In my last Differentiation in the Science Classroom post, I wrote about lab reports. And now I’m going to write a post about NOT writing lab reports. (Crazy, I know, but bear with me…) Having students write a full lab report every time I did a lab would have pretty much burned me and my […]
Helping all students with writing in the science classroom can be really difficult. A lot of science teachers give up trying to teach writing, because they feel the pressure to get all of the science content crammed into the year. Lab reports take an eternity to grade. And bad lab reports take longer than an […]
Helping all students, including students with special needs and English language learners, in high school science classroom is a challenge. In this blog series, I will focus on a few different techniques that teachers can use to help each and every student in their class succeed. Some of these techniques can also help other students […]
One day, I was playing in my living room with my almost 3 year old son and we were building with his Lego® Bricks. My living room floor pretty much always looks like this: I have had a teaching challenge simmering in my head for a while now. How do I help students really […]
For a lot of students, I think the hardest thing about science is the vocabulary or the language scientists use in scientific papers, textbooks, or other teaching materials. Hypothesis? Endoplasmic Reticulum? Nucleolus vs Nucleus vs Nucleoid? Chromosome vs Chromatin vs Chromatid? It can be very hard for students to get these words straight. Why […]
My students have always been fascinated with karyotypes. I usually teach about karyotypes right after long unit on cellular respiration and photosynthesis, right before I get into mitosis and meiosis. Students often have a lot of misconceptions about chromosomes and karyotypes. Here are a few web resources and teaching ideas you can use when teaching […]
Cell Transport is one of my favorite topics to teach. Usually it’s late October and my students have gotten through biochemistry and the organelles and are wondering how it all fits together. Watching the light bulbs in my students’ heads go on when they finally understand how materials get in and out of the cell […]
With all of the Ebola and Enterovirus news lately, I created a list of web resources for teachers looking for accurate information and teaching resources on viruses. All of these links work as of 11/15/2014! Viral Life Cycle: A HHMI Viral Life Cycle Animation: http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/viral-lifecycleHerpes Life Cycle Animation: http://www.sumanasinc.com/webcontent/animations/content/herpessimplex.html Retrovirus Life Cycle Animation: http://highered.mheducation.com/sites/0072556781/student_view0/chapter18/animation_quiz_3.html Flu […]
Nothing lights up a middle school or high school student’s face more than the chance to color. Well, maybe nothing except a substitute teacher’s presence. But what if they have a substitute teacher and they are given something to color??! Watch out, Alpha Centauri. But what every teacher struggles with is how to […]
As teachers look for more ways to differentiate, they always stumble upon task cards and wonder how can I use these? What extra stationary materials do I need? Will they actually help my students? Why are they all the rage these days? Ok, here is why every teacher should try out task cards to see […]
Rachel Lynette from Minds in Bloom invited me to write about teaching heredity in elementary school and I was so excited! Here is the link to her fantastic blog and my blog post! Check it out and download my free resource for elementary school teachers!
A while ago, I brainstormed and came up with some bead and pipe cleaner activities to help my students model proteins, carbohydrates, and lipid molecules. For a year or two, I’ve been trying to figure out how to best show students what monomers are, what polymers are, and why they are important. After all, they […]