Supplement Your Lessons on Plant Structure and Function

What does it take to teach about plants in your biology class?

It takes determination, fortitude, and as many top-notch materials as you can find!  One of my Dad's favorite sayings was, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink."    This saying runs through my head each year when I begin to teach my units on plants to my high school biology students. I'm pretty sure that if I asked my students at the end of the year which topic was their least favorite..... they would all say plants! As biology teachers, we have to cover this material.  Our very existence depends upon these lovely living organisms.  I have found that my students love growing plants, and labs involving living specimens, germination of seeds, growing plants under various conditions helps to raise the interest level among my students just a bit.

For those of you who have been waiting, I have just put the final polish on the warm ups and bell ringers that I use with my students.  This set contains 28 student pages and covers everything they need to know about plant structure and function.  Here are some highlights in pictures:

In more detail, these warm up pages will cover the following concepts:

• Introduction to plant anatomy: Main organs of the plant, specialized organs of the plant.
• Types of plant cells: Parenchyma, collenchyma, and sclerenchyma.
• Tissue systems of a plant:  Dermal tissues, vascular tissues, and ground tissues.
• Vascular tissues:  Xylem, vessel elements, tracheids, phloem, sieve tube elements, companion cells.
• Meristematic tissues, apical meristems, lateral meristems, primary and secondary growth.
• Roots:  Functions of roots, taproot system, fibrous root system, meristematic region, region of elongation, region of maturation, epidermis, cortex, endodermis, pericycle, root hairs, root cap, adventitious roots, differences in monocot and dicot roots.
• Stems:  Functions of stems, nodes, internodes, buds, bud scales, terminal and lateral buds, epidermis, vascular bundles, pith, cortex, differences in monocot and dicot stems, cork, cork cambium, heartwood, sapwood, bark, vascular cambium, tubers, bulbs, corms, and rhizomes.
• Translocation and transpiration.
• Leaves:  Functions of the leaf, petiole, blade, veins, differences in monocot and dicot leaves, epidermis, cuticle, palisade cells, spongy cells, mesophyll, stomata, guard cells, gas exchange in leaves, simple and compound leaves, types of specialized leaves.
• Thinking critically:  One page of critical thinking and problem solving questions about plants.
• 6 pages of review:  Short answer, Modified True False, Multiple Choice, Fill in the Blank, Review the vocabulary, and What’s the relationship?

Use this link to view these materials in my TpT store.  Thanks!

Biology Warm Ups and Bell Ringers: Great Classroom Management Tool

Warm ups and bell ringers are definitely a "vintage" idea, but this tried and true classroom management tool is still effective for most classes.

Classroom management is one of my greatest strengths as a high school biology teacher. I walk into every class with a clear plan. Every single minute of instruction is accounted for before the bell rings. Over the years, I’ve learned that effective classroom management is just as essential as subject mastery, especially when teaching complex topics in biology. I strive to teach “bell to bell,” with pacing tailored to meet the needs and learning styles of my students.

But even seasoned teachers get thrown a curveball now and then.

A few years ago, I found myself with a particularly energetic group of 9th and 10th grade biology students. They were great kids—friendly, funny, and genuinely good-hearted—but they came to class every day bouncing off the walls. They weren’t disruptive in a disrespectful way, but their energy made it tough to settle in and start class on time. If you’ve ever taught high school science, you know how those first few minutes can feel: students chatting, catching up on missed work, asking about grades, turning in homework—it’s organized chaos at best.

That’s when I remembered an old favorite classroom tool I hadn’t used in a while: biology bell ringers.

Could a simple daily warm-up activity help refocus my students and establish a calmer, more productive start to class? And better yet, could I get them to keep a bell ringer notebook to track their progress?

The answer was a resounding YES! It worked.

Implementing daily biology warm-ups not only transformed the tone of my class, but it also helped reinforce key concepts and boosted student engagement from the moment they walked through the door.

What are the benefits?

You can turn this chaotic time of your class into a time of meaningful learning. Using bell ringers establishes a daily routine of having your students complete thought provoking and problem solving tasks during the first 5 minutes of the class.  Once the routine is established, students will enter the room and get right to work on the warm-up or bell-ringer activity. These warm-ups are designed to take 5-7 minutes to complete. It settles the students and provides the instructor a few minutes to carry out the tasks required at the beginning of a class.

It took a bit of time, but I now have sets of bell ringers for every chapter of a traditional high school biology class. Since most biology or life science textbooks are generally divided into ten units, I organized my warm up activities in the same fashion:

• Unit 1:  Introduction to Science (Scientific Method, Graphing, Chemistry, Biochemistry)
• Unit 2:  Cells
• Unit 3:  Ecology
• Unit 4:  Genetics
• Unit 5:  Evolution
• Unit 6:  Microorganisms and Fungi
• Unit 7:  Plants
• Unit 8:  Invertebrates
• Unit 9:  Chordates
• Unit 10:  The Human Body

All units have been added to my TPT store and can be viewed at this link.

The pages are printed landscape style. The pages look best if printed in color, but also look great if printed in black/white. Each activity is one-half page in size. Two identical warm-ups are printed per page in order to conserve paper. In this time saving classroom management strategy, all you have to do is print the pages and cut them in half.

The warm-ups/bell ringers require and measure a wide variety of skills: 

Compare and contrast
Identify and label
Define terms
Graphing and Tabling
Critical Thinking/Problem Solving
 Computation
Short Answer
Listing
Research
Cause and Effect
 Drawing
Analyzing
Interpreting
Predicting
Fill in the Blank
Writing/Explaining

These half-page activities can be collected and quickly graded, or you might want to have your students keep a daily warm-up notebook. These warm-ups will make excellent additions to your interactive notebooks. An added benefit ... The completed warm-up notebook makes an excellent review for the semester exam!

I now have 41 sets of bell ringers in my TPT store. You can view them all at this link. 

They can be purchased individually, and they are arranged into four large unit bundles:

• Cells, Ecology, DNA, Genetics, and Evolution Bundle
• Viruses, Bacteria, Fungi, and Protists Bundle
• Animal Kingdom Bell Ringer Bundle
• Human Body Bundle

I hope these work as well for you as they did for me.

Have fun teaching!

Need Help with Organization? Try "The Ultimate Science Teacher Binder!"

An organized teacher is a happy teacher!

I have learned so many things in my 30 years of teaching, but probably the most important lesson has been in the area of organization.  A school day for a teacher is a harried and frenzied day under the best of circumstances.  From the moment we enter the school house door, we are bombarded with questions, requests, emails, phone call messages, announcements over the PA system, upset children, happy children, sick children, overly excited children, meetings, more meetings, IEP's, notes from parents, and let's not forget the GAZILLION papers that cross our desk in the course of just one day!!  Oh yeah, we also have to teach the students something, don't we?  So let's not forget the lesson planning, the xeroxing of materials, the studying we must do to be prepared, the incorporation of Common Core standards into the lesson, the designing and setup of the lab activity, the re-teaching, the differentiation of the lesson to meet the needs of each individual student ........ and many in the public community think we are overpaid!!

It is a wonder we survive the day!! Early on in my teaching career I realized that if I was not highly organized each and every day, I would never survive in this profession. I had two things going for me already..... I LOVE kids, and I LOVE biology and chemistry.  But, as a kid right out of college, I did struggle a bit with organization.  Now fast forward thirty years later .... Every single aspect of my day is super organized and planned.  Now when the unexpected happens during the day (which happens every single day, right?) it is not a total disruption.  If I am organized then the disruptions are just minor ripples in the day that do not turn into catastrophes.

I continue to learn more organizational techniques each day, and am constantly looking for ways to make my school day run more efficiently.  I have attempted to pass along my experience and organizational techniques along to you in my "Ultimate Binder for Science Teachers."

The "Ultimate Binder for Science Teachers" is packed full of forms, tables, organizers, and calendars to help you get organized and stay organized.  There are over 100 pages included in this product.  The pages look best when printed in color, but look fantastic if printed in black and white.  Use these pages to start your teacher binder, or you can add these pages to your already existing binder.

All forms are completely editable!!  You can print them out and write on them, or you can type on them before printing.  I have included the Word documents so that you can edit them to meet your specific needs.














I use a binder like this every day.  I love a little fun/color on each page for my own entertainment.  Pages are colorful, attractive and include science-themed clipart.

The binder will last you your entire teaching career.  Reprint pages each year to include new students, new plans, etc.

Benefits Include:

• No need to spend money buying a new teacher binder from the office supply store each year.
• Use this binder year after year.
• Simply reprint the pages you need for the next year.
• Only print out the pages you need.
• Print in color or in black/white.
• Completely editable:  Make it the perfect binder for YOU!
• Includes Word documents:  Write on them or type on them.
• Calendars will be updated each year.  You download the updates for free.
• Each form is accompanied by a “Read Me!” document that explains how you can best use the form.

What is included in this Science Teacher Binder?

I have divided all of the pages in this product into the following categories.  Under each heading is a list of forms and pages that are included.

Forms Related to Science Teaching:

•  Lab Inventory Form – 2 versions
•  I Need to Order these Lab Supplies for Next Year!
•  Purchase Order Form
•  My Favorite Labs – 2 versions
•  Lab Safety Contract
•  Lab Station Assignments
•  Lab Fee Payment
•  Lab Manual Payment

Calendars:
•  My Year At A Glance
•  My Month At A Glance
•  My Week At A Glance – 2 versions
•  Monthly Calendars With Important Dates in Science History

Grading and Lesson Planning:
•  Unit Plan Organizer
•  Lesson Planning Grids – 3 Versions
•  Grade Recording Sheets

Meetings:
•  Professional Learning Community (PLC) Minutes – 3 versions
•  Faculty Meeting Notes
•  Science Department Meetings

Getting Organized:
•  Textbooks
•  Student Rosters
•  Locker Assignments – 2 versions
•  Parent Contact Logs
•  Student Information Form

•  Final Failure List
•  Exam Exemption List
•  College Recommendation Forms
•  Interactive Seating Charts – 2 versions.  You can move and edit the seats to look just like your classroom set up.
•  My To-Do List

Substitute Lesson Planning:
•  Three-page document for you to leave for your substitute teacher.  Includes a page for general daily information, a page for specific daily assignments, and a recording page for the sub to leave notes for your return.
•  Comes in three different versions:  Plain black and white, Color male science teacher clipart, and Color female science teacher clipart.

Cute and Fun!
•  Sets of Teacher Note Cards for writing thank you notes, notes of encouragement, jobs well done, etc.  All cards have clip art with a science theme.
•  Hall Passes (Science Themed)

Cover Pages and Section Dividers:
•  There are 10 science themed cover pages for you to choose from for the front of your notebook.
•  There is a section divider for each of the above categories.

Each form in the binder is accompanied by a "Read Me!" file for that form.  In the "read me" file I have described how I use the form in my classroom, and how it might best serve you.

Here is a freebie for you!  One of the forms that I use all the time is the "Lab Inventory Form."  We are required to turn in our lab inventory every single year.  This has become an easy task for me.  I invested time in completing a very complete and organized list of lab supplies.  Now all I have to do is add the new items I buy each year, and delete the items that get used up or broken each year.  You can grab my lab inventory form from my TpT store for free.

Thanks for visiting my blog, and I hope you have a very successful and ORGANIZED school year!

Common Core Science & Technical Standards: Let's Get Organized!

Lesson Planning Grids, and Checklists!

The day has come.  You cannot put it off any longer.  Sticking your head in the sand isn't going to make it go away.  Common Core is here (has been for a while now!) and you cannot put it off any longer.  It is time to get organized and begin to tailor your teaching and lesson planning around these standards.

Don't despair. If you are a science teacher that has been doing what a science teacher is supposed to do (experimentation, problem solving, critical thinking, etc.) then you probably will not have to make major changes to your teaching style or curriculum.

For example, in looking at the standards for the Science and Technical Subjects, the third standard for the various grade levels says:

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RST.6-8.3 Follow precisely a multistep procedure when carrying out experiments, taking measurements, or performing technical tasks."  
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RST.9-10.3 Follow precisely a complex multistep procedure when carrying out experiments, taking measurements, or performing technical tasks, attending to special cases or exceptions defined in the text.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RST.11-12.3 Follow precisely a complex multistep procedure when carrying out experiments, taking measurements, or performing technical tasks; analyze the specific results based on explanations in the text.

I have already been doing this in my classes, and I bet you have many activities and teaching lessons that would cover this standard, too.  So, for me, I first needed to get familiar with the standards for the Science and Technical Subjects, and then get organized to insure I was covering them in my daily planning and teaching.

For organizational purposes, I developed a set of  lesson planning grids and checklists.  I am a meticulous and careful planner, as most teachers are apt to be.  I needed to be able to prove to myself (and to my admin) that I was addressing the CCSS standards in my classroom. 

Lesson Planning Grids:

These Lesson Planning Grids will save you time and will help you become better organized in your daily planning of the Common Core Science & Technical Subjects.  I included one page for each of the 10 standards.  This is an easy way to keep track of the standards you have covered and when you covered them. Use them to record plans for the entire class, or to provide an individualized plan for a special-needs student.

Student Checklists:  Four Different Versions.

At my school, teachers belong to small groups called PLC's (Professional Learning Community).  At various points during the school year our PLC must provide evidence of our CCSS planning and teaching.  These student checklists are a great record-keeping method. You can record each time a standard is introduced, reinforced, or practiced for mastery.  The checklists allow you to provide evidence of your teaching of the CCSS Science & Technology standards, and they can be organized  for class progress or for individual student progress.

Checklist #1:  All 10 Science & Technical Standards are listed on one page.

Checklist #2:  This three-page document for each individual student allows you to monitor individual student progress, how the standard was assessed and the outcome of the assessment.

Checklist #3:  This class record allows you to monitor one standard at a time for the entire class.  

Checklist #4:  This class record allows you to see at a glance which students have mastered the standards, and which students have not.

In my lesson planning grids and student checklists, I have focused on the standards for only the Science and Technical Subjects.  As science teachers, we are going to be expected to cover many of the ELA standards on informational text. As the new school year quickly approaches for many of us, I wish you good luck in your teaching and in your implementation of the Common Core standards.

Links to a few of my Common Core  products:

CCSS Lesson Plan Grids and Student Checklists Grades 6-8

CCSS Lesson Plan Grids and Student Checklists Grades 9-10

CCSS Lesson Plan Grids and Student Checklists Grades 11-12

Task Cards for Any Science Informational Text

Scientific Method Task Cards