum unit “Why Are We Bilingual? U.S. Intervención en Centroamerica” will address how districts and schools approach bilingual education. Students will answer the question: “When and why did Bancroft become a bilingual school?” They will connect immigration, the school’s demographics, and bilingual education at Bancroft. Because Bancroft has many students from Central American countries with migration patterns directly tied to U.S.-backed wars and economic and political intervention, this unit will explore the U.S.’s role in Central America. The curriculum will also address how the U.S. received immigrants from Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala and describe the dual and discriminatory immigration policy toward these groups based on the U.S.’s Cold War politics. Given that Bancroft originally launched its bilingual program to serve the language needs of immigrant students predominantly from El Salvador, several lessons will focus on El Salvador.

(Developed for English Language Arts, grade 1; recommended for English Language Arts, History, and Social Studies, grades 1-12)

by Veronica Arroyo

This three-week unit is designed for high school level English Language Development (ELD) students transitioning into mainstream English courses. Using the memoir Solito by Javier Zamora students will learn about the complex historical and political relationship between El Salvador and the United States in addition to exploring the narrative structure and elements that Zamora employs within his memoir. Through the course of this unit, students will take a close look at narrative structure, the use of descriptive details to enhance meaning, and the role that conflict plays in developing characters within a narrative. After identifying and analyzing these narrative elements, students will write a vignette-style narrative vividly describing a moment in either their own or a family member’s migration journey.

It is important to note that three weeks is not sufficient time to read the entire memoir. If instructors plan to complete this unit within a three-week timeframe, they should identify key excerpts from each chapter before beginning the unit and provide students with additional context and summaries for sections that are not read in class.

(Developed for ELD 4, grades 9-12; recommended for ELD 4, grades 9-12; English 1, grade 9; and English 2, grade 10)

by Virginia Pinzón Atkins

This unit explores Latinx identities through a diverse collection of cultural texts, poetry, and visual art. Students begin by examining the concept of borders as both physical and symbolic. They explore how borders influence identity through family, culture, and lived experiences. The roots of the unit shift by examining how family histories, cultural traditions, and personal memories shape a sense of identity and belonging. Through the works of Sandra Cisneros, Rudolfo Anaya, Esmeralda Santiago, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Carmen Lomas Garza, and others, students discover that identity is grounded in the people, places, and experiences that define who we are.

Throughout the unit, students read and analyze real-world resources in Spanish. Students discuss ideas with their classmates as they analyze each reading from different perspectives. Students also explore how symbolism and cultural representation deepen their meaning of identity. Connecting literature to their own lives, students engage learning strategies through close reading, reflective writing, and visual analysis. The goal of the unit is to help students engage with language as a living expression of identity rather than simply an academic skill. Guided by the principles of culturally responsive teaching, students strengthen their interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational communication skills while reflecting on their own identities. By the end of the unit, students will know that identity is shaped not only by the borders people encounter but also by the roots that continue to connect them to family, culture, and community.

(Developed for Spanish II, Spanish Honors II, and Spanish AP, grades 9-12; and UD 306 Latin American Civilization, grade 11; recommended for Spanish I, III, IV, and V, grades 9-12)

by Nancy Bonilla

Rooted in the historical context of Chicana feminist activism and Mexican American labor migration to Chicago, the curriculum provides a mirror for minority students. It guides them to examine their own ancestral roots and layered identities. This unit explores how the concept of "home" evolves throughout Sandra Cisneros's book, The House on Mango Street, examining protagonist Esperanza's transformative journey from shame and rejection of her community to acceptance and integration. Students will trace this evolution while connecting it to their own lived experiences of belonging, identity, and displacement. The House on Mango Street validates students' emerging understanding that home is multifaceted and deeply personal. In New Haven's culturally diverse student body, many students navigate complex relationships with home shaped by migration, cultural hybridity, and socioeconomic circumstances. For students who are immigrants, transplants, or first-generation Americans, home is not simply a physical space but an emotional intersection of safety, cultural heritage, family expectations, and personal aspirations. They will articulate connections recognizing that their personal narratives matter and their futures are not predetermined.

(Developed for ELA, grades 7-8; recommended for ELA and Social Studies, grades 7-9)

by Katie Bordner

This unit will explore how history and culture are reflected in musical production, specifically Puerto Rico’s history and culture through some of the archipelago's musical genres. To structure this unit we will be anchoring the flow of lessons on the 2026 Superbowl half-time show. These genres explained in this unit—reggaetón, salsa, bomba and plena—have roots in Puerto Rico but connect to Africa, the Caribbean, the US and Central and South America. All the music genres presented in this performance have transnational journeys that come from colonization, migration, commerce and technology.

This unit is written at a seventh-grade level but includes the background knowledge necessary to scaffold up to higher grdes as needed. The overall goal of the unit is for students to develop cultural and historical awareness. Specifically, how does colonization impact communities? How does art reflect history and culture? This not only highlights the transcultural connections that Bad Bunny’s art reflects but also speaks to an interdependence among nations that affects the population, culture and way of life in these places and regions The art analyzed in this unit will focus on how artists resist colonization while inciting pride and joy in the community.

(Developed for Social Studies, grade 7; recommended for Social Studies, Music, and Spanish, grades 7-12)

by Joel Davila, Jr.

This curriculum will help explore the idea of migration shaping cultural identity through celebrations and understand how migration is not only just the idea of moving from one place to another. This unit is in the service of encouraging the reluctant ELL learner to become more involved and invested in the classroom. A huge reason for migration for many of my students is the personal experience of violence they have encountered and the yearning for a better life overall. Students will explore the main cultural celebration of the Quinceañera, while learning or acquiring new vocabulary content. During this unit, students will be able to compare different cultural celebrations with an emphasis and base of learning about the Quinceañera. They will be able to read about them, share stories about similar customs they have, and become actual participants. Students will discuss celebrations such as festivals, music and the one common unifier: food. They will also understand the importance of self-expression while connecting within their own communities and possibly others. Also, explore the idea of migration driving the initiative to create and share art, language and an established social structure. Along with the process of developing learners who create, express, and identify cultural connections in their lives and the world around them. Finally, this unit will enable the student to recognize celebrations as both a response to hardship and a powerful expression of a positive future.

(Developed for ESl, grade 5; recommended for ESL, grades K-6)

by Lauren Elizabeth Hughes

The following curriculum unit intends to expose fourth and fifth grade students to Latin American history and culture, along with migratory patterns and storytelling. It includes discussion on a myriad of topics and is meant for students to explore content that has been untapped in the intermediate grade levels of not only my school building, but many others in the district. Migration stories from throughout the Americas (South America, Central America and North America) will be examined and discussed through several lessons followed by student led conversations and inquiry. In addition to historical patterns of migration, students will be immersed in cultural explorations with music as a focus. While the musical aspect of sharing stories of love, longing and struggle from home is a vast topic in and of itself, it will act as a bridge to connect the two areas of historic studies on the matter of migration and culturally expressive ways to share and advocate on that content as well. This curriculum unit is appropriate for the intermediate grade levels with adjustments made to remain developmentally appropriate with reading materials and excerpts.

(Developed for Reading, English/Grammar/Writing, grades 4-5, and Social Studies, grade 5; recommended for Reading, English/Writing/Grammar, and Social Studies, Intermediate grades 3-5)

by Stephany Jimenez

Rooted in the healing philosophy of La Cultura Cura (culture cures), this curriculum unit empowers 6^th grade students to anchor their cultural identity, build resilience, and regain an appreciation of their ancestral background through a combined exploration of historical lineages and artistic expression—specifically in the City of Chicago. In synthesizing the socio-political with creativity, this unit examines the profound impacts of U.S. interventions in Latin America, subsequent migration trends, and the vibrant as well as transformative role of the Latino community in Chicago. Moreover, by analyzing art as an alternative archive of origin, diaspora, as well as survival, students can learn to decode visual narratives and potentially challenge historical misconceptions themselves. Introducing inspiring artists and public art serves as a mirror for self-reflection and a catalyst for visual cultural empowerment. Ultimately, this approach will connect ancestral heritage with current realities, inspiring young students to utilize art as a powerful tool for social justice while embracing their culture, and transforming creative expression into their own individual superpower.

(Developed for Visual Arts, grade 6; recommended for Visual Arts, History, and Social Studies, grades 6-8)

by Amanda McMahon

Public art can both tell and create the story of a community. Imposing and dramatic statues tell people who is important enough to be remembered, somber and expensive monuments tell people what is important enough to remember. But who is left out of these stories? How can we use public art to tell a more inclusive history?

This unit uses the mural Great Wall of Los Angeles by Judy Baca to introduce these concepts to my students. A masterpiece of the Chicana Muralism movement, the Great Wall tells an expansive and inclusive history of Los Angeles. Using this template, Richmond students, many of whom are first- and second-generation immigrants from Latin America, will explore, research, and represent artistically the ethnic history of Richmond, a city with little prior history of Latin American immigration. By the end of the unit, students will use Mexican Muralist techniques, Baca’s narrative philosophies and techniques, and extensive primary source research to create their own Great Wall of Richmond.

(Developed for After School Art, grades 9-12; recommended for Art 1-4, grades 9-12)

by Brynn Rosser

This inquiry-based unit explores how migration influences culture, identity, and belonging by examining experiences from Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Brazil. Rooted in the themes of movement, culture, place, and human interaction, it encourages students to consider how individuals stay connected to their homelands while building new communities in the U.S. The essential questions guiding the unit are:

• How do migration, culture, and family shape who we are?
• How do stories from the Latinx community relate to our personal experiences?

The unit begins by exploring immigration through excerpts from Esperanza Rising, giving students an introductory understanding of migration and the experiences involved before focusing on specific countries. In research teams, students will examine memoirs, oral histories, maps, demographic data, and primary-source documents to understand why people migrate and how culture spreads across borders. They will also analyze texts such as When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago, Stormy Seas: Stories of Young Boat Refugees by Mary Beth Leatherdale, Childhood Regained: Stories of Hope, and Turning Points: True Stories of Change, which feature the voices and experiences of young migrants and their families.

Throughout the unit, students will explore push and pull factors, migration trends, cultural traditions, and the formation of transnational identities. They will examine how language, food, music, religion, celebrations, and family stories help maintain cultural heritage while adjusting to new environments. The unit concludes with a creative performance task in which students demonstrate their understanding through a migration poetry presentation, a museum-style exhibit, or a historical narrative, all supported by primary and secondary sources. By the end, students understand that migration is an ongoing process that continually shapes individuals, communities, cultures, and identities, while also preserving important connections to their roots.

(Developed for World Geography, grade 6; recommended for World Geography and ELA, grade 6)

by Priscilla Black

The history of Chinese immigration and today's immigration issues are lightly covered in schools. Therefore, our Navajo Nation Students only know what is shared on social media or on television. Today’s current events involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) do spark conversations at home and at school. Through the history of the Southeast Asian people, Hmong people and the history of our Navajo ancestors’ Long Walk to Fort Sumner, New Mexico, will broaden our Navajo Students’ understanding of immigration and its effects. My hopes of sharing the research of  Hmong people can be compared to our own Navajo ancestors who traveled 400 miles to the Bosque Redondo reservation in Fort Sumner, New Mexico. The human treatment of people in captivity or held to wait on immigration is inconceivable. The unit will lend itself to many discussions and hands-on activities to learn that history is messy, but learning can happen with the guidance of a teacher teaching the delicate actions.

(Developed for History and Southeast Asian, grade 6; recommended for World History, grades 6 and 11; and Government, grade 7)

by Carol Boynton

To celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Month, A Piece of Home by Jeri Watts, sets the stage for a book study on Asian American experiences for the month of May. Hee Jun and his family have moved from Korea to West Virginia, where his father has accepted a teaching job. He struggles to adapt to his new life, speak English, keep up in school, and just be himself. He finds a connection to his old home through the discovery of the mugunghwa (Rose of Sharon) flower, which his grandmother then plants in their new garden. The power of community is highlighted as he and his family start to feel at home, and a Rose of Sharon takes on important symbolism.

Included in the collection are stories that cover the themes of immigration, classroom community, and acceptance and belonging. Students will learn that these stories that are based on real events written through the genres of autobiography, biography, or historical fiction, understanding that people can share, tell, or retell the experiences to help others learn how lives are both different and similar. Stories about immigration often explore profound themes such as identity, belonging, cultural conflict, and the search for a better life.

(Developed for Social Studies and Literacy, grade K; recommended for Social Studies and Literacy, grades K-3)

by Yasmine Collins

From Angel Island to Chicago: Our Neighbors, Our Stories is a month-long unit designed for a 4th grade English Language Arts class in Chicago Public Schools. Using the Universal Design for Curriculum and Culturally Responsive Teaching frameworks, it is designed to teach the history of Asian immigration to the United States while ensuring accessibility and empowerment for students with disabilities in the inclusion classroom setting. Additionally, it is intended to support students who come from diverse backgrounds or are categorized as English Learners. This unit offers several opportunities for flexibility and student choice to support students of diverse needs and backgrounds. To make teaching the content more accessible, background knowledge is provided with the intent to provide the teacher with enough information to decide how to proceed with the lessons for their students.

Throughout the unit, students will actively build and explore a historical timeline of Asian exclusion. They will learn about key dates including the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the Geary Act of 1892, the Naturalization Act of 1870, and the Johnson-Reed Act of 1924. They will explore some court cases that fall within that timeline as well. Students will initially work on a compare and contrast between the immigration stations on Angel Island and Ellis Island. The unit places an emphasis on primary source analysis through the carved wall poetry on Angel Island. Students will explore these poems using digital resources such as the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation website, where they are able to virtually explore the barracks and listen to audio recordings of the poetry. The students will form connections to how poetry and other cultural practices from textiles to sports throughout the exclusion period provided different forms of resistance, dignity, and resilience throughout the Exclusion Era. The unit will integrate ELA book clubs where students will have an opportunity to collaborate in small groups and form connections to what they have been learning about. The unit concludes with a multimodal project where students will interview local business owners, neighbors, or family members to document neighborhood immigration stories, bridging histories of Asian immigration with local Chicago community history.

This curriculum is a guide that includes background information and recommended resources. Educators are encouraged to adapt the taught content to meet their students' specific needs.

(Developed for English Language Arts, grade 4; recommended for English Language Arts and Social Studies, grades 3-5)

by Wendy Dane

This unit on the history of Asian immigration to the U.S. offers students a clear lens through which to understand how past immigration policies and citizenship laws directly shape our modern system.  By examining discriminatory practices, landmark court cases, and evolving laws from 1790 to the present day, students will uncover the systemic factors that have historically biased the path to American citizenship and its social, economic, and political impacts.

To make this complex history vivid and accessible, the curriculum integrates historical maps, primary sources, interactive vocabulary and evidence-based exercises.  The unit culminates in a personal oral history assignment where students conduct an interview to uncover their own family’s migration story – empowering them to directly answer the fundamental questions: Why am I here, and how did I get here?

(Developed for English, grade 10; recommended for English and History, grades 9-11)

by Tara Holcomb

In this curriculum, “Voice of Arrival: Asian American Stories in California”, ELD students will learn about California’s Asian American immigration history. They will analyze key policies and landmark cases shaping today’s immigration system. To build foundational knowledge, students will compare and contrast critical events of Asian Exclusion (1875-1943) with the present day. Students will also examine the experiences of different Asian ethnic groups and the legacies of exclusion. In parallel, students will discover that community groups came together to advocate for the newcomers. As the unit unfolds, students will gain an understanding of the nuances among the 1st-, 1.5-, and 2nd-generation by reading excerpts from narratives, graphic novels, and poems. Subsequently, they will become introspective when comparing the experiences of immigrants they read about in class to their own 1.5-generation experience. By the end of the unit, students will grapple with materials that affirm their right to a bilingual education. Through targeted vocabulary instruction, sentence frames, word banks, think-pair-share activities, graphic organizers, and the use of visuals, students will build the English skills to write and present their California arrival poem to all their peers, regardless of cultural backgrounds.

(Developed for ELD 2, grades 9-12; recommended for ELD 3, grades 9-12)

by Angel Johnson

This elementary curriculum unit, aimed at 3^rd or 4^th graders, is centered around exploring the themes of identity, community, and belonging by connecting Front Desk by Kelly Yang to the multicultural stew that is the United States. Students will dive deep into the life of our protagonist and ride alongside her as she manages to help take care of her family, deal with racism, and develop her identity as a 10-year-old immigrant in the United States. Throughout the reading of the novel, snippets of historical background knowledge on the United States immigration system will be shared with the students to further understand how the protagonist and her family are being affected by past events that came far before them. This novel is also teeming with material to carry discussions about self-identity and gives students a chance to be introspective about the unique components they contain. Additionally, the unit is designed to help students improve their reading fluency and understand character traits, figurative language, and summarization. By its conclusion, students will be able to relate to our protagonist by embracing their own cultural identities and knowing that they are, too, a piece of the United Stew of America.

(Developed for Reading, grade 3; recommended for Reading, grade 4)

by Alyssa Lucadamo

Although headlines about anti-immigrant violence can make one feel powerless, it is important to remember that today's vast immigration apparatus did not always exist. In this unit, seventh grade students examine Asian American history to understand the contentious debates, pivotal choices and conflicting motives underlying the U.S. immigration system.

Armed with historical knowledge, students consider how policies impact lives. Students split into small Literature Circle groups within the class, with each group reading and discussing a different immigrant memoir. The memoirs include Quiet Odyssey: A Pioneer Korean Woman in America by Mary Paik Lee, Nisei Daughter by Monica Sone, Falling Leaves: The True Story of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter by Adeline Yen Mah, Funny in Farsi: A memoir of growing up Iranian in America by Firoozeh Dumas, Here We Are: American Dreams, American Nightmares by Aarti Namdev Shahani, and Call Me American by Abdi Nor Iftin. As a culminating activity, students participate in a Socratic Seminar discussion to reflect on common themes among the narratives.

By learning about the history of the United States immigration system through the lens of Asian immigration, reading immigrant memoirs, and participating in collegial discourse, students gain confidence and compassion to navigate their life's journey.

(Developed for Gifted English/Language Arts, grade 7; recommended for English/Language Arts, grade 8; and English, grade 9)

by Alima McKnight

The curriculum unit “Interactive Culture: Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month for K to 5” is a set of lessons designed to give students a broader understanding of the cultures and ethnicities within Asia and the Pacific Islands. The unit does this by introducing students to some elements of culture, such as clothing, food, language, the arts, and some new-to-them well-known facts via postcards as primary source documents. Their growing knowledge of Asian American and Pacific Islander cultures culminates into a Luau celebration, as Hawai’i has historically been a crossroads for Asian immigrants and Pacific Islanders. The struggles of Asian American immigrants and Pacific Islander communities are explained for teacher background knowledge and understanding in order to to guide students to appreciate other cultures and not appropriate nor generalize. All this equates to teachers utilizing Culturally Responsive Teaching. Students will gain knowledge, skills, and understanding as they participate in lessons that engage and excite them about a diverse set of ethnicities and cultures.

(Developed for Digital Literacy and Schoolwide Celebration, grades K-5; recommended for Social Studies, grades K-12; World History, grades 9-12; and Geography, grades 3-5)

by Aryanne Young

Children notice inclusion and exclusion long before they have the language to explain what they are seeing. They recognize when someone is welcomed, when someone is left out, and when something feels unfair. As they grow, those observations become questions: Why was someone treated differently? Who made that rule? Was it fair? This curriculum unit uses Asian American immigration history to give students the historical knowledge and vocabulary to investigate the questions they are already asking about fairness, identity, and belonging.

Through the experiences of Asian American immigrants, students will explore how laws, government institutions, public health systems, and communities shaped who was permitted to enter, settle, and claim belonging in the United States, as well as how individuals and communities challenged those decisions. Using photographs, maps, artwork, oral histories, memoirs, poetry, and historical documents, students will discover that belonging is not simply a personal feeling but a historical process shaped by power, policy, and human action.

Students will examine Asian American immigration from the nineteenth century through the present, investigating how immigration policy, public health practices, disability classifications, and ideas about citizenship influenced who was welcomed and who was excluded. They will explore places such as Angel Island Immigration Station and encounter the voices of individuals and families whose lives were shaped by these systems. Rather than studying these events as isolated moments, students will identify recurring historical patterns and examine how people resisted exclusion, built communities, and expanded the meaning of belonging.

Throughout the unit, students will engage in a six-day Historical Connections Framework that moves from historical investigation to contemporary parallels and personal reflection. They will analyze primary and secondary sources, participate in collaborative discussions, develop academic vocabulary through repeated exposure to key concepts, and construct evidence-based responses supported by historical sources. Designed for multilingual learners and students with intellectual disabilities, the unit uses explicit vocabulary instruction, multimodal texts, structured inquiry, and predictable instructional routines to make rigorous historical thinking accessible to all learners. By the end of the unit, students will understand that belonging is continually shaped, challenged, and redefined through the actions of governments, communities, and ordinary people.

(Developed for ELA, grades 5-8; recommended for ELA, grades 4-12)

by Julian Lopez Carmona

Voices of Resistance: Letters from the Dragon World is a fifth-grade English Language Arts unit that uses Tui T. Sutherland’s Wings of Fire: The Dragonet Prophecy as the interest anchor text to explore the concepts of power, tyranny, and resistance. The unit centers on one guiding question: When is it right to say no? Because fifth-grade students are beginning to question rules, expectations, and limitations placed on them by adults, this unit gives them a meaningful way to examine authority, control, legitimacy, and justice through literature.

Students read selected scenes from the novel alongside short, adapted ideas from political philosophy and resistance literature, including Plato, Sophocles, Livy, Tacitus, The Red Nation, David Walker, C.L.R. James, and John Lewis. Through discussion protocols, close reading, and guided writing, students learn to distinguish authority from domination, protection from control, and resistance from revenge. By embodying the voices of characters in the story, students write letters from the perspective of characters in the dragon world. These letters ask students to use evidence, audience, purpose, and voice to show how power feels from the inside and how language can become a tool for reflection, argument, and change.

(Developed for ELD, grade 5; recommended for ELA, grades 5-7, and Writing, grades 4-7)

by Christina Boone

In this unit, “Survival as Resistance: The Navajo Long Walk,” students will analyze historical and literary texts to examine the tyranny imposed by the United States government and explore how the Navajo people resisted forced removal, defended their homeland, and worked to preserve their way of life.

Students will first examine the historical context leading to the Navajo Long Walk by studying Indigenous resistance during the Mexican-American War and the increasing expansion of the United States into Indigenous lands. They will then focus on  the events of the Navajo Long Walk and analyze the Treaty of 1868, exploring how the Navajo people resisted force removal and negotiated for the right to return to their homeland (Diné Bikéyah).

Throughout the unit, students will engage with both informational and literary texts, using close reading, discussion, and evidence-based writing to examine themes of tyranny, resistance, and resilience.

In the final steps of the unit, students will create a graphic novel, comic strip, or storyboard illustrating acts of Navajo resistance and resilience, and complete an annotated analysis of the Treaty of 1868.

By the end of the unit, students will develop a deeper understanding of the Navajo Long Walk, the lasting impact of federal policies on Indigenous communities, and the resilience of the Navajo people.

(Developed for ELA, grade 6; recommended for ELA, grades 4-6)

by Marc Hillis

This curriculum unit focuses on how protests evolved in America and how these protests apply to Navajo/Indigenous students’ situations today. The United States has a long history of protest, from the colonial era, to mining of the early 1900s, to the antiwar protests of Vietnam, to the No Kings protests in 2026. The protest traditions of Native peoples can be traced to the Indian Wars, and before. Now they have national issues confronting them with the environment and even Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Students will learn is that protest is common among all peoples, and that it is protected in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Yet this unit curriculum will focus on Native protests.

(Developed for U.S. History and AP U.S. History, grade 10; recommended for U.S. History, Geography, Navajo/Native Studies, and U.S. Government, grades 9-12)

by Bill Chenevert

This curriculum unit reimagines how middle-school students study the Civil Rights Movement by examining resistance as a complex, interconnected process rather than a simple contrast between Martin Luther King Jr.'s nonviolent philosophy and Malcolm X's militancy. Inspired by the Yale National Initiative seminar Resistance from Aristotle to Star Wars, the unit asks students to consider when resistance to unjust laws and oppressive systems becomes a moral necessity.

Through primary sources, historical case studies, music, literature, photography, and legal decisions, students investigate multiple "streams" of resistance that converged to challenge white supremacy in the United States. Lessons explore nonviolent civil disobedience, armed self-defense, legal advocacy, economic boycotts, political organizing, and artistic and cultural expression as complementary strategies that collectively advanced the Civil Rights Movement. Students analyze texts such as Martin Luther King Jr.'s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” and Malcolm X's “The Ballot or the Bullet,” while also examining landmark cases, legislation, and the work of artists, writers, and activists.

The unit culminates in a student-designed argument in which learners identify a contemporary issue, evaluate possible forms of resistance, and defend the strategy they believe can most effectively promote justice. By broadening students' understanding of resistance, the unit encourages historical thinking, civic engagement, and thoughtful democratic participation.

(Developed for Social Studies, grade 7; recommended for Social Studies and General Black History Month instruction, grades 6-8)

by Alison Wollack

This unit allows students to 1) explore methods of resistance to slavery 2) understand the power of the written word as a form of resistance and 3) engage with multiple genres of texts to evaluate their persuasiveness. Because of the nature of these texts, this unit is recommended for upper high school grades.

The unit centers around the novel Kindred by Octavia Butler, in which an African American woman in the 1970s time travels to a plantation in Maryland in the 1800s. Students will explore methods of resistance such as survival, violence, running away, and maintaining family. While reading Kindred, students will read excerpts of The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, by Frederick Douglass to understand his main acts of resistance, specifically education and violence. Students will explore the persuasiveness of a first-person narrative and why literacy was so key to fighting back against slavery. After reading Kindred, students will read David Walker’s Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World to understand his calls for rebellion. Students will consider what made this text so powerful and revolutionary to enslaved and free Black citizens, while stirring fear and reactionary laws amongst whites.

As students read these texts they will consider the question, what is the author saying about resistance? Students will maintain an evidence bank collecting evidence of resistance through all the texts and engage in a range of conversations and writing assignments to reflect on this question. The unit will culminate in an essay looking at how two of the authors address the topic of resistance.

(Developed for IB English Part II Standard Level, grade 12; recommended for English, grades 11-12)

by Michelle Hawkins

Throughout history, people have faced questions about power, freedom, truth, and what individuals should do when living under unfair systems. While dystopian literature creates imagined worlds, its real value lies in helping us see historical truths and reflect on the choices people make when facing tyranny, conformity, and the loss of civil liberties. This nine-week twelfth-grade English curriculum uses George Orwell's 1984 as the main text and pairs it with nonfiction, philosophy, memoir, poetry, and other dystopian stories. This approach helps students examine resistance from different perspectives. The unit starts by exploring the rights and responsibilities of U.S. citizens. Students then learn about the Bill of Rights, Henry David Thoreau's Civil Disobedience, Timothy Snyder's On Tyranny, and Hannah Arendt's The Origins of Totalitarianism. After building this background, they apply these ideas to 1984, “The Pedestrian”, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”, “First They Came”, and Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning. Students use annotation, weekly Literary Response Journals, and a final braided essay to connect ideas from different genres. They explore themes like tyranny, surveillance, propaganda, conformity, moral responsibility, and human agency. In the end, this unit shows students that resistance is not always about rebellion. Often, it begins with the courage to question injustice, protect the truth, stand up for human dignity, and think independently. By doing this, students learn that dystopian literature is more than just stories about the future. It helps them understand the past, think about the present, and take part in a democratic society.

(Developed for English IV, grade 12; recommended for English IV, AP Literature and Composition, and IB English, grade 12; and English II, grade 10)

by Magen Parsley

“Writing as a Form of Resistance” is a five-to-six-week long unit that focuses on allowing students to see a mental shift in their mindset on things that they should value the most. It asks real questions, and explores hard truths, through real life texts and letters from excerpts from the The Freedom Writers Diary and The Diary of a Young Girl. I want them to really grasp the importance of resistance and how they can see it happening in the world around them.

This unit is going to challenge my students’ way of thinking by opening their mindset of what their lives would and could look like if they refuse to learn about the situations the world faces. All of that comes in the form of education. I want them to understand that there is a purpose for every part of their education, and that when they reject education, they are also rejecting the very tool that is going to keep them living in a just society. I will be mainly using excerpts from the book The Freedom Writers, so they can see how they move from distrusting the person teaching them, to showing how they can use their voice to create responsible decisions for themselves.

By connecting real-life texts to their own rea- life scenarios, we will create a community of engaging students that can look at the broader pictures of everyday struggles, and make good, rounded, conscious decisions about their next steps.

(Developed for English 1, grade 9)

by Jenna Eiker

Throughout history, art has never been merely decorative. It has been used to reinforce authority, preserve culture, challenge injustice, and inspire resistance. This curriculum unit explores art as a powerful form of resistance by examining the relationship between art, power, censorship, and visual culture. Students first investigate how images shape beliefs, influence collective memory, and reinforce systems of power, before considering why those same images are often censored, controlled, or destroyed. Building upon this foundation, students expand their understanding of resistance beyond protest alone by exploring how artists preserve cultural identities, mobilize communities through collective action, and challenge traditional boundaries of what art is, where it belongs, and who has the authority to create it. Through the work of historical and contemporary artists from diverse cultures, students analyze how visual expression communicates ideas, questions dominant narratives, and inspires social change while developing the visual literacy needed to critically interpret the images surrounding them. Students engage in looking closely, discussion, case studies, and studio experiences that encourage critical thinking alongside creative expression. The unit culminates with students creating an original artwork communicating a message of resistance they believe deserves to be seen and curating a mini exhibition that places their work in conversation with historical and contemporary examples of art as resistance.

(Developed for Visual Art, grades 5-7; recommended for Visual Art, Civics/Social Studies, and ELA, grades 4-12, and Art History, grades 6-12)

by Stephen C. Newbold, Jr.

This curriculum unit engages students in an inquiry-based exploration of resistance through visual arts. Over the course of five to seven weeks, high school visual art students investigate how artists have challenged dominant narratives, affirmed identity, documented lived experiences, and imagined inclusive futures. The unit begins with students collaboratively developing a working definition of resistance that is revisited and refined throughout the learning experience. Students examine historical and contemporary examples of resistance while recognizing that resistance can take many forms, including advocacy, celebration, cultural preservation, joy, identity affirmation, and community building.

Instruction is organized around four interrelated components that emphasize observation, critical thinking, writing, discussion, and creative expression. The culminating project invites students to develop an original artwork guided by the visual works of artists such as Amy Sherald, Titus Kaphar, Barbara Kruger, Kehinde Wiley, Nick Cave, and Bisa Butler—with an end game of conjuring a new social contract that decolonizes ways of seeing, knowing and being. Such an approach could broaden traditional conceptions of resistance by recognizing artistic production as a form of civic engagement, social critique, and cultural transformation. Their work should not simply illustrate a political position, but instead demonstrate—through research, conceptual development, and visual experimentation—a response to contemporary issues related to inclusion, exclusion, institutional power, and resistance.

(Developed for Digital Arts and Design and AP 2D Art and Design, grades 10-12; recommended for History, grades 8-12)

by Raymond Marshall

This unit examines two of the periods of American History most associated with popular resistance: The Gilded Age and the Progressive Era.  Students will learn about two of the most significant events which galvanized popular resistance in these periods, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, and the Blair Mountain War, two events which bookended the Progressive Era and led, directly or otherwise, to some of the greatest advances in workers’ rights and safety in American history.  Students will also learn about the impact that popular movements and resistance can have on American politics, business, and society, with an eye towards what they can do in order to create the changes they wish to see in their country. 

(Developed for U.S. History, grade 11; recommended for U.S. History, World History and Government, secondary grades)

by Tara McKee

Watching the political events of our world unfold can be a scary thing. Now, more than ever, teachers and students should be thinking about and discussing tyranny and resistance, and there is no better way to do this than through literature. Written for my IBHL English I class, this unit will use the graphic novel Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi to navigate these difficult topics and to use a story from the past to make sense of our present and hopefully change our future. This unit is less about the content of Persepolis and more about its historical context and reading the book through this lens of power and resistance.

By using what seems to be a “simple” graphic novel, I will pair Persepolis with Aristotle’s definition of tyranny, protest posters of the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the Ayatollah’s propaganda, and excerpts from Remembering Akbar to bring this black-and-white story into a collage of color, rendering the historical context of the novel into something that they can see, understand, and explore. At the end, students will create their protest and propaganda simulation, overthrowing a fictional queen.

(Developed for IBHL English I, grade 11; recommended for AP Language and Composition, grade 11, and English II, grade 10)

by Christopher De Matteo

Pop culture can be a powerful learning tool to convey complex ideas. This unit uses scenes from Star Wars to teach students about fascism, tyranny, and resistance. Through an analysis of various scenes from both the Star Wars movies and the streaming show Andor, students will discover multiple definitions of tyranny and resistance. They will interact with primary sources to draw comparisons with historical examples from Nazi Germany and gain a stronger understanding of the many nuances of resistance. Activities will include fictional-historical scene analysis and comparison, analysis of primary documents, Socratic seminars, and creative writing exercises focused on the definition of fascism, tyranny, and resistance.

(Developed for Virginia and U.S. History, grade 11; recommended for World History II, grade 10; U.S. History, grade 11; and U.S. Government, grade 12)

by Justin Baber

This fifth grade-based science unit introduces students to the fascinating role yeast plays in transforming food through chemical reactions, focusing on the creation of pizza dough. Students investigate yeast as a living organism and explore how it produces carbon dioxide gas as a product of fermentation, leading to the rise of the pizza dough. Through a series of experimental investigations, students will have a chance to observe how variables such as temperature, sugar types and concentration, and rising time influence yeast activity and the changes that occur in pizza making.

To help deepen their understanding of chemical reactions, students will witness one in an activity using “Elephant Toothpaste”. While not the same as fermentation, this allows students to observe how reactions can occur at different rates, demonstrating how the ingredients and their use can alter the speed of a chemical reaction.  Students will also investigate the physical properties of a gluten network by washing the starch of a completed pizza dough to reveal only the gluten left behind.

Throughout this unit, students will engage in hands-on experiments, collaborative investigations, and scientific discussions that will encourage them to make predictions, collect data, and work together to communicate evidence-based conclusions. This unit concludes with a hands-on activity in which students bring their learning all together to create a pizza from scratch. This connection of chemistry concepts to a real-world application of food students are very familiar with will help them gain an appreciation for the culinary arts and all the science that goes into it.

(Developed for Elementary Science, grade 5; recommended for Elementary Science, grades 4-5)

by Audrelia Dugi

This unit is designed for Special Needs students at the high school levels that are in grades ninth to twelfth with academic levels ranging from kindergarten to fourth grade. Lessons are aligned to the Arizona Science Academic Standards and the Dine’ Philosophy of Education Standards. The students will cook an Indigenous recipe, tailored to their cultural heritage. Chemistry at the first-grade level focuses on physical change and chemical change. The standard is obtaining, evaluating and communicating information about the properties of Earth’s materials and investigating how humans use natural resources in everyday life. A Juniper tree branch will be used to demonstrate chemical change through combustion. Blue corn kernels will be ground to demonstrate physical change. Students stay engaged in lessons when kinesthetic activities are involved. Three activities will take place: Sifting, grinding, and making a pot of blue corn mush. Resources for the cooking lesson will be collected from the land in the local area.

Navajos have long been agriculturalists. Growing vegetables such as corn, squash, beans and fruits such as melons and apricots. Raising livestock: cattle, horses and sheep on the vast open lands. Wild animals continue to roam the lands and wild berries, herbs, and tea grow throughout the reservation. Family past down traditional recipes and skills are taught at home on ways to prepare for meals.

(Developed for Science, grades 9-12; recommended for Elementary Science, grade 2)

by Elizabeth McClenaghan

Squeeze the Numbers: A Lemonade Math Investigation is designed primarily for middle school students and aligns with the Common Core State Standards for Grades 6–7, particularly in Ratios and Proportional Relationships, The Number System, and Expressions and Equations. Through engaging, hands-on cooking and lemonade-based investigations, students develop conceptual understanding of fractions, ratios, proportions, unit rates, measurement, and real-world problem-solving while strengthening mathematical reasoning, communication, precision, and the Standards for Mathematical Practice. Learning progresses from foundational ratio concepts in the Sweetness Scale Experiment to collaborative problem-solving activities such as Ratio Relay and Mix It Up!, before culminating in authentic applications through the Ultimate Lemonade Taste Test, the Lemonade Stand Challenge, and Lemonade Around the World. Along the way, students apply mathematics to recipe scaling, financial literacy, entrepreneurship, and culturally relevant food traditions, helping them recognize the practical value of mathematics in everyday life. Designed to increase engagement and build confidence among students who may struggle with mathematics, the unit uses meaningful, real-world contexts to make abstract concepts more accessible. While developed for middle school classrooms, the activities can be readily modified for upper elementary students by adjusting the complexity of the mathematical tasks, representations, and problem-solving expectations.

(Developed for Pre-Algebra, grade 8; recommended for General Math, grades 6-7

by Joseph Parrett

This is a 1^st grade unit although it would also work well in primary grades K-2. The unit focuses on providing the students with an opportunity to engage in experiential learning as they practice the skills of scientists. The students will experience pre-exposure to the concepts of physical and chemical changes as they create a sundae by making ice cream, roasting marshmallows, and pulverizing graham crackers into a topping. In the unit, students will be listening and responding to non-fiction text, connecting ingredients to times in the past, making observations with multiple senses, measuring ingredients, communicating their ideas and findings with each other, and recording their experience with a combination of drawing, labeling, and writing as is appropriate for the grade level. This unit connects to Common Cord State Standards in English Language Arts, Next Generation Science Standards, and the state of Delaware Social Studies Standards related to history.

(Developed for Science, Reading, and Language Arts, grades K-2; recommended for Science, Reading, and Language Arts, grades K-2)

by Kirstin Purtell

How did people preserve food before modern refrigeration? In this interdisciplinary unit, students explore the history and science of food preservation practices used by Colonial American and Indigenous communities. Through the study of salting, brining, pickling, fermentation, and smoking, students investigate how people adapted to their environments and used available resources to extend the shelf life of food. Students examine the cultural significance of preservation methods while applying scientific concepts including osmosis, diffusion, pH, bacteriostasis, dehydration, and antimicrobial properties. Hands-on investigations allow students to observe the chemical changes that occur during preservation, including salt’s effect on moisture movement, vinegar’s role in pickling, and smoke’s impact on microbial growth. By connecting history, chemistry, and food science, students develop a deeper understanding of how preservation technologies helped communities survive, trade, and adapt before refrigeration. This inquiry-based unit uses experiments, historical sources, and cultural perspectives to answer the essential question: How did food preservation help people survive, adapt, and build communities in early America?

(Developed for Science and Social Studies, grade 5; recommended for Science and Social Studies, grade 5)

by Beth Sawyer

What do a bottle of ranch dressing, a salad vinaigrette, and a food scientist have in common? More science than you might think. Every time students shake a bottle of salad dressing, they observe fascinating scientific phenomena, including mixtures, solutions, density, emulsions, and physical changes. In this inquiry-based unit, students step into the role of food scientists as they investigate how everyday ingredients interact and why some mixtures blend while others separate. Through hands-on investigations and collaborative problem solving, students apply the fifth grade Virginia Science Standards to explore the properties of matter in a meaningful, real-world context. The unit culminates in students designing, testing, and refining their own healthy salad dressing recipes, using scientific evidence to justify their ingredient choices before sharing their creations during a class "Salad Celebration." By connecting chemistry to a familiar food, students discover that science is not confined to a laboratory but is an essential part of the world around them. The unit is designed for fifth grade students, but it also could be adapted for students in upper grades.

(Developed for Science, grade 5; recommended for Science, grades 5-6)

by Stephanie Smelser

This eleventh grade teaching unit connects to the "Chemistry of Cooking" seminar through the physics and science of popcorn, linking art with the idea of transformation in chemistry. Students explore the structure of liquids, solids, and gases, along with the concepts of changing properties, chemical reactions, and the transformation of one substance into an entirely new product with new properties. Students will see how a small, hard kernel builds enough internal pressure and heat that its shell eventually bursts, transforming into light, fluffy white popcorn, coming to understand the transitions and chemistry behind that change. Through the lens of popcorn, students will gain a deeper understanding of the transformative processes at work in the world around them. Students will then create three art compositions, glued onto black paper to form one triptych. They begin with observational pencil drawings of real popcorn, then transform those drawings into colorful, imaginative new images. Acting as visual detectives, much like spotting a fluffy bunny shape in a cloud, students will study their popcorn drawings and reimagine what the shapes could become. They will render this invented new image in colored pencil, then experiment further with color mixing while creating a final, expressive watercolor composition followed by an artist statement.

by Tacora Snell

Teaching all subjects at the 5^th grade level welcomes opportunities for cross-curricular exchange and planning where students organically observe connections and are more intentional about how they leverage their academic skills to construct knowledge. Throughout this curriculum unit, students will conduct meaningful, culturally relevant research, conduct experiments, and apply writing skills to design a cookbook of recipes including kid-friendly creations explained in scientific language. The lessons in this unit will provide all students regardless of performance level or learning abilities with comprehensive project-based learning experiences where they will be required to complete standards-based tasks incorporating skills from all subjects taught in our classroom. Students will explore and explain physical and chemical changes, chemical formulas/reactions, and apply mathematical reasoning to cooking. By the end of the unit, scholars will have 3 major artifacts as evidence of their content mastery: an original cookbook with recipes explained through mixtures, chemical formulas, and reactions, expository writing samples that explain as well as compare/contrast food choice aligned to different cultures/communities, and, lastly, edible samples demonstrating their strategic use of ingredients and application of food science.

(Developed for Math, Science, and ELA, grade 5; recommended for ELA and Science, grades 4-5)

by Lori Thornton

This unit was designed to use cooking as a meaningful, hands-on context for teaching fractions, ratios, and proportions to high school special education students who often struggle with foundational mathematical concepts. The unit addresses persistent learning gaps by connecting abstract ideas to real-world applications. Students explore fractions through measuring ingredients, comparing quantities, identifying equivalent fractions, and representing values with area models, sets, and number lines. They then distinguish ratios from fractions by examining relationships between ingredients in recipes and investigating how changing ingredient ratios affects the final product, including the role of chemical processes such as leavening and emulsification. They also connect these math concepts to skills they are also using in their foundational Chemistry class. Students extend this understanding to proportions by scaling recipes, solving for unknown quantities, and maintaining equivalent relationships while changing serving sizes and determining cost per serving. Instruction incorporates evidence-based strategies that take students from guided and concrete models to abstract concepts and more independent work. The unit wraps up with an activity combining recipe conversions, unit rates, and recipe modifications while reinforcing Algebraic Reasoning and Geometry standards. This combination of math, science, and real-life experiences helps students remain engaged while building confidence with fractions, ratios, and proportions.

(Developed FNDL Math Models, grades 10-12; recommended Math Intervention, grades 7-12)

by Vickie Young Weatherspoon

This unit is a 14-week study for special education grades 9-12 Life Skills science class.  It will act as a roadmap to teach special education Life Skills students how chemical and physical transformations during cooking can help them understand what happens when they prepare meals for independent living. We will study the chemistry of cooking; connect food studies to biology, chemistry, integrated physics and chemistry (IPC), and environmental science; explore the history of food and cultural heritage experiences; and engage in the kitchen laboratory.

Students will engage in community involvement by taking shopping trips to the local market to purchase the ingredients we will use for cooking.  Students will learn how to develop budgets, create shopping lists, plan meals, and experiment with the chemical and physical transformations of ingredients while cooking.  Students will learn about careers in the culinary and life science industries to investigate options for post-secondary careers.  This capstone project includes a journal, student workbook, recipe book, PowerPoint presentations on the process, and hosting a Thanksgiving dinner for their parents. Working collaboratively as a team, this event serves as an authentic assessment of independent living skills and practical knowledge of the chemistry of cooking.

By the end of the unit, students will be able to:

1. Explain and demonstrate the chemistry of cooking
2. Make connections between all of the cross-curricular applications of scientific principles
3. Create recipes and plan for a Thanksgiving dinner
4. Develop a shopping list and budget for preparing meals
5. Communicate verbal and written scientific observations through journals, student workbooks, PowerPoint presentations, and final Thanksgiving dinner production
6. Explore interests in cooking and chemistry for careers in culinary arts and life sciences

(Developed for Life Skills, Food Science, and Culinary Arts, grades 9-12; recommended for Life Skills, Food Science, and Culinary Arts, grades 9-12)

by Marissa J. Brown

This curriculum unit will explore the use of geometric isometry to describe symmetry and proportionality, and allometry to describe disproportionality of figures. Developing content knowledge around isometry will teach students about rigid transformations that preserve the shape and size of geometric figures, such as reflection, translation, and rotation. Students will also learn about non-rigid motion that creates proportional figures using scale factor, such as the use of dilation. Students will then engage in exploration of allometry; to critically think about and explore how proportions of figures change as the size of an organism and overall shape changes. Students have been reluctant to ask questions during instructional time, so this unit builds in time for students to engage with questioning strategies that turns their curiosity into questions and exploration. Students will engage with instructional strategies that include independent think time to develop questions, collaborative study groups to revise and expand on questions, and whole class discussions to further analyze and prioritize questions related to isometry and allometry. The intended audience for this curriculum unit is students taking a year-long high school geometry course and can be adapted to use with integrated mathematics 2 during the geometry unit.

(Developed for Geometry, grade 9; recommended for Mathematics, grades 9-12; and Geometry, grades 9-10)

by Stephanie Hooks

Heart Rate Detectives is an inquiry-based unit on the heart and how exercise impacts heart rate and the health of the heart. This unit is geared toward teaching 5th- or 6th-grade students; however, it could be adapted to teach older students learning about mathematical data or biology. The unit begins with a brief history of medical science and research that has led to our understanding of the heart and how it works. Some of this research dates back to Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece. The unit will give the reader background on the anatomy of the heart and how it works. It also explores historical implications in medical research and the impact that this has had on minority groups. The instructional components of the unit include inquiry-based, student-centered, practical activities that give students the opportunity to measure their resting heart rate and understand how it varies after exercise. Students will have the opportunity to make meaning of the data using statistical measures such as calculating measures of center and plotting the data on a stem and leaf plot or a line plot. In addition, students will conduct research to deepen their understanding of the science behind heart rate.

(Developed for Math and Science, grade 5; recommended for Math and Science, grades 5-6)

by Nancy V. Ibarra

Meaningful connections with nature begin through observation and wonder, not expertise. Inspired by Rachel Carson, an environmentalist whose work in the mid-1900s launched the modern environmental movement, this unit, intended for 7th- and 8th-grade students, encourages students to ask thoughtful questions, see science as something they do rather than something they are, and recognize their capacity to make positive change. It explores how curiosity and firsthand experiences in nature can inspire scientific inquiry and environmental stewardship among middle school students. The unit covers various birds, including birds of prey and songbirds, but eventually centers on Chicago’s migratory birds, the endangered Great Lakes piping plover, and the restoration of Montrose Beach as their habitat. Students participate in outdoor observations and citizen science projects that contribute real data to ongoing research, as well as inquiry-based investigations that connect local ecosystems to broader topics such as conservation, climate change, and habitat restoration. Ultimately, the unit aims to foster lifelong curiosity, strengthen students’ confidence in science, and demonstrate how community action and careful observation can lead to meaningful bird conservation.

(Developed for Life Science, grades 7-8; recommended for Science, grades 5-6, and Biology, grade 9)

by Stacy-Ann Morrison Thomas

This inquiry-based unit introduces sixth-graders to temperate grasslands and temperate forests as interconnected ecosystems shaped by climate, soil, and disturbance. The goal is to encourage students to ask questions as they explore how temperate grasslands depend on recurring fire and grazing to help their stability, and how keystone species such as prairie dogs shape the surrounding food web. The unit then shifts to temperate forests, examining how reliable year-round rainfall and four distinct seasons produce a layered, tree-dominated ecosystem, and how adaptations like deciduous leaf drop, hibernation, and migration allow organisms to survive seasonal extremes. Throughout the unit, students will compare while building precision in scientific vocabulary while learning about biomes.

The three core strategies: graphic organizers, specifically cause-and-effect chains and Venn diagrams, help students trace ecological processes and distinguish closely related biomes. Building models, including soil profile models and food web models, give students hands-on tools for visualizing underground soil structure and interspecies dependency. Think-ink-pair-share routines push students to reason independently, then write before discussing with peers. Together, these strategies move students from memorizing biome facts toward genuine ecological inquiry, asking not just what a temperate ecosystem contains, but how its parts depend on one another to function

(Developed for Integrated Science, grade 6; recommended for Science, grades 6-8)

by Kasalina Maliamu Nabakooza

The focus of this visual arts unit written for first grade instruction is the biology of the human eye and how humans evolved to perceive color. Rainbows which we can see with the naked eye are a unifying theme throughout this unit. Students will see rainbows created by prisms replicating the optical experiments of the scientist Isaac Newton and then develop hypotheses before experimenting with color mixing. Students will learn about what color is, the basics of how the human eye evolved to see color and how color can be manipulated with a variety of materials through the use of art techniques in drawing, painting and collage. Students will learn to ask questions about illusions created by color and how color impacts how they perceive and what they see in art. Students will analyze and reflect on artworks in the Yale Art Gallery by the artists Josef Albers, Sol LeWitt and Kurt Schwitters and develop artworks using color theory.

(Developed for Visual Arts, grade 1; recommended for Visual Arts, grade 1, and Biology, grades K-8)

by Brandon Neely

This curriculum unit engages my Statistics students in a data‑driven investigation of food insecurity and chronic disease across Washington, DC. Students analyze how inequities in grocery store access, transportation, neighborhood investment, and the legacy of redlining shape health outcomes in the District’s eight wards. These disparities are especially visible in Wards 7 and 8, where limited food access and high poverty rates contribute to elevated rates of diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and reduced life expectancy.

Using ward‑level datasets, students apply descriptive statistics, correlation, and regression modeling to examine patterns in food access and chronic disease. Because my students live across all eight wards, these analyses connect directly to their lived experiences and observations of inequity in their communities. The unit centers student‑driven inquiry, encouraging them to pose biologically meaningful questions, such as how proximity to grocery stores relates to diabetes rates or how food insecurity may influence stress and inflammation.

This approach is deeply informed by my participation in the Yale National Initiative’s Asking Questions in Biology seminar, which emphasized that meaningful scientific inquiry and discovery begin with authentic questioning. Ultimately, the unit builds statistical literacy and empowers students to use data to question, understand, and improve the world around them.

(Developed for Probability and Statistics, grades 11-12; recommended for Statistics, grades 11-12; and Biology, grades 10-11)

by Valerie Schwarz

This unit is designed to teach students to think like scientists. The students will explore skin, the largest organ in the human body, while learning about fingerprints. The unit will explore why humans, primates, and koalas have fingerprints and attempt to explain the reason for the evolutionary adaptation. They will formulate their own questions and use the data cycle. Students will explore bar graphs and line graphs as they learn how to classify fingerprints into the three main categories: arches, loops, and whorls. The students will learn the Question Formulation Technique (QFT) as described by The Right Question Institute. This unit is designed for grade 4 math and science courses. It could be adapted for use in grades 4-7 science courses. The questioning strategy (QFT) could be used in any course or content area.

(Developed for Science and Math, grade 4; recommended for Science, grades 4-7; and Math, grade 4)

by Jolene Smith

In this unit, scientists like Mendel and Punnett studied genetics using plants like peas and other plants. Later, they experimented with additional plants and eventually animals using the Punnett Square.

Eventually, human genomes became part of genetic research, focusing on parental genes. The simple Punnett Square activity became part of classroom learning. Students learned to analyze Mendel’s pea experiment and parental genes from their genetic results. They learned why close marriages are frowned upon within families and cultures.

Ptolemy and native tribe marriages are viewed as examples of marriages that fail in the genetic line. Certain tribes have clans that keep bands from intermarrying within the same clan.

Keywords: Mendel, Punnett, genetics, traits, Ptolemy, Apache, Navajo, Clans, K’é

(Developed for Science, Biology, and Social Studies, grade 5; recommended for Science, Biology, and Social Studies, grade 6)

by Donavan Spotz

"The Martian Garden: Bridging the Gap from Regolith to Soil" is a comprehensive educational unit that tasks students with transforming sterile Martian regolith into a functional, life-sustaining ecosystem. By assuming the role of "Lead Botanists," students move beyond passive learning to engage in human-machine partnerships, using AI to synthesize complex datasets from rovers. The core challenge involves in situ resource utilization, converting toxic, weathered basalt into fertile soil through a sequence of mechanical, chemical, and biological interventions.

This unit is going is for my 8th grade science class but can easily be expanded or simplified for a higher or lower grade level. Exploring the methodology of using red lava rock to simulate  regolith. A primary obstacle is water management; students must engineer solutions for Mars’ toxic perchlorate brines using bio-desalination with cyanobacteria and gravity filtration through porous basalt. The biological "living machine" is then establishes a microbial starter kit and pioneer species to fix nitrogen and introduce organic carbon. Arthropods are introduced as "soil architects" to provide aeration and prevent surface capping through physical engineering.

A holistic management framework, guides students in managing the mineral cycle, water cycle, community dynamics, and energy flow. This extraterrestrial simulation serves as a powerful analogy for Earth’s soil crisis, drawing parallels between Martian toxicity and terrestrial issues like erosion, salinization, and chemical overuse. Ultimately, the project aligns with Oklahoma Academic Standards, teaching students that sustainability is not merely a mission objective but a fundamental condition for human survival, requiring global cooperation and a deep stewardship of biological communities.

(Developed for Science, grade 8; recommended for Biology, grades 9-10, and Environmental Science and Agricultural Science, grades 10-11)

by Renae Walters

This curriculum unit is called "We are a family on this Earth through Earth’s resources." I will be covering succussions of ecosystems. There are two types of succession of ecosystems.

In primary succession, an ecosystem is starting fresh with no previous plantation to grow from. Primary succession happens when a volcano erupts and lava spills out over the ground and covers the ground with lava. When that lava dries and cools down, it becomes bare rock or when a glacier melts and land that was once frozen is now able to grow producers.

The weather breaks down the rock with rain and wind erodes the rock away.  That is when an ecosystem is fully thriving again and can support all the consumers' needs and the environment has biodiversity in it. This process takes about one hundred to one hundred fifty years, sometimes it takes hundred years, to reach a climax community.

In secondary succession, the process to reach full climax community takes a shorter time, about half the time of primary succession. An ecosystem that is in secondary succession may take as little as fifty years to one hundred years to achieve full climax community in an ecosystem.  The reason being is that these places already have the soil and the plantation to regrow itself. It takes less time to achieve what it needs to than an environment that is starting from scratch. An ecosystem is fully thriving again and can support all the consumers' needs, and the environment has biodiversity in it. This process takes about one hundred to one hundred fifty years, to reach a climax community.

(Developed for Science, grades 6-8; recommended for Science, grades 4, 5, and 9)