Isle Royale is a remote wilderness island, isolated by the frigid waters of Lake Superior, and home to populations of wolves and moose. As predator and prey, their lives and deaths are linked in a drama that is timeless and historic. Their lives are historic because we have been documenting their lives for more than five decades. This research project is the longest continuous study of any predator-prey system in the world. 

https://isleroyalewolf.org/

High School, Biology Honors

"It is a serious matter to shoot a working elephant – it is comparable to destroying a huge and costly piece of machinery – and obviously one ought not to do it."

―  George Orwell

The essay describes the experience of the English narrator, possibly Orwell himself, called upon to shoot an aggressive elephant while working as a police officer in Burma. Because the locals expect him to do the job, he does so against his better judgment, his anguish increased by the elephant's slow and painful death. The story is regarded as a metaphor for colonialism as a whole, and for Orwell's view that "when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys." 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_an_Elephant

High School  English

“You have something I want. You may think you have some idea of what you have in your possession, but you do not. Soon, he will be back with me. He means more to me than you will ever know.” 

―  Din Djarin

The Mandalorian's parental role in the series makes him a softer and more relatable character; he changes in a positive way because of raising the Child, becoming less selfish and self-absorbed. He risked his life and drastically changed his career as a bounty hunter to accept his responsibility as the Child's caretaker and guardian, marking a significant parental sacrifice. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mandalorian

Middle School, Grade 7 math - The chalkboard has the equation from the example on that day's assignment, the human figure is the math teacher, and the Mandalorian was in response to the Baby Yoda plush.

“There are things you can't back down on, things you gotta take a stand on. But it's up to you to decide what them things are. You have to demand respect in this world, ain't nobody just gonna hand it to you. How you carry yourself, what you stand for--that's how you gain respect. But, little one, ain't nobody's respect worth more than your own.”

― Mildred D. Taylor

In the book, Taylor explores struggles of African Americans in 1930s Mississippi through the perspective of nine-year-old Cassie Logan. The novel contains several themes, including Jim Crow segregation, Black landownership, sharecropping, the Great Depression, and lynching.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roll_of_Thunder,_Hear_My_Cry

Middle School English

A frog’s tympanic membrane, or tympanum, is the circular patch of skin directly behind its eye that we commonly call its eardrum. It functions much like our eardrum does –the tympanum transmits sound waves to the middle and inner ear, allowing a frog to hear both in the air and below water. In addition, this membrane serves to keep water and debris from entering a frog’s ears.

https://naturallycuriouswithmaryholland.wordpress.com/2013/08/15/a-frogs-tympanum/

Lobsters do not show typical signs of senescence. For them, life just goes on until an inevitable end. Unlike people, as they age, lobsters do not weaken, and they continue to grow, feed as normal and reproduce. They can also regenerate limbs if they lose them.

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/are-lobsters-immortal.html

High School Biology

Through a series of cracks within and beneath the volcano, the vent connects to one or more linked storage areas of molten or partially molten rock (magma). This connection to fresh magma allows the volcano to erupt over and over again in the same location. In this way, the volcano grows ever larger, until it is no longer stable. 

https://www.usgs.gov/programs/VHP/about-volcanoes

Sea turtles don’t retract into their shells.  Unlike other turtles, sea turtles cannot retract their flippers and head into their shells. Their streamlined shells and large paddle-shaped flippers make them very agile and graceful swimmers. In the water, their rear flippers are used as rudders, for steering.

https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/10-tremendous-turtle-facts

Middle School Earth Science & Life Science classes

“Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” 

―  Andy Warhol

High School Media Editing class, the teacher was a fan of Star Wars.

“Never forget, the words are not the reality, only reality is reality; picture symbols are the idea, words are confusion.”  

―  The Egyptian Book of the Dead

“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.”  

―  Michelangelo

“You know the rules and so do I.” 

―  Rick Astley

Middle School World History, on a day where each group had a project on a different set of religions and mythology from different chapters of the textbook. 

"Bones and muscles work together, or you aren’t going anywhere. Muscles always pull, even when you push on something like a door somewhere in your body your arm and leg muscles are in tension. They are all attached to bones, and those bones are pushing; they’re in compression. By pulling on bones you can breathe, talk, and move all over the world. "

https://www.billnye.com/the-science-guy/bones-and-muscle

"Every single thing around you is made of chemicals. Plants, rocks, computers, food, and you are bunches of chemicals. All chemicals are built with elements, the 109 different symbols on the Periodic Table. Different combinations of elements make different chemicals."

https://www.billnye.com/the-science-guy/chemical-reactions