Language Arts: Early Writing
Students research and study the earliest documented evidence of writing, beginning with the pictographs written by the Sumerians of Mesopotamia. In small groups, students research a specific type of early writing and create a multimedia presentation. This information is then used to compare the different types of early writing and the people who used it to communicate. Students create a class timeline of early writing, documenting the major changes in the ways people have recorded and communicated events and ideas.

Social Studies: Before Modernity: The Life of a Medieval Village
Students research specific aspects of life in the Middle Ages, synthesizing their findings to create an interconnected, virtual town that weaves together the stories of individuals in a web of village life.

Language Arts: "Faire" Thee Well
Students explore Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet in the context of the history of Elizabethan England. After an investigation of poetic conventions and dramatic speech, students create scenes using characters from the play and other sources. Small groups then create a Renaissance Faire, wearing costumes, and featuring the performance of their play scripts.

Social Studies: Colonialism: Whose Point of View?
Students explore the history of European colonization, capturing the points of view of both the colonizers and the colonized in illustrated timelines. They examine how colonization has shaped contemporary social, cultural, political, and economic life in the former colonies and divide into teams to debate its merits.

Language Arts: Colonial Lives
Students tell the stories of fictional people living in colonial America. Each student creates a Web page, providing an account of one day in the character's life and creating an autobiographical poem and a complete biographical outline, all linked to the character's virtual headstone. In the final phase, students create a class-wide cemetery Web site the connects all of the characters about whom they have written.

Social Studies: Climate and the Indigenous Cultures in the Americas
Students research indigenous peoples in two different geographic areas, comparing and contrasting specific facets of their lifestyles, customs, and culture and analyzing how these elements may have been shaped by the people's response to the climate and environment.

Language Arts: Weather! The Movie
Teams of students collaborate to create a disaster movie set in their community, with each team writing one scene. Students conduct research on weather-related catastrophes, write a memoir and a poem about personal experiences with natural disasters, and collaborate on the development of a scene. Each scene will include a synopsis, design descriptions, and dialogue.

Social Studies: Pioneering Space
Students research modern space exploration, investigate potential future problems in a Decisions, Decisions: Colonization simulation, and create plausible scenarios based on their research for future space exploration and enterprise.

Language Arts: Storybooks From Space
Students write and illustrate multimedia stories about space and the stars to be enjoyed by younger children. Students begin by learning about story elements and story structure. They create outlines for the stories in Inspiration and then turn them into a story map. The stories are supported by specific and relevant information and presented as hypertext links that young readers can use as learning resources.

Social Studies: Changing Government Systems
Students examine the history of voting rights and of constitutional change, investigate the interactions between the branches of the federal government, and create a Web-based simulation in which representatives of each branch of government debate and vote on a proposed Constitutional amendment.

Language Arts: Rhythm and Rhyme
Students explore contemporary poetry, learn about meter, rhyme, and free-verse forms, and experience a range of poetic voices and styles. They transform their observations and experiences into their own poems, experimenting with those styles. Students then design and publish their work in electronic books.