Task cards can be a great tool in a teacher’s repertoire of science activities. They are perfect for a classroom review game, practice for early finishers, and formative assessments. If placed around the room, task cards are an easy way to incorporate movement and collaboration in the classroom as students
So you’ve just started your year and you’re immediately hit with a unit on the scientific method. While many high school units include more traditional lessons, a scientific method unit naturally lends itself to inquiry learning and hands-on activities. Using open-ended scientific inquiry at the beginning of the year can
It’s back-to-school season and you just got thrown into teaching an Anatomy and Physiology course. You know this class should have lots of lab activities and hands-on lessons, but you don’t know where to start. Here is a list of supplies and equipment traditionally used for an Anatomy and Physiology
Have you been staring at a blank page trying to organize your scope and sequence for an Environmental Science course? Have you rearranged your lesson plans and activities over and over with no success? Finding a good order for your teaching resources is particularly difficult for an Environmental Science or
Medical terminology can seem quite complex, but it is all based in Greek and Latin roots. Teaching our students to use Greek and Latin prefixes, suffixes, and root words can help them grow into scientifically literate citizens and help them in future medical courses. In college, I had a Biology
Many middle school and high school science classes include animal dissections. They can be included in a discussion of human body systems or as an exploration of comparative anatomy during a unit on animal classification. Dissections can be intimidating for teachers and students, although they can be one of the
Creating sub plans can be one of the most stressful parts of teaching. And nothing is worse than an emergency sub day because you’re sick or you have to stay home to care for someone else. Without warning, it’s easy to tell the sub to play a video or use
It’s the end of the semester. You and your students are exhausted and ready for a break. Your administrator, however, has requested an end-of-course or midterm assessment. Although a traditional final exam may be easy to grade, there are many more engaging ways to assess what your students have learned
Do you struggle to make your cellular energy unit engaging for students? I have, too! Photosynthesis and cellular respiration are abstract concepts and many students struggle with them. Rather than just drilling them on molecular pathways and chemical equations, I’ve always tried to incorporate labs and activities to bring these
Doodle notes. It’s a term you’ve probably heard in your teacher circles, on social media, and possibly even in professional development training. But what are doodle notes and how can they be used in the high school science classroom? Years ago, teachers were taught that each child had a particular
Are you a “visual learner”? Me too. Guess what- we all are. Learning styles are a popular concept in educational psychology. The idea of learning styles is that in order to best teach a student, the method of teaching needs to match the way that student learns best. Although a
I’m not sure that any high school science teacher would say she loves having students write lab reports. It’s often a lot like getting your kids to eat their vegetables- you know it’s good for them, but what a struggle to get them to do it! And grading lab reports
