Science Notebooks

I felt that I did not utilize the science notebook very well last year. In an effort to see how I could improve that, I found a few good sites that really got me inspired to make the notebook a crucial component in my class. The Scientist Notebook Toolkit was the first site I found and that led me to www.sciencenotebooks.org, which was incredibly informative. I love all the pictures they have of student work because I can show my students what I am expecting from them. The FAQ part of the site was also helpful because it clued me in to some potential problems and how others have dealt with them.

A picture is worth a thousand words...

I really like to use pictures to explain and assess students. I found this site called BIODIDAC that has TONS of images related to biology. All they ask is that you let them know you are using their images and who will benefit from their use. They even accept contributions if you are a good illustrator or photographer!

Atomic Theory Timeline

After a few trials and errors, my students are really making some progress on our Atomic Theory Timeline Wiki. You can see that some of them are plagiarizing and using wikipedia as a source (they were supposed to find two sources BESIDES wikipedia), but it is a start. It is so blatant when they copy and paste- I wonder if they think I won't notice?! They are struggling with trying to condense the information into a nice little packet that will be easy for their classmates to study. I think they might be used to fluffing things up to write a longer paper, and it can be a real challenge to condense a lot of information into a couple choice sentences!

How Stuff Works

I have found another great source of short video clips to give my lessons a touch of tech. How Stuff Works is across the board for all content types... so enjoy!

Chemistry Resource

I am doing an Atomic Theory timeline with my physical science students and have been looking for some great sources online. This site seems to be a "must use" for them- it will really help them meet all the requirements of the assignment!

Teaching Evolution

This was the scariest thing I could think of when I was in teacher preparatory classes. I have taught it a few times already but am not sure how deep to go with my middle school students. The most helpful site I have found so far is from UC Berkely.

DNA Resource Looks Promising

This is from Cold Springs Harbor- home of Barbara McClintock, one of my hero science chicks. They have some great resources for teachers- you can create your own site and lessons within their resources. I think much of it might be a tad high level for my kids, but I might use some of it. The website is www.dnai.org

Teacher's Domain

Yikes! Two in one night... couldn't help it. This one is awesome if you are trying to incorporate more technology into the classroom. It has TONS of interactive flash animations from NOVA and I am sure a plethora of other things that I don't have time to delve into...

I want to Collect Spiders!

I found this great site that has some cool lesson plans for biology from the Biology Project at the University of Arizona. I think my favorite is the spider collecting unit. These pictures were drawn by the creator of the lesson, Debora Scheidemante. Props to you, girl... I like your style :-)

Our Little Mitosis Project

So I thought it would be neat to make movies about mitosis using the manipulation kits we use in class to learn the phases of mitosis. We took digital pictures and then used Windows Movie Maker to create short films. You can see our results on TeacherTube.com if you search "mitosis manipulatives."

Can you roll your tongue? I found some great lesson plans at this website from the University of Utah.