Lab Safety and Toxic Chemicals
Lab Safety and Toxic Chemicals How can we help students work safely with toxic chemicals? What IS a “toxic chemical” anyway? I taught science for about 10 years before even thinking about toxic chemicals. Then, one summer. I got an internship in the materials directorate at WPAFB. There, I learned what toxicity really is, […]
Notebooks and Binders for Student Organization
Notebooks or Binders for Student Organization Does your class start like this? ” I forgot my…..” “I can’t find my…..” *sounds of frantic paper shuffling* Are you tired of beginning every class this way? I was, too. Enter: The Science Notebook. What, exactly, is the Science Notebook? A few decades ago, I started showing […]
Test Review Strategy – Summarization in Student Learning
Once we’ve done the usual steps – sharing content and activities and labs – and are ready to ask students to show what they know, it’s time for students to do some serious processing. Enter summarization.
The Scientific Method and the Dollar Tree
You log into Facebook, and there’s THAT friend, the grammar expert. You know, that well-meaning grammar cop who is on a personal mission to correct every grammar or spelling error, ever. We love that person, and sometimes we learn from that person. Some of us may or may not recognize ourselves in that person.
I am not that person. Oh, no. I have a far more nerdy mission.
Teaching Vocabulary
“Vocab.”
Have you heard colleagues, pre-service teachers, and students use this term? Have you watched students cringe inwardly when they hear it, as they assume there will be a session of copying definitions from a textbook or Google?
Back to School Activities NOT To Do
It’s the first day of school.
You welcome students at the door and show them to their seats. You pass out books and materials, introduce yourself. You read the syllabus and get your kids motivated with an icebreaker. Right?
Nope. Not me.
Student Collaboration: Building a Classroom Culture
I took a hot minute (read: decades) to learn to foster a culture of collaboration in my classroom. I learned the most important pieces of the puzzle pretty much by coincidence.
Science Literacy
We all know what literacy is, right? What about literacy in science?