1. Balanced Meals & Exercise

It is a big problem in this country that many people are overweight. For most people, losing weight is simply a matter of eating healthy foods and being active. In the newspaper, find examples of people being active, getting exercise or making healthy food choices. Then plan an original YouTube video to encourage people your age to make healthy lifestyle choices. Write an outline for a script, detailing both words and images that would get the message across. Your video can be humorous or serious. Finish by giving it an eye-catching title.

Learning Standards: Showing how science concepts can be interpreted through creative expression, such as language arts and fine arts; representing creatively.

2. Root Words

Figuring out words you don't know is an important skill in reading. Sometimes "root" words can help you out. Root words are words that are part of larger words. "Read" would be a root word of "re-read" or "reading" for example. Skim stories on the front page of the newspaper. Make a list of 10 words that contain a root word. Write what you think each word means. Then look them up in a dictionary.

Learning Standards: Employing multiple strategies to recognize words when constructing meaning, including the use of context clues, word roots and affixes, and syntax; acquiring information from multiple sources.

3. What an Honor

For the first time since the Vietnam War, the U.S. military has nominated a living solider for the Medal of Honor. The medal is the highest award for valor in the United States. The soldier's name has not been released, and the White House must review the nomination before it is official, but the soldier's actions must be truly extraordinary for the military to take this step. Six Medals of Honor have been awarded posthumously (after the person died) for heroic actions in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Read articles about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan published in the newspaper over the last week. Write a blog or journal entry expressing your opinions about what has happened, is happening or will happen. Share with your friends and discuss.

Learning Standards: Engaging peers in constructive conversation about matters of public concern by clarifying issues, considering opposing views, applying democratic values, anticipating consequences and working toward making decisions; employing the persuasive power of text to influence readers.

4. Lefty Woes

A U.S. study of college baseball pitchers has found that left-handed pitchers may be more likely to be injured. Researchers from the Center for Sport and Motion Analysis at Texas Metroplex Institute for Sports Performance found differences in the throwing motions of left- and right-handed pitchers. In the study, left-handed players had more stress on the humerus, which is the bone that runs from the shoulder to the elbow. Too much stress on the bone could lead fracture. Read an article in the newspaper about ways technology is helping to prevent, diagnose or treat illness, injury or disease. Write about what you learned from the article and examine what type of people you feel this discovery will help most.

Learning Standards: Describing technology used in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases; showing how common themes of science, mathematics and technology apply in real world contexts.

5. Music to My Ears

On July 14, 1995, a revolutionary piece of technology changed the way we listen to music. It was then called by the formal name of "MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3" and it was a way to make CD-quality music files small enough to be stored on a computer and transferred across the Internet. It is now simply called MP3. And although many would say this technology is a good thing, others would argue that it led to copyright infringement and the illegal distribution of music over the Internet, causing music CD sales to drop by 29 percent between 2000 and 2006. Music companies filed lawsuits claiming they had been victimized and won judgments against hundreds of Internet music users. Read the local section of the newspaper to find an article about someone who has been victimized. Using facts from the article, write a letter to the accused as if you were the victim. Next, write a letter to the victim as if you were the person accused of committing the offense.

Learning Standards: Considering the effects of an individual's actions on other people, how one acts in accordance with the rule of law, and how one acts in a virtuous and ethically responsible way as a member of society; writing fluently for multiple purposes.