Dissection and Lab, Interactive Notebooks, Lesson Plans
At the start of the school year it can be a daunting task to reteach the scientific method to your students, especially considering they were just in school two months ago! To help you combat scientific method regression, we’ve gathered 10 easy ways to teach the...
Interactive Notebooks, Lesson Plans
Every year, before we start digging into the topic of cells, we want students to be able to tell the difference between living and non-living things. You wouldn’t believe how many students think water is alive – but that’s a great starting point. At the end of this...
Dissection and Lab, Interactive Notebooks, Lesson Plans
It’s the first thing kids learn when they enter into their very first science class – the backbone of all scientific inquiry – the scientific method. You’d think that students would know and understand how to implement those six little steps...
Interactive Notebooks, Lesson Plans
We are fascinated by cells! But, “cells” might be one of the most difficult life science topics for middle school students. Even though most students learn about cells in elementary school, many middle schoolers don’t remember much about them. The idea of a cell, and...
Interactive Notebooks, Lesson Plans
Welcome to the first week, teach! Ready to start the new semester? Wait a minute… who ARE these people? ALL new faces and ALL new names, it’s a wonder we can remember our own in those first few days of awkward introductions and mispronunciations....
Interactive Notebooks, Lesson Plans
The first week of school is considered by many to be a “bust.” Buses arrive late, student schedules are changing daily, kids can’t find their classrooms, homeroom is extended to discuss rules and regulations, dismissal is a mess… you name it!...
Classroom Management, Interactive Notebooks, Lesson Plans
“Grab a sheet, have a seat, get started on your work…” Every year, as new students would filter into our classes, we would chant that at the door. Some students clapped along and found it funny, others, not so much. It was part of our rules and procedures, and after...
Classroom Management, Interactive Notebooks, Pedagogy and Differentiation
Interactive Notebooks, INBs, ISNs… whatever you call them, they are proving to be THE MOST popular and talked about way to engage students in the classroom. We used our interactive notebooks from day one and we found that our students loved them because it was their...
Classroom Management, Interactive Notebooks, Pedagogy and Differentiation
In the summer of 2009, we had the most fortunate luck to land a professional development workshop that literally changed our lives. That summer, we spent two weeks on Skidaway and Sapelo Islands, studying the coastal Georgia ecosystems alongside ecologists and UGA...
Classroom Management, Interactive Notebooks, Lesson Plans
Do you worry about how much time it takes to implement interactive science notebooks or journals in your classroom? Middle school and secondary teachers are being tasked to change course and use interactive notebooks as part of their science curriculum because of the...
Dissection and Lab, Interactive Notebooks, Lesson Plans
Doesn’t it feel like your state standards are ever-changing? Just when you think you’ve mastered your teaching style and have come up with a perfect method for delivering life science content to your knowledge-hungry students, something happens –...
Dissection and Lab, Interactive Notebooks, Lesson Plans, Pedagogy and Differentiation
What happens when your school budget won’t allow for enough dissection specimen for your class, or you have a student who refuses to participate in dissection for personal or religious reasons? What do you do when a student misses an entire week of school, and it just...
