Information Skills — Grade 8

Underground Railroad quilts: Fact or folklore?

In this lesson, students explore the controversy surrounding a book entitled Hidden in Plain View: A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad, which was published as a non-fiction account of fugitive slaves sending coded messages through quilt patterns. Students evaluate numerous sources and assess the validity of each in an attempt to determine if the quilt codes are fact or folklore.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 and 11–12 Information Skills and Social Studies)

By Abby Stotsenberg.

Resources on the web

Nearsightedness

This lesson gives students the opportunity to examine the nature of scientific research in the context of research pertaining to myopia, or nearsightedness. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 6–8 Information Skills)

Provided by: American Association for the Advancement of Science