1. Diverse Places

The National Trust for Historic Preservation is an organization that works to preserve historic buildings, places and natural areas so that people may enjoy them in the future. Each year, the National Trust calls attention to places that need help right away. Its Most Endangered Historic Places List has just been announced, and it includes places important to America's diverse history. The landmarks include Hinchliffe Stadium in Paterson, New Jersey, which is one of the last surviving ballparks of baseball's Negro Leagues that existed before African Americans were allowed to play in Major League Baseball, and the Metropolitan A.M.E. Church in Washington, D.C., an African American landmark and one of the nation's most important religious institutions. Also on the list is the Juana Briones House in Palo Alto, California, which was built by a pioneering woman who was one of the original Hispanic residents of San Francisco and a successful businesswoman. As a class, talk about buildings, parks or natural areas that are important to your community. Then write a letter to the editor of the newspaper asking people to work to preserve one of them for the future.

Learning Standards: Responding to a variety of oral, visual, written and electronic texts by making connections to students' personal lives and the lives of others; writing fluently for multiple purposes.

2. Huge Oil Problem

More than 6 million gallons of oil have leaked into the ocean waters of the Gulf of Mexico since an oil-drilling rig blew up in an explosion a month ago. And this week, officials are closely watching the coasts of Louisiana, Alabama and Florida to see how much damage the oil is causing. Key concerns are signs that heavy oil is hitting the shores of Louisiana and the fact the oil has entered a fast-moving ocean current that sweeps through the Florida Keys and along beaches that tourists love. Although an emergency vacuum tube was collecting more than 200,000 gallons of oil a day from the leaking well, the BP oil company said the leak is releasing more oil than originally thought. As a class, read a story in the newspaper about the oil spill or another example of human activities affecting the environment. Write a sentence or two explaining the situation.

Learning Standards: Explaining ecosystem concepts and processes; describing positive and negative effects of humans on wildlife and the environment.

3. Chugging on Mars

Since landing in 2004, the rover spacecraft named Opportunity has been chugging around the surface of the planet Mars, checking out craters and taking pictures of rocks. And now it has set a new record as the longest-running U.S. spacecraft on the planet next out from Earth in the solar system. Opportunity has broken the record of the Viking 1 landing craft by operating more than six years and 116 days, the length of time Viking was active from 1976 to 1982. Opportunity was designed to run just three months, but has shown no signs of slowing down or stopping. Opportunity's twin rover, Spirit, could break Opportunity's record if it comes back to life after "hibernating" during the Mars winter when there is not enough sunlight to power its solar batteries. As a class, talk about reasons scientists want to study Mars or other planets. Then think like an inventor and come up with an idea for a space invention. Draw a comic strip for the newspaper showing your invention in action.

Learning Standard: Showing how science concepts can be interpreted through creative expression, such as language arts and fine arts; explaining how we learn about the universe.

4. George Washington's Book

Legend has it that George Washington never told a lie, but on at least one occasion he never returned a library book. The first president of the United States checked out a book called "The Law of Nations" in October 1789, but never returned it to the New York Society Library, the oldest library in New York City. The book was discovered missing when the library was repairing its old checkout records from the time Washington was president and the federal government shared the library's building. Soon after, the museum staff at Washington's Mount Vernon home in Virginia offered to replace the missing book with a copy printed at the same time. Mount Vernon did not pay an overdue book fine - which would be about $300,000 after 221 years! In groups or pairs, talk about books you have read that you have enjoyed or found useful. Then think like a book reviewer for the newspaper. Write a short review of a book you liked, telling others why it is worth reading.

Learning Standards: Reading and writing fluently, speaking confidently, listening and interacting appropriately, viewing critically and representing creatively; developing and applying critical standards for individual use.

5. Old Softies

It's not easy to find ancient fossils of soft-bodied creatures, because their body parts did not usually survive long enough to turn to stone. But the discovery of hundreds of soft-body fossils in the northern African country of Morocco is giving scientists new information about what they were like nearly 500 million years ago - and what conditions were needed to preserve them as fossils. The discovery by Yale University researchers suggests that soft-bodied animals appeared on Earth 30 million years earlier than previously thought. Some of the fossils of sponges, worms, mollusks and horseshoe crabs found date back 480 million years, making them the oldest ever discovered from this period in history. Scientists, historians and even newspaper reporters study the past to explain how things happened or how things work. In teams or pairs, find something in the newspaper that was built or happened in the past. Write a paragraph describing something this thing or event could teach people today.

Learning Standards: Acquiring information from multiple sources; posing social science questions; writing fluently for multiple purposes.