"Words to Live By" from Famous Scientists

These famous scientists teach us about life as well as about science.

#KindnessNation

#WeHoldTheseTruths

We teach about the work of famous scientists all the time in our classes.  If you take one of my classes, then it is a given that you know that Jonas Salk developed a life-saving polio vaccine, that Stephen Hawking changed the way we think about our universe, that Jane Goodall works tirelessly on behalf of her beloved chimpanzees, and that nothing makes sense in a biology class without the work of Charles Darwin.   These people made (and make) tremendous contributions to various fields of study, but they also have a "human" side.  They teach us not only about science, but about human nature, about the value of hard work, about tolerance and acceptance, and about the importance of perseverance, never giving up, and never losing hope.

Click image to download free mini-posters.

With this in mind, I have developed a set of classroom mini-posters highlighting quotes from scientists that offer words of wisdom.  This is a "forever free" product in my TeachersPayTeachers store.  All of the mini-posters print out on 8.5 x 11 sized paper.  They can be quickly laminated and used to make a bulletin board or wall display.  As our students sit in our classes and look about the room, hopefully their eyes will land on one of these posters and provide them with the inspiration to succeed and overcome the hurdles of life.

So, what's up with the hashtags?  I am honored to join a large group of teacher-authors on TpT in this hashtag event to provide lots and lots of free classroom materials for all subjects and grade levels.  The idea is to provide a wealth of free materials that teach and reinforce character, kindness, tolerance, anti-bullying, empathy, inclusion, and equality for all.  Let's face it ... 2016 was a very difficult year for our nation.  Regardless of your beliefs, opinions or convictions, teachers need materials to bring out the best in our students.  This hashtag event will offer "forever free" materials that are not political in nature, but rather offer quality life lessons.

Here is a sample of the mini-posters.

Be sure to search on TpT, Facebook, and Instagram for these hashtags:  #KindnessNation and #WeHoldTheseTruths.  

This blog post is part of the Secondary Smorgasbord Blog Hop event.  As always, thanks to Darlene Anne Curran (The ELA Buffet) and Pamela Kranz (Desktop Learning Adventures) for hosting this event!  

An InLinkz Link-up

5 Free Lessons to Leave in Your Science Sub Folder

Prepare your sub folder NOW for your unexpected absence!

We all know this story.  We have lived this story over and over and over in our teaching careers.

• It is 4:30 am and you wake up to a very sick child.  You have to call by 5 am to get a sub.
• You are already running late. On the way to school, you have a flat tire. There is no way you are going to make it in time.
• While at school, you get an emergency call, and have to leave immediately.
• And occasionally, even WE (teachers) get sick and need to see a doctor.
• How many times have you said, "I would rather go to school than have to make out plans for the substitute teacher?"

Such is the nature of life. There are always going to be unexpected events in our lives that we have no control over. What you do have control over is how you handle them. Do you really want to be scrambling around in the dark at 4:30 an trying to put together some materials to send to your substitute teacher? Well, I must admit, I have been that teacher.  And you have, too!

Let's change that right now.  Here are 5 FREE lessons that you can download, print, and leave in your sub folder.  Even better, these are available in paperless digital versions for use in Google Apps.  The printable lessons are perfect for traditional classroom settings, and the digital versions are perfect for distance learning and 1:1 classrooms. When the unexpected happens to you, you can remain calm knowing that your students will have quality lessons to complete in your absence.  Of the 5 lessons listed and linked below, 3 of them can be used in any type of science class.  If you teach, for example, a life science class and a physical science class, you can leave these three lessons for both classes.

So here they are.  Don't procrastinate.... go ahead and click on the links and print these lessons out!  They are free, so what do you have to lose?

Click image to download free lesson.

1.  GRAPHING:  The need to review and reinforce graphing and data analysis skills is constant with our students.  Truly, this is the subject for another blog post!  Our students can use all the practice they can get, so why not have them practice while you are away from school?  In fact, if our students completed this activity several times during the year, it would be to their advantage!  In this activity, students are given data that must be graphed, followed by a set of thought-provoking and critical thinking data analysis questions.

2.  CHARACTERISTICS OF LIFE POWERPOINT PLUS STUDENT WORKSHEETS:

This is best used near the beginning of the school year, but it can also serve as a great review for your end of course test in the spring. This resource consists of 11 PowerPoint slides (and Google Slides!) that cover the basic characteristics of all living things. The slides are bright and colorful and contain some really cool pictures. As the PowerPoint is played, students complete the 3-page worksheet. The questions on the student worksheet are designed to get students thinking and to generate class discussion.

Click image to download

Click image to download.

3.  STUDY SKILL GRAPHIC ORGANIZER: Want to leave a sub plan that covers what you have just been teaching?  This is a "compare and contrast" graphic organizer.  I use this single page all year long in my science classes.  Whatever it is that you have been teaching in science, I am quite sure that it contains concepts that can be compared and contrasted.  For example:  Students might compare and contrast photosynthesis to respiration, mitosis to meiosis, vascular plants to nonvascular plants, the three chambered heart to the four chambered heart or prokaryotic cells to eukaryotic cells. 

Click image to download.

4.  DNA INFORMATIONAL TEXT WITH GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS:  This download has everything you need to leave an informational text lesson for your students.  Watson and Crick wrote a famous one page paper on the structure of DNA.  (This paper is in the public domain.)  This lesson provides the article, and the graphic organizers.  This is still a perfect lesson for a sub even if you are not covering DNA in your class.  The idea is that students get practice reading scientific journal articles. The graphic organizers help them read for understanding.

Click image to download.

5.  GENETICS MONOHYBRID PRACTICE PROBLEMS: This lesson is best suited for life science or biology classes. Students are given a two-page worksheet of monohybrid, or one factor, genetics problems. This is a great review for end of course testing!

As already stated, the above 5 lessons are free.  Go ahead and download them all and check them out.  I am certain that you will find them suitable for use as emergency lesson plans in your science classes. After all, this (<---) is what we hope for our students in our absence!

5 Ways to Encourage Awareness of Global Science Issues in Your Classroom

It's easy and it doesn't take

 much time!

It's time for the Secondary Smorgasbord Blog Hop event for November.  I was super excited when I discovered that the theme for this month is "Creating a Global Classroom."  I have been involved with a few things just this month that are perfect for encouraging a sense of global awareness in the science students we teach.

Is it really so important that we encourage and teach global awareness in our science class?  I think the answer to that is an emphatic YES!  Making students aware of world issues and teaching them to get involved is important, but it doesn't fall naturally into our curriculum, and we have to really make special efforts in our planning to work it into our teaching.  I am just like every other high school science teacher ..... I fell pressure to teach, teach, teach concepts and details because it might be on the end of course test or on the AP exam.  I always feel like I can't spare a minute of teaching time on something that might not be on a standardized test!  (We will save the discussion of standardized testing for another day!)  The bottom line is that we will have to make adjustments and do some creative planning to incorporate other concepts and ideas that fall outside of our curriculum.

So without further ado, here are 5 things you can do in your classroom to increase global awareness.

1.  Start at home.  Students need to get involved with service projects within their own communities.  Nothing brings a deeper awareness and empathy for others than being involved with it on a personal basis.  Here is one activity (free download) that I do during the holiday season.  My "Dichotomous Key to Holiday Giving" is a fun science activity that involves a dichotomous classification key.  The students get a refresher in the concepts of classification, and our local food bank gets stockings filled with treats that they can dispense with their other food items.  Check this blog post for more details.

2.  Start your preparations for Earth Day now!
What??  It's only November and Earth Day is in April!  I know, I know!  But you can't incorporate effective Earth Day activities if you don't start now. The perfect time to begin your teaching and lessons on Earth Day is when you return to the classroom in early January.  Use this free Earth Day PowerPoint to tell your students about Earth Day and why it is important.  Then brainstorm ideas with your class about what you can do.  You might plan to plant some trees, clean up an area of neglected highway, or help your community with some new landscaping at the local park.

3.  Take a virtual field trip with The Nature Conservancy.  Several times a year, you and your science class can go on a live, virtual field trip to an amazing ecological location.  The next one is coming up soon, and you can get the details from a blog post I have just written.  Each field trip includes outstanding video footage and free downloadable lesson plans.  If you can't participate in the live event, all of the field trips have been archived so that you can use them at your convenience.  Check out this link to NatureWorks Everywhere for all the possibilities.

4.  Use a curriculum that teaches about a global science issue.  "Keep Wild Animals Wild" is a program that I have recently thoroughly investigated.  The curriculum is free and is for grades K-8.  The materials are specialized for grades K-2, 3-5, and 6-8.  Use this link for a detailed description.  Students will learn of the problems facing Earth's fragile ecosystems, habitat destruction, climate change, and the illegal wildlife trade.  These are certainly global issues that students need to be made aware of.


5.  Make use of the many, many online resources that are available that teach about global science issues. Try to devote the first few minutes of your class for a current event article, or show a short video to raise awareness.  Here are links to some of my favorite sites:

Smithsonian Science Education,   PBS Science and Nature,   National Geographic,   Science Illustrated,   Discover Magazine,   BBC Earth, and Scientific American.    

Graphing, Scientific Method, and Data Analysis Practice

Click image to download this free product.

Great review for a vital skill.

And it's free.

Critical thinking, problem solving, and data analysis. These are terms we hear all the time as teachers of science. Let's get right to the point: We cannot stress these skills enough in our classes. We must teach our science students to be great thinkers and problem solvers! Activities that provide practice in the skills of science should be used often in our classes, and not just at the beginning of the school year. Set aside some time in your class throughout the year to review, reinforce and practice important science skills.

Add this free activity on graphing and data analysis to your teaching arsenal. The activity covers many important skills:  Informational text reading, data tables, graphing data, the scientific method, and data analysis.  The students will graph the data that is given in the reading, and complete a page of thought provoking questions about the data.

This activity is timeless.  I love that I can use this activity at the beginning of the school year to teach scientific graphing, but I can also use it at the end of the year for preparation for end of course testing.

What Will You Do For Earth Day?

There's not much time left to plan!  Earth Day is quickly approaching on April 22!

Has Earth Day slipped up on you this year?  If you are like me, end of course testing is quickly approaching and there is hardly any time left to squeeze in anything extra.  But the nature lover in me just can't let Earth Day go by without a mention in my science classes.  Surely we can find 10-15 minutes on April 22 to celebrate Planet Earth.  Here are some fresh ideas for your science classroom that require little to no preparation time.

First, I have a FREE Earth Day PowerPoint in my TpT store.  It is about the history of Earth Day and what led to the creation of Earth Day over 40 years ago.  The PowerPoint is relatively short, and can be viewed in about 10 minutes.  All you have to do is download it and play it.  Easy-peasy!

Click this image to download my free PowerPoint.

Next, I have just been introduced to the most fabulous site.  It is called Nature Works Everywhere and is sponsored by The Nature Conservancy.  It is packed full with the most wonderful videos, each of which is accompanied by free downloadable lesson plans.

From the Nature Works Everywhere site:  "Nature Works Everywhere gives teachers, students and families everything they need to start exploring and understanding nature around the globe alongside Nature Conservancy scientists—interactive games, and interactive lesson plans that align to standards and can be customized for each classroom."

I love that the videos are relatively short.  They are extremely interesting and cover a variety of topics and concepts.  You can't go wrong by showing one of these in your class on Earth Day.

Click image to view these free lessons.

Finally, don't forget that there is an official Earth Day website.  You can check the site for events happening in your area.

Secondary Smorgasbord #3 Out of the Deep Freeze: Revisit My Planet Earth Awards

Secondary Smorgasbord 
January Blog Hop 

(Month #3) 

Once again it is time for the Secondary Bloghop event.  The theme for this month is "Out of the Deep Freeze" and is about an idea whose time has come (could be something we are currently working on), or a product that doesn't get the attention we'd like it to get and should get because, darn it, it's really good! 

I'd like to tell you about one of my products that I would like to see get more attention.  It is called "The Mother Nature Awards for the Planet Earth."

Over the years of teaching I have come to realize that some topics are very difficult for my students.  I find that the students learn and perform much better if I teach in spurts.  I teach a new concept for 15-20 minutes, and then I give my students a "brain-break".  

A "brain-break" is a 2 or 3 minute break away from the topic currently being taught.  It is a couple of minutes where the student can relax, and it relieves the tension of a very complex lesson.  I am still a teacher who wants every minute to count.  So during a "brain-break" I usually throw out a bit of science trivia.  These are just fun and interesting facts that teach the student about the amazing natural world we live in.  Over the last few months my "brain-breaks" have consisted of the Mother Nature Awards for Planet Earth.

Here is an example:

These are PowerPoint slides.  I insert one of these slides into a PowerPoint on cellular respiration or photosynthesis or enzyme-catalyzed reactions.  My students have come to expect these little surprises and they get excited when one of these pops up into my otherwise overly technical lecture.  This is fun, it teaches a bit about the wonders of nature, and best of all, it gives the student just a minute to relax and get focused again before I launch back into the real topic of the day.

After a slide has been viewed, I print it, laminate it, and place it on the wall in my classroom.  I have been very pleasantly surprised at how often students stop by the wall to look at the Mother Nature Awards.

I have put together a group of 20 of these awards and placed them in my store on TeachersPayTeachers.com.  There are two product listings, one for Grades 2-5 and a separate listing for grades 6-12.

The listing for grades 2-5 comes with a set of activity worksheets (42 pages) for the students to complete as the PowerPoint slide is being viewed.  The finished worksheets can be put together to make a great Mother Nature Award book.

The listing for grades 6-12 comes with a worksheet for students to conduct their own research to develop a PowerPoint slide for a Mother Nature Award of their own choosing.  This makes a nice homework assignment for a grade, or for a great extra credit opportunity.

Don't forget that Earth Day is coming up soon.  The Mother Nature Awards are a perfect Earth Day activity.

Did you miss the first two months of this fun blogging event?  Those posts can be viewed by clicking these links:
Month 1: A Buffet of Resources
Month 2: Favorite Holiday Traditions

Be sure to check out all of the other participants in our monthly blog hop. Thanks to Darlene Anne Curran (The ELA Buffet) and Pamela Kranz (Desktop Learning Adventures) for hosting our monthly blog hop event!

Have fun teaching!

An InLinkz Link-up

Secondary Smorgasbord: A Buffet of Resources for Secondary Teachers

The Secondary Smorgasbord Theme of the Week??

Free and Fabulous!!

I am super excited to be participating in a new monthly blog hop / linky for secondary teachers.  This terrific idea is the brainstorm of two friends Darlene Anne Curran (The ELA Buffet) and Pamela Kranz (Desktop Learning Adventures).  I was fortunate enough to finally meet both new friends this past summer at the TeachersPayTeachers convention in Las Vegas.

The idea behind this blog hop is to provide you secondary teachers with some new ideas, tips for your classroom, free teaching materials, and anything else we can think of.  So welcome to the first installment of the Secondary Smorgasbord!  The theme for this month is "Free and Fabulous!"  Be sure to click on the links in the first paragraph of the post so that you can grab all of the awesome free teaching materials.

What is on the smorgasbord menu from Science Stuff?  I have decided to highlight two freebies that I have in my store.  Both are simple one-page references tables, but I have used both of these in just the last week!  If you are a biology or a chemistry teacher you know that both of these play a very important role in our classes.  I know you already have these tables, but I have spruced them up to make them attractive for our students.

For the Biology teachers:  Here is a chart of all 64 mRNA codons and the amino acids they code for.  This is a must-have during your unit on DNA, RNA and Protein synthesis.  (Click image or red text to download freebie.)

For the Chemistry teachers:  This is a table of electronegativities.  This is a must-have during units on the periodic table and bonding.  Click image or red text to download freebie.)

Again, be sure to check out all the posts / freebies by clicking the links in the first paragraph.  I hope you find something you can use!  Be sure to watch each month for the Secondary Smorgasbord Buffet of Resources!

An InLinkz Link-up