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Low Prep and Engaging Activities for Teaching Rocks and Minerals in Middle School

Earth and Space Resources, NGSS Teaching Resources, Teaching Science

Low Prep Resources for Teaching Minerals, Rocks, and the Rock Cycle!

Karla / February 22, 2025

Middle school students are naturally curious about the world around them, and geology offers a perfect opportunity to tap into […]

dinosaur fossil activity

Earth and Space Resources, NGSS Teaching Resources

Geologic History Activities and Resources

Karla / April 4, 2024

In this post, I’m sharing activities and resources for teaching one of my very favorite topics — Geologic History! This

Resources for Teaching About Plastic in the Ocean to Your Middle School Science Students blog post

Digital Teaching Resources, Earth and Space Resources, Fun Stuff, Life Science Resources, NGSS Teaching Resources, Teaching Science

Teaching about Plastic in the Ocean

Karla / May 12, 2023

Plastic in the ocean is a growing problem. It’s essential for science teachers to educate their students about the issue.

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Newton’s Laws are so much fun to explore! To reall

Newton’s Laws are so much fun to explore! To really make this inquiry, I set up 12 different mini-stations that each highlight one or more of Newton’s Laws. Students circulate around the room, following the directions on each station sign to create motion and then study it with their Newton Goggles on!

This activity gives students freedom to explore, discuss, and defend how they see Newton’s Laws in motion! 🚗 🚙

Comment NEWTON below for the link to this activity!

#middleschoolscience #iteachscience #scienceteacher #newtonslaws #middleschoolphysicalscience #middleschoolscienceteacher

If you’ve always wanted to acknowledge your studen

If you’ve always wanted to acknowledge your students’ special strengths and end the year warm and fuzzy, check out these unique student science awards!🏅

With science themes inspired by concepts, scientists, objects, and phenomena, these 65 unique awards highlight positive character traits and work ethics emphasizing social-emotional growth, kindness, curiosity, creativity, resilience, and collaboration.

There’s one here for every kind of student you have, including the iconic…
🔥Bunsen Burner Award for your student with great charisma.
🌍 Pangaea Award for your student who has an old soul.
🌖 Moon Award for your student who is always there for others.
🐝 Ecosystem Award for your student who loves the great outdoors!
+ 62 more!!

👉 Comment AWARDS below and I’ll send you the link!

#middleschoolscience #iteachscience #scienceteacher #scienceawards #middleschoolscienceteacher

🦖🦕✨ It’s Spring and you’ve gotta add the hands on

🦖🦕✨ It’s Spring and you’ve gotta add the hands on or attention spans dangle by a thread!

This “Make a Fossil” lab is the perfect way to inject some excitement into your geologic history unit, to give kids a break from test prep, or just for one of those crazy days before Spring Break!

Students follow a procedure to precisely measure the ingredients to make their plaster of Paris … they have to use graduated cylinders, scales, and some glassware so they are practicing skills while they design their own cast fossil using mini dinosaur figurines and seashells. This year I added in some mini shark figurines and they came out awesome!

After two days of drying, my students couldn’t wait to excavate their fossils… and they were psyched to take their fossil home as a souvenir!

FREEBIE ALERT ✨ You can grab this fun lab activity with lots of teacher notes, the student lab sheet, and a warm-up activity for before the lab.

Comment FOSSIL below and I’ll send it your way!

#middleschoolscience #middleschoolscienceteacher #geologichistory #fossillab #earthscienceteacher #earthsciencelab #handsonscience #fossilrecord #geologichistory #iteachearthscience

How long was a Stegosaurus? How long was a Brontos

How long was a Stegosaurus? How long was a Brontosaurus?🦕… This is a fun hook to use before we study mass extinctions. Students predict lengths of 8 different prehistoric animals and then I unroll a twine that has each animal’s length marked on it. It’s sooo hard to wrap your head around how enormous some of the animals were! My 5 year old son loved this too ☺️
#middleschoolscience #iteachscience #massextinctions #middleschoolscienceteacher #earthscienceteacher #iteachgeology

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