Technology Chat: Make Sure Your Students Are Ready for Digital Learning

Returning to school after summer break is stressful in the best of times.  I think we can all agree that this is pretty much the WORST of times and that this year's return to teaching will be unlike any other.  We teachers have faced many challenges before, but the challenges before us now are unprecedented.  Whether you will be teaching virtually, in-person, or somewhere in between, you will find yourself in need of digital resources to support your curriculum.  The reality of teaching in the days of COVID-19 means that student absenteeism will fluctuate wildly, many parents may opt to keep their kids at home, or schools may be forced to close altogether.  This puts you in the challenging position of not only teaching your core science material, but also teaching students about your chosen (or chosen for you ...) method of virtual instruction.  This can be overwhelming.  You need activities that support the technical instruction of your students as well as their science instruction.

When students arrive in your classroom this fall, either in person or virtually, will they all have the same set of skills in using Google Apps?

The short answer is ... No.  On the first day of class, just as our students have different graphing skills, or math skills, or writing skills, they will cover the spectrum in their ability to use Google Apps.

On that note, I am very excited to introduce a new tool in your teaching arsenal:  Technology Chat for Google Apps!  If you plan on utilizing Google DriveTM or Google ClassroomTM this fall, this is a fantastic activity to set your students up for success by teaching them a basic set of skills for the Google Apps.  Your students will learn how to create and share Docs, Slides, and Sheets as well as many of the features used to complete assignments in Google Apps.

If you are not familiar with my other "Chat" activities, they are highly collaborative in nature and allow students to work together while mastering new material.  This activity is a little different in that students can complete it remotely, in-person, or in pairs.  If you are meeting students face-to-face, I highly recommend using the activity in cooperative learning groups.  Peer help and instruction is a valuable learning tool.  Whatever your teaching situation, Technology Chat is an extremely flexible activity that will fit with any teaching situation.

While this activity won't cover everything Google has to offer, it is a great tool to create a baseline of knowledge in your classroom and hopefully give your students enough technical know-how to start the year off right.

Teachers always rise to face new challenges, and this school year will be no different. In these unprecedented times, I am excited to see the amazing ways our community serves our students and the highly innovative new solutions we put into place in our classrooms.  I hope this activity is a helpful addition to your back-to-school instructional plan.  I wish you all the very best of luck this fall.

Going Digital in the Age of Distance Learning

Hello everyone!  Wow, in just a few short weeks our teaching world has been rocked to the core.  If you had told me months ago that we would be in this shape today, I would have thought you had lost your mind. Unprecedented school closures have all of us scratching our heads and trying to figure out how to get through just one day at a time.  Both teachers and parents are scrambling to look for resources for our students that can be used digitally for distance learning.  Since it looks like schools are going to closed for some time, it's "all hands on deck" as we deal with the problems of educating children remotely.  

So let me get right to it.  The purpose of this post is to let you know about resources that are available for both teachers and parents in the world of "distance learning."  The rest of this post will consist of clickable links to resources you might find helpful.

First, I am working to convert the resources in my TpT store over to digital formats for use in Goggle Drive, Google Classroom, and/or Microsoft OneDrive.  As resources are updated with the digital version, I will add them to the "already posted" printable listing on TpT.  In short, this means that if you have purchased a resource from my TpT store, you will be able to download the resource again, at no extra cost, to receive the digital version if one becomes available.  Full disclosure: Converting items to digital resources is time-consuming and tedious work. My resources will not magically appear in digital format overnight, but I will add them as fast as I am able.

Just a reminder:  Do you know how to determine if a resource you have purchased on TpT has been updated? You will not get email notifications from TpT when resources are updated. You'll need to navigate to your "My Purchases" page on TpT and look for notifications that appear with any resources that have been updated.

What items at Amy Brown Science have been updated with new digital formats?
I started with my free resources.  The following resources have been updated. Each includes a detailed Teacher Guide to help you navigate the world of Google Drive.  I have also included a QuickStart Guide for the experienced users.  Click the images or red text below to grab these free distance learning resources:

Backyard Ecology:  This ecology activity is perfect for laying the groundwork prior to your ecology unit. The questionnaire will get your students thinking about the ecology and environmental issues of your local community.

Monohybrid Mice! is great for Punnett Square practice.  These problems are on a beginner level and a perfect way to introduce one-factor genetics problems to your students.

DNA Informational Text Reading: This reading is based on Watson and Crick's famous one-page article published in 1953 in Nature magazine, announcing their discovery of the structure of the DNA molecule. It comes with graphic organizers to help your students read and understand this classic scientific paper.

Compare and Contrast Graphic Organizer: This very simple, two-page graphic organizer has become one of the best study and review techniques that I use in my science classes. It forces students to think deeply about two topics or concepts as they search to find the similarities and differences between them. 

Cell Respiration Word Game Review: This review activity is designed to help your students master the difficult vocabulary in a cell respiration unit. 






I have also created a new custom category in my TpT store called "Digital / Google Apps" where you can find all of my digital resources. Clicking the link to this custom category will sort my store to show all of my digital resources. This is a great link to save.  It will allow you to see if any of the resources you have previously purchased have been updated for Google Apps.

Let me ask a favor of you: Please respect my copyright by NOT posting my resources on a public web site where my resources can be accessed by a Google search and the public world.  You are welcome to post to your own password-protected class site as long as only your students have access.  Thanks so much for your understanding.

One more thing before I move on to other suggestions for resources:  Signing up for my free newsletter is a good way to receive notifications for updates, exclusive freebies, promotions, sales, and news.  Click this link if you are interested in my newsletter.

Okay, now I am going to post links to all sorts of things that I have seen over the last few weeks that I think might be helpful to you.

• From the TpT Blog:  Distance Learning - Tips for Supporting Parents and Families
• From the TpT Blog: Getting Started With Distance Learning
• TpT School Access is a subscription-based service offered to schools.  TpT is currently making School Access available for free (through June 30, 2020) to all schools impacted by the CoronaVirus.  Click red link for more information.
• Have you tried Boom Learning?  Boom Cards are digital task cards, and a fantastic way to keep you students reviewing important content.  Boom Learning is currently offering free memberships through June 30, 2020.  You can find all of my Boom Card listings here.
• Check out The Cornell Lab: Science and Nature for Cooped Up Kids.  You can sign up to receive weekly activities that you can do at home with your kids.
• You can always find great resources at Discovery Education!
• Free memberships are currently being offered on Kahoot!
• Distance learning for lab activities:  Check out these Virtual Labs and Virtual Dissections.
• And, this article provides you with 200+ Online Learning Resources.
• Check out this Pinterest Board from my good friend Utah Roots.  This board contains links to videos for teaching science.
• You cannot go wrong with National Geographic Education.

Please note: All online learning sites should be throughly vetted by teachers and parents before allowing access to your students.

I hope that this post gives you some places to start as you begin your journey into distance learning.  Good luck to you, and please stay well!

P.S. The adorable "Dot Dudes" in the heading image are the copyrighted work of Sarah Pecorino Illustration.

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!

Back to School with the Scientific Method

Scientific Method in the first days of school?  

You betcha!!

This is not a new lesson, but I did want to remind everyone that I have a wonderful and PowerPoint on the scientific method.  Students are going to groan and roll their eyes in complete boredom unless you do something to spice it up. Let's be honest, they have been hearing the steps of the scientific method over and over and over for as long as they can remember.  I tried to make this lesson more interactive, and more engaging.  The 27 slides are colorful and (hopefully) eye-catching.  I have included a 4-page set of notes for the teacher, and a 5-page outline for the student.  The student will fill in the missing information as the lesson is being taught.  The printable lessons are perfect for traditional classroom settings, and the digital versions are perfect for distance learning and 1:1 classrooms. 

And.....

.....the best part.....

This lesson takes the student beyond memorizing the steps of the scientific method......again!  Problem solving scenarios are included that teach the student how to work through the scientific method to answer a question or solve a problem.

"Back to School" is just around the corner.  I hope that you find these materials useful and beneficial to your students.  It's definitely worth your while to make sure that your students are well grounded in the scientific method early in the school year.  It is a skill they should use throughout the rest of the school year.

Links to this product and related products:

Scientific Method PowerPoint and Notes for Teacher and Student

Biology Warm Ups or Interactive Notebook Pages for Scientific Method

Applying the Scientific Method and Scientific Writing

Scientific Method Task Cards

The Student Designed Lab

Scientific Method Homework

Informational Text Reading with Graphic Organizers

Here's a great new free item for your science classroom:  

DNA Informational Text Reading with Graphic Organizers

I teach in a Common Core state, and in a school that is really pushing the implementation of the Common Core State Standards.  We have to show evidence of this implementation in our classroom.  I obviously have to do what is required of me by my admin, but at the same time, I do not want to lose valuable classroom teaching time and get behind on the vast amount of course content that I am also required to teach.

I recently developed this lesson for my students.  In our unit on DNA, RNA, and Protein Synthesis, I love to tell the history of Watson and Crick and their discovery of the structure of the DNA molecule.  In 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick rocked the scientific world with their discovery, and with the publication of their one-page paper in Science magazine describing the DNA molecule.  This one-page paper is a marvelous bit of history, and it is a fascinating read.  It is also a perfect piece of informational text that can be used to teach the Common Core State Standards.

The one-page article can be printed and used in your science classroom.  I developed a 4-page set of graphic organizers to go along with this article.  As students read the article they are required to complete the graphic organizers. You can have your students complete all four organizers (I usually do!) or each graphic organizer can be used alone. The printable lesson is perfect for traditional classroom settings, and the paperless, digital Google Apps version is perfect for distance learning and 1:1 classrooms.

You can, of course, use class time for this activity, but I usually assign this as a homework assignment.  I assign this at the beginning of my unit on DNA, and usually give a week to complete the assignment. The article and the graphic organizers provide great review on the topics I am teaching in class, as well as a lesson in the reading of informational text.  It's a win-win!  (Pssst...This is also a great activity to leave in your sub folder in the event of your unexpected absence from school!)

Here is a look at each of the graphic organizers:

(They look best if printed in color, but print perfectly fine in grayscale.)

This is a free download, and will always remain a free download.  Enjoy!

Related products include:

DNA, RNA, and Protein Synthesis Complete Unit Plan Bundle

Genetics Complete Unit Plan Bundle

FREE DNA Extraction Lab

Scientific Method Task Cards

Have you tried task cards with your students?

Task cards are a fantastic way to reinforce lessons, review difficult concepts, or provide extra practice for the struggling student.   The student reads each card, performs the task, and records his/her answer on an answer sheet, on notebook paper, or in their lab notebook.

There are many ways to use the task cards. 

• As seen in the photo above, punch a hole in the corner and place them on a ring.  Hang them on a pegboard for use throughout the year.  When reviewing for tests or exams, students can select the set of cards from the pegboard for the topic that needs the most review.
• Set up a practice/review session by setting the cards up in a lab practical style.  Place one card at each station and have the students rotate through the stations until all stations have been completed.  My students love this format since it allows them to move about the room.  The task cards in this format are a great way to give a quiz or test.
• Use the cards in a game format.  Divide the class into teams.  Place the task cards face down in a basket.  A team selects a card at random and must complete the task for a point.
• Students can use a set of task cards in small groups and orally review one another for a unit test.

The task cards seen in the photo above are on the scientific method.  The face of science teaching is changing.  Common Core Science Standards, as well as the Next Generation Science Standards, are asking teachers to emphasis scientific concepts, rather than the memorization of large amounts of factual data.  Instrumental to these new standards is teaching the student how to design and implement an experiment of their own.  The first step in teaching the student-designed experiment is to provide the student with a complete and thorough understanding of the scientific method.

Most of the students entering my biology classes at the beginning of the school year can (in a very bored and monotone voice) recite the steps to the scientific method.  What we as teachers need to insure is that the student can actually APPLY the scientific method.  

• Can the student read a passage and determine the independent and the dependent variables in the experiment?
• Can the student identify the control and explain WHY it is the control?
• Can the student look at a set of data and draw a logical conclusion?
• Can the student design and implement an experiment?

The printable task cards are perfect for traditional classroom settings, and the paperless, digital Google Apps version is perfect for distance learning and 1:1 classrooms.

I have a PowerPoint and set of notes that you can use as a starting point in your teaching of the scientific method.  This product can be viewed and downloaded here.   Once your instruction is complete, you might want to give these task cards a try.  I most often use the cards in a lab practical format.  Students rotate through the various stations and complete the task at each.  

The set includes 45 task cards.  Some of the "tasks" include:  

• Writing a hypothesis.
• Distinguishing between the experimental and control groups
• Identifying the independent and dependent variables.
• Drawing a conclusion based on given data.

Be sure to follow up your lessons on the scientific method by having your students design and implement an experiment of their own.  You can check out my blog post on student designed experiments by clicking here.

Thanks for stopping by!

Genetics in the Laboratory

Do you want to do a great genetics lab with your students, but don't have time for fruit flies?

Having enough "time" is an issue for me every single year!  I finally had to come to the realization that my fruit fly genetics lab would have to go.  It is such a great lab, but just too time consuming.

Now we grow corn!  It only takes a few minutes to plant and you are practically done!  I do have my students water their corn every few days, and in about 2 weeks we are ready to do the lab.

In corn, green stem (due to chlorophyll production) is dominant over albino stem.  I order seeds that are the F-2 offspring of heterozygous parents.  The expected ratio when the seeds grow is, of course, 3/4 green stem and 1/4 albino stem.  Students then compare the expected ratios to the actual number of each type of offspring observed.

For an added component to the lab, have the students consider the effect of the environment on the expression of the gene. When the seeds are first planted, I have half the class place their trays on a table in front of a window.  The other half of the class place their trays in a cabinet in complete darkness. When the seeds finally sprout and grow, we compare the number of albinos grown in the dark to the number of albinos grown in the light.

For those plants grown in the light, the results are fairly close to the expected 3:1 ratio.  But, the seeds grown in the dark are a different story.  100% of the seeds grown in the dark turn out to be albino.

After this first observation, all trays are left in the light for 48 hours, and a second observation is made two days later.  Miraculously : )  about 3/4's of the albinos from the dark trays have now turned green.

Students quickly determine that the environment plays a very important role in gene expression.

If you choose, you can order seeds showing two traits as seen in the photo to the left.  When these seeds were grown, students could determine the expected and actual numbers of green and albino stems as well as the number of tall and dwarf plants.

You can view this lab in my TpT store by clicking this link:

Lab: The Effect of the Environment on Gene Expression

Or, you might want to try this as a "Virtual Lab" for distance learning and 1:1 classrooms.  You can check out the "Virtual Lab Version" by clicking this link.

Free Monohybrid Genetics Practice Problem Worksheet

Gregor Mendel

Who Doesn't LOVE Genetics?

In my many years of teaching, it has been a very rare occasion to have a student in my class who did not enjoy my genetics unit.  It is such a fun and interesting topic to teach!  My students always love to discover if they have a widow's peak, a hitch hikers thumb, or a crooked little finger.  And, of course, what kid hasn't been rolling (or trying to roll!) his tongue for most of his life?


Thanks to the work of Gregor Mendel, the very scientific Austrian monk, the study of genetics began in his abbey garden in the mid-1800's.  By spending many years in the patient breeding of pea plants, Mendel provided the world with the basic laws of genetics that we still use today.

I would bet that every biology teacher today begins with the story of Mendel. From Mendel's work we can teach such vocabulary words as trait, hybrid, gene, alleles, dominant, recessive, segregation, homozygous, heterozygous, genotype and phenotype.  As soon as these terms are mastered, we jump into Punnett squares and probability.

For some teachers, this is where our trouble begins.  No, it is not that the material is hard or that students fail to master it.  The problem lies within the biology texts that are commonly used today.  It seems that they have precious few practice problems available to our students.  Having spent many, many years in the biology classroom, I have collected quite a few great genetics problems that I use for practice material.

One of my favorite worksheets is called Monohybrid Mice!  (FREEBIE!!)  Before more complicated problems can be attempted, the student must be able to complete a very simple one-factor problem... the monohybrid cross.  This simple worksheet has just four problems.  The student completes the Punnett square, fills in a chart of genotypes, phenotypes and probabilities, and finishes the problem by answering a series of questions.   I called this Monohybrid Mice! because all of the problems deal with the coat color of mice.

You can download this worksheet for free from my store on TeachersPayTeachers.com. Once your students have completed this exercise, they will, no doubt, be ready to master more complicated problems.

The printable lesson is perfect for traditional classroom settings, and the paperless, digital Google Apps version is perfect for distance learning and 1:1 classrooms. 

Enjoy the freebie, and good luck with your teaching!

Related products include:

Genetics Complete Unit Plan Bundle of Products
Genetics PowerPoint and Notes
Dihybrid Problems
Incomplete Dominance
Codominance and Multiple Alleles
Sex Linkage

A Compare and Contrast Graphic Organizer

With the increasing amount of information that our students are expected to learn and master, it is more important than ever to provide them with the tools they need to organize and study difficult concepts.

This free graphic organizer can help your students learn to delve deeper into the content to search for similarities and differences between two topics or concepts.

Click image for free download.

This can be used in all subject areas and in grades 4 and up.  My students even admit that this technique has improved the way they view the content that we cover each day.  The graphic organizer can be used to compare and contrast any two topics or concepts.  I have used this organizer to have my students compare and contrast:

• Photosynthesis to cellular respiration
• Mitosis to meiosis
• Protostomes to deuterostomes
• Vascular plants to nonvascular plants
• Systems of the body
• DNA to RNA

The printable version is perfect for traditional classroom settings, and the paperless, digital Google Apps version is perfect for distance learning and 1:1 classrooms.

You can download this free graphic organizer by clicking on any of the above pictures, or on this link:

Study Skill:  A Compare and Contrast Graphic Organizer

Enjoy!  ...And have fun teaching!