17 Essential Science Skills All Students Should Master

 

Do your students ask you questions like these?

• Which one of these things is the graduated cylinder?
• How do I convert from decimeters to decameters?
• I can't do scientific notation on my calculator.
• What are independent and dependent variables and how do I put them on a graph?
• You wanted the graph to be on graph paper?
• I did measure exactly 5 grams of salt on my balance! ( ... with salt in a beaker that wasn't massed.)
• What do I do next?

Sound familiar? If you teach middle or high school science, these are probably questions you’ve heard a thousand times. And if you’re anything like me, you're always looking for ways to build essential science skills early in the year—so your students are more confident, independent, and lab-ready.

That’s exactly why I created these 17 Essential Science Skills Stations—hands-on, low-prep, and perfect for reinforcing key science lab skills across biology, chemistry, physical science, or general science classes.

🧪 “I used these during the first two weeks of school, and my students were so much more confident during our first full lab! Total game-changer.” – Melissa B., HS Biology Teacher

What are the essential science skills?

In the first days and weeks of a new school year, I need my students to be proficient in the following:

• Metric measurement
• Identification of pieces of lab equipment
• Scientific method
• Use of basic pieces of lab equipment such as the graduated cylinder, Celsius thermometer, laboratory balance, and metric ruler.
• Tabling, graphing, and analyzing data.
• Math skills: Scientific notation, dimensional analysis, significant digits

To accomplish this goal of proficiency of science skills, I have developed Science Skills Chat! -- a set of 17 Lab Stations to address 17 essential science skills all science students should know. I use the word "chat" to emphasize to my students that they are to work together and have a productive discussion at each station in order to maximize their understanding and mastery of the concepts being covered. 

Peer tutoring is a powerful learning tool!

Click on red text or any image to view Science Skills Chat in my TpT store.

What are the 17 Essential Science Skills?

• Metric Units
• Identification of Lab Equipment 
• Scientific Notation
• Dimensional Analysis
• Significant Digits
• The Scientific Method
• Tabling, Graphing, and Analyzing Data
• The Graduated Cylinder 
• The Metric Ruler 
• The Laboratory Balance 
• The Celsius Thermometer 
• The Bunsen Burner 
• Determining the Volume of Solids 
• Separating a Mixture 
• Determining Density 
• Accuracy, Precision, and Percentage Error
• Scientific Drawings 

Don't try to complete all 17 lab stations at once. Choose a set of skills (perhaps 4 or 5 lab stations) to be completed during the first week of school. Choose the skills that are of immediate concern to you. Remember, some students may already be proficient in these skills, but other students will be struggling. No matter the ability level, ALL students will benefit from this review and reinforcement. 

Click on red text or any image to view Science Skills Chat in my TpT store.

Once your students have mastered the first set of skills that you deem most important, set up another lab station day to work on skills that students will soon need to know. 

I like the idea of having "Science Skills Friday" where you choose 4 or 5 lab stations to complete. The information in a fewer number of lab stations is not overwhelming, and it is a fun and different way to end the week. There are enough lab stations in Science Skills Chat to create several "Science Skills Friday" sessions.

Click on red text or any image to view Science Skills Chat in my TpT store.

Ten of the lab stations require some sort of lab equipment, but the other 7 skills are perfect activities to leave in your substitute teacher folder. In an emergency, your sub can grab a few of these and create a VERY quality lesson in your absence.

It may seem like you are spending a lot of time at the beginning of the year to cover these 17 science skills, but I guarantee that it is time well spent. As your school year progresses, you will spend far less time repeating and re-teaching skills that your students should already know.  

And, how nice would it be to reduce the number of questions you get every time you go to the lab?

 

P.S.  I have 11 Chat Lab Station Activities on a variety of topics.  You can view them all here:

Significant Digits Help!

What can you do when kids don't get it?

Each year when I teach significant digits to my chemistry classes, I feel like I am banging my head against a wall!  Most of my students will diligently learn the rules for determining the number of significant digits in a measurement.   They can look at 50.00 and tell me that it has 4 significant digits.  But I always get the feeling that some of them never really understand why they are learning these rules and what they mean.

In an effort to help my students grasp the concept, I started doing this significant digit lab each year.  The materials list is super simple: a wood block, three different balances, and three different rulers.  Students begin by measuring the length, width and height of their wood block using a diagram of three different rulers.

They are frustrated by the first ruler.  They don't like having to estimate!  I quickly get the students to understand that the first ruler has only one significant digit, the second ruler has two, and the third ruler has 3.  They use the measured length, width, and height to determine the volume.

Next students get the mass of their wood block using three different balances.

Now that the volume and the mass is known, students must calculate the density of the wood block to one significant digit, two significant digits, and three significant digits.  We then calculate the percent error, using our three-significant-digit density as the true value.  Wow!  Kids quickly realize how important significant digits are to a measurement.

Throw in an additional page of practice problems on rounding and calculating with significant digits, and I'll call this day a success!  I hope you are off to a great school year.  I'd love to hear your ideas on significant digits!

Measurement Madness! (Reinforcement for Metric Ruler and Metric Conversions)

Measurement Madness!

(Reinforcement Using a Metric Ruler and Completing Metric Conversions)

Last week, two things happened that were the inspiration for this new product:  (1) I had to be absent and knew that I would have a sub in my room.  I needed a good assignment to leave for my students to complete in my absence, and (2) I was shocked to discover that some of my HIGH SCHOOL students still had difficulty using a metric ruler properly and converting from one unit to another.

The worksheet begins.....

Students make observations about their ruler.
Students must draw lines of a give length.
Students must measure the lines that are already drawn on the worksheet.

Page 2.....

Students use a ruler to measure the sides of a 2-dimensional object.

Students determine the area of the figure in both centimeters and millimeters.

Page 3....

Students us a ruler to measure the sides of a 3-dimensional object.

Students determine the volume of the figure in both centimeters and millimeters.

Students complete practice problems on converting from one metric unit to another metric unit using the process of dimensional analysis.

Page 4 .....

I want my students to understand how important the metric system is to their lives and to realize that the metric system is much easier to use than our archaic English system of measurement.

I wrote a few paragraphs about really cool animal facts.  Each paragraph contains statistics about the animal that have to be converted to another system of measurement.  If the stats are in feet, the student will convert them to centimeters, and vice-versa.  My kids LOVED the pictures I included.

Page 5......

This page contains more animal fact/conversion paragraphs, as well as a few follow up questions.

This product also comes with a 3 page answer key.

This is suitable for grades 7 - 10.  I feel like it went a long way in reinforcing some critical science and math skills.  

Happy Teaching!!

Measurement Madness!

Science Skills: Significant Digits

Every year, the same great debate arises in our science departmental meetings .....  should we or should we not teach the rules of determining significant digits?  The members of the department have their reasons for being "pro" or "con" and it seems to me that the same people have the same reasons year after year.  Are we teaching significant digits because it is an important science skill, or just because it is found in the first chapter of the chemistry text book?

I tend to fall in the "pro" camp.  I think teaching significant digits is an important science skill to teach because:

• It teaches the student the importance of making accurate and precise measurements.
• It teaches the student how to look at the data in a scientific article and determine how accurate others have been in their measurements.
• It teaches students how to learn a set of rules and then apply these rules to many examples.
• It teaches critical thinking and problem solving skills.
• It reinforces basic math skills when completing problems that involve calculations and rounding to a given number of significant digits.
• It allows the opportunity to do a quick review on metric units.  (MANY kids need this!)

The people who think we should leave this out have pretty lame reasons (excuses) for their point of view:

• It's boring.
• Nobody needs to know this stuff any more.
• It's archaic.
• After you teach it in the first chapter, you never use it again.

The bottom line is that this is a tool of science, and for that reason, we need to makes sure our science students have this tool in their arsenal.  All research scientists know that there is "error" in their work.  The use of significant digits allows others a way of recognizing how much error exists in a set of measurements. 

Meanwhile, here are a few of the materials that I have developed and use as I teach significant digits.....I think it is still important!

Significant Figures Bundle

Significant Figures Lab

Significant Figures Jeopardy Review Game

Science Skills: Lab Equipment and Scientific Measurement

At the beginning of each new school year, it is essential that a science teacher instruct his/her students in the basic science skills.  This includes laboratory safety,  instruction in how the lab equipment operates, making proper scientific measurements, how to apply the scientific method, the importance of graphing and data analysis, and a review of basic math skills such as scientific notation.  I have already posted about several of these.  (See the posts below this one.)  Today, I want to emphasize the proper use of lab equipment and how to make scientific measurements.  

During a lab, a variety of tools may be used to allow the student to use an inquiry process to gather information, both qualitatively and quantitatively.  If the student is to reach the desired conclusion, it is imperative that they receive proper instruction on the use of the equipment they will be using. Scientists use a variety of tools to explore the world around them, and these tools are important to the advancement of science.  The tools may be simple or very complex.  One of the first labs I complete with my students is called:  Use of Lab Equipment and Data Analysis.  (You can download this one for free!)  It provides instruction on the basic pieces of lab equipment such as the meter stick, Celsius thermometer, graduated cylinder, and the quadruple-beam balance.  We teachers often assume that all students can use a meter stick, a graduated cylinder, a quad beam balance, and a thermometer, and that they can use all of these accurately.  This is not always true.  It is worth our time to spend one day in lab reviewing the proper use of these basic pieces of lab equipment.  After all, these tools will be used in our classes all year long.

When teaching the proper use of lab equipment, you must also give adequate instruction in how to make precise and accurate scientific measurements. I find that many students will need a short re-fresher on the metric system.  As for accuracy and precision in making measurements, it is the nature of the teenagers I teach to rush, rush, rush to get through with the experiments, giving little thought as to whether or not their data seems reasonable or logical.  If and when time allows, I often require my students to run multiple trials during an experiment to verify their results.  Unfortunately, due to the nature of a school setting, students have learned that science occurs in a 45 minute period of time, and that the first set of data is perfect and acceptable. We, as teachers, do what we can do with the schedule forced upon us by our schools, but you must try to give opportunities that require students to repeat and verify lab data.

Here are some of the materials that I have developed to help with the instruction and reinforcement of these basic science skills:

Free Lab:  Use of Lab Equipment

Lab: Making Metric Measurements (Length, Mass, Volume, and Temperature

Measurement Madness

Significant Figure Lab