I’m one month into the distance learning adventure with my middle school science classes and I have had ups and downs with various tools that I’ve tried. I tried a handful of educational resources that caused my students or me confusion and stress and I…
The Age of Distance Learning Is Upon Us With the onset of the Coronavirus threat, we are all looking for ways to keep our students engaged virtually. Instead of printing sets of Cornell Doodle Notes on paper, this article explains how you can use a…
Maybe it’s in my head because I myself am such a visual learner, but I feel like my students take activities and assignments more seriously when they are aesthetically-pleasing! I think the engagement factor for an activity can be instantaneous with a thoughtfully designed worksheet!…
Experimental design is an umbrella term for a big concept! Science pedagogy used to have us box it up with a pretty bow and call it ‘the scientific method’. And in order to practice good science, there is absolutely a value to understanding the objective…
Student-designed mousetrap cars are a great way to incorporate engineering and design principles into your physics unit! Student groups will design, construct, and race their mousetrap cars while learning about energy transfer, simple machines, and speed!…
I had a proud teacher moment this February when I realized that I had trained my 8th graders to effectively complete Cornell Doodle Notes all on their own. I put the simple instructions on the screen to choose a scaffolded level of notes from the…
How Can We Differentiate Complex Content for Our Various Learners? At the middle school level, it’s sometimes a great challenge to differentiate for various learning styles when you’re in the midst of a chemistry unit. Imagine learning about chemical bonding for the very first time.…
A couple of years ago, I started writing my lesson plans using the 5E instructional model. IT WAS A GAME CHANGER! Something about scrapping those ‘old school’ teacher terms of “anticipatory set”, “input”, “independent practice”, etc. helped me to plan more fun and interesting lessons.…
As an 8th grade science teacher, when Halloween time crept up in the Fall, I always wished that I had a fun, potions-themed, Halloween-esque science lab for my students. But with all the craziness of jumping into the school year, parent-teacher conferences, half-days, holidays, and…
What better way to learn about heat transfer than to experience it firsthand?! Basic thermodynamic concepts provide a fantastic foundation for students learning chemistry and physics. One of my favorite station labs of the year are my heat stations and the learning from these stations…
