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.

Photosynthesis

Teaching photosynthesis can be daunting. How much do I teach? How can I make photosynthesis simple without dumbing it down and leaving out important structures and steps?

Holiday Hardtack Candy – A Chemistry Lab

It’s December. School is crazy – assemblies, upcoming exams. Kids are crazy. Life is crazy. You’re wishing the last week would go by quickly and smoothly. Students are just wishing for some fun.

So – what can you do with Chemistry classes for a fun winter holiday celebration?

Make hardtack candy.

Learning Ions

Somewhere during the first few years of teaching chemistry, I decided to ask students to memorize the formulas for common ions. I don’t remember why I did this.

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.

Collaboration: Building Collaboration Skills

I learned that I couldn’t just throw a group of kids together and tell them to ‘collaborate” and expect them to know what to do. I couldn’t just throw them an activity that’s supposed to be collaborative and expect them to know the strategies needed to make the activity work. And I certainly couldn’t just tell them what highly successful collaborative teams do and expect them to translate words into a fabulous project.