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 […]

Hexagonal Thinking and a Game

There are review games, and then there are Review Games.

Science Scavenger Hunts for Biology and Chemistry

A few decades ago, I wrote a scavenger hunt for my AP Chem students to do After The Test. It’s gone through many iterations, and has been modified for a general chemistry class. A Biology version soon followed. It’s a great end-of-the-year activity as students must apply what they’ve learned all year and make connections among several concepts.

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.

Experimetal Error and Lab Reports

During my first few years as a science teacher, I read more student lab reports than I care to count. I became most interested in the conclusions, because I quickly learned that conclusions could be most reflective of student learning.

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?

Experimental/Investigative Question

What is the question you want to answer?
What are your expectations for an answer, or claim, in the conclusion?

Claim Evidence Reasoning – the Terms

All teachers give lab safety instruction, right? Students learn to wear chemical splash goggles whenever chemicals, glassware, or heat are present. They learn what to wear on lab day, how to handle flames and glassware and chemicals, and how to operate and lab equipment they may need.