Unlock Success in Science: Master the Math Skills Early in the Year

As the new school year approaches, the foundation you lay in the first few weeks is crucial for student success in any science class. What can you do to prepare your science students to be successful in your class?

There are few things about teaching during the first few weeks of school that I am more passionate about. We must, must, must re-teach, review, practice, and reinforce the math skills that our students will be using all year long. Providing students with the essential skills they need not only to excel in science but also in other aspects of life is time well-spent. My Chemistry Math comprehensive unit covers scientific measurements, graphing, calculations, critical thinking, and problem-solving. These skills equip students with the tools they need for academic and real-world success.

Why These Skills Are Essential

Mastering math skills in science early in the year is crucial for several reasons:

• Foundation for Advanced Topics: Scientific measurements and calculations are the building blocks of more complex concepts in chemistry and other sciences. Without a solid grasp of these basics, students may struggle with advanced topics later on.
• Lifelong Application: The ability to measure accurately, perform calculations, and solve problems is not just limited to the classroom. These skills are valuable in everyday life and many careers, from engineering to healthcare.
• Boosts Confidence and Performance: Early mastery of these fundamental skills can boost students' confidence, leading to better performance in subsequent, more challenging topics.

The Importance of Mastery

Developing proficiency in scientific measurements, calculations, and problem-solving sets students up for success in several ways:

• Accuracy and Precision in Experiments: Ensures reliable and repeatable results in laboratory settings.
• Critical Thinking: Enhances the ability to approach problems methodically and think critically about solutions.
• Academic Success: Provides a strong foundation for tackling more complex scientific concepts and experiments throughout the school year and beyond.

What’s Included in the Bundle?

Chemistry Math - Measurements, Calculations, and Problem Solving in Chemistry Bundle is not just for Chemistry teachers! Physical Science teachers will find this extremely beneficial and life science teachers can benefit as well. 

In this Math Skills Bundle, you will cover the following:

• Scientific Notation
• Accuracy, Precision, and Percentage Error
• Significant Figures
• The Metric System
• Density
• Dimensional Analysis
• Graphing and Data Analysis

All of the above skills are covered in the 138-Slide PowerPoint Presentation. Each of the above topics is thoroughly covered in the slides and notes. Students will LOVE the guided notes they fill in as you teach the lesson. There are LOADS and LOADS of practice problems. Both the PowerPoint and the notes are very easily editable so that you can cover just the topics you need. I have included digital formats as well.

To supplement the teaching PowerPoint, I have included rock-solid supporting materials to ensure your students master the concepts. Each topic in the PowerPoint is reinforced with a separate practice problem worksheet. Once practice is complete, you can use the short quizzes to check for student mastery. 

And what about labs? Well, there are 6 labs included in this bundle. In addition, there is a final unit test. The following are included in this bundle.

• Scientific Notation Worksheet and Quiz Set
• Accuracy, Precision, and Percentage Error Worksheet and Quiz Set
• Significant Figures Worksheet and Quiz Set
• Metric System Worksheet and Quiz Set
• Density Worksheet and Quiz Set
• Dimensional Analysis Worksheet and Quiz Set
• Graphing and Data Analysis Worksheet and Quiz Set
• Lab: Density of Metals
• Lab: Significant Digits
• Lab: Mass and the Laboratory Balance
• Lab: Length and the Meter Stick
• Lab: Volume and Temperature
• Lab: Graphing (Interpolation and Extrapolation)
• Final Unit Test

Investing time in mastering the basics of scientific measurements, calculations, and problem-solving at the beginning of the year is an investment in your students' long-term success. This Chemistry Math Unit Bundle offers the perfect combination of resources to help your students build these crucial skills. Set your students on the path to success in science and beyond with our comprehensive and engaging unit bundle.

Science Chat for Biology: A First Day of School Biology Lab Icebreaker Activity

Make the First Day the BEST Day!

What is the most important day of school? The first day! It's the most important day of the entire school year!!

It is the day when students form their first impression of your class.

It is the day when students look at you and decide on the spot if they are going to like your class or hate your class.

It is the day when students have heightened social anxieties and need to know that they have a friend in your class.

You, the teacher, have one day to get it right. If you do, the rest of year is made so much easier. If you don't, you will spend a lot of time, effort, and energy trying to change the behaviors and attitudes of your students.

Will you be the teacher that goes over a long list of class rules and reads aloud from the class syllabus? Or will you be the teacher that plans a fun and engaging activity for the students on Day 1?

Biology Chat is the perfect way to kick off the first day of school with energy and connection. 

Instead of staying glued to their seats like they’ve likely been all day, this activity gets students up, moving, and interacting with their new classmates. It’s a refreshing change of pace, and a much-needed icebreaker that builds classroom community from the start. As an added bonus, you’ll get an early snapshot of your students' communication skills, lab skills, critical thinking, and overall comfort level in the classroom. It’s fun, informative, and sets a positive tone for the year ahead.

So what exactly is Biology Chat?  The activity consists of 10 Lab Stations.The students will move around at random until they complete all ten stations. At each lab station the students will complete a science task AND answer questions about their classmates. Students must scatter after each station so that they are not with the same group the entire time. After all, one of the objectives is for them to meet everyone in the class.

Each lab station should take about 10 minutes to complete. You want to give the students time to chat. It takes me two class period to finish all of the lab stations, but in my opinion, it is time well spent. You can easily leave out lab stations for a shorter activity.

A different concept is covered at each station.

Station 1:  The Microscope

Station 2:  Graphing

Station 3:  Electron Microscopy

Station 4:  Making Observations, Comparing and Contrasting

Station 5:  Lab Equipment

Station 6:  Laboratory Safety

Station 7:  Classification

Station 8:  Metric Scavenger Hunt

Station 9:  Prefixes and Suffixes

Station 10:  What makes an animal an animal?

Set up for the lab is quick and easy. You'll need only about 30 minutes for set up, and the materials list consists of items you are sure to have on hand.

•  Microscope

•  A prepared slide of your choice.

•  Four images taken with electron microscope (Included in product.)

•  Two plants (potted or cuttings)

•  Meter stick

•  Graduated cylinder

•  Triple or quadruple beam balance

•  Stopwatch

•  Thermometer

•  A lab with safety features (Examples:  Eyewash fountain, safety shower, fire extinguisher, fire blanket, fire alarm, etc.)

•  A group of objects that can be classified into groups.  (Teacher’s choice.)

•  Bag of sugar (or object with similar mass.)

•  Can of soda (or object with similar volume.)

•  Coin

•  Paper clip

•  Wood block (or any square or rectangular object.)

•  Cotton ball

•  4 photographs of living organisms (included in product.)

Sweeten the day by giving the students a grade on the activity. It is unlikely that a student will get all of the answers correct, so make sure to base the grade on effort and participation.

What will the student take away from your day 1 activity? They are allowed to get up, stretch, and move around! They are able to make some new friends! And they start the year off with an excellent grade.  Win-win-win!

I hope that your school year is wonderful!

PS - Be sure to check out Chemistry Chat and Physics Chat! You'll be glad you did!

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: 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

Science Skills: The Metric System

Why do we continue to have to re-teach the metric system to our students every year?  I wish I knew the answer to this question!!  Students are exposed to and taught the metric system beginning in elementary grades, but they still need a refresher on it when they reach my high school chemistry class.  Why is this?  The reason is because a science class is the ONLY place that our students use the metric system.  While they may see references to it here and there, they never really use the metric system in their everyday lives.  Our students understand how many miles it is to the movie theater, but if you asked them how many kilometers to the movie theater, they will stare at you with a blank look.

In 1975, President Gerald Ford signed into law "H.R. 8674: Metric Conversion Act."  This law declared the metric system "the preferred system of weights and measures for United States trade and commerce." This law is ineffectual since it "permits the use of customary units in all activities."  Further, "all conversion was to be completely voluntary."  In other words, we have never converted to the metric system.  Our students haven't mastered the metric system because they do not use it except in our science classes.

Sure, the students know the basics of the metric system.  They know that length is measured in meters, mass is measured in grams and volume is measured in liters, but many of my students are still unsure as to how to convert one unit to another.  It is not unusual at all for one of my students to ask, "Which way do I move the decimal to convert ____ to ____?  Even more confusing is what to do with the units when determining area or volume.  How often have I heard, "Are these units squared or cubed?"

The manipulation of metric units must be reinforced at regular intervals, if for no other reason, than to just reinforce basic math skills.  Here's an example. Multiple the following:  (5 g/ml) (10 mL).  The answer?  50 g.  Many students will struggle when units are being added, subtracted, multiplied or divided. They can multiply 5 x 10, but they do not know what to do with the units.

What are we science teachers to do about this?  We have no choice but to teach, teach, teach! Your science class will go much smoother all year long if you will take a class period (or several!) at the beginning of the year to do a refresher on basic metric skills.

Here are a few resources in my TpT store that might be of some help to you:

Metric System Jeopardy Review Game

Metric System Bundle of 12 products

Metric System PowerPoint

Science Skills Mega Bundle

Metric System Task Cards

FREE Metric System BOOM Cards