Invertebrates: How To Get It Covered When You Are Running Out Of Time!

Help!  I am running out of time, and I still have the animal kingdom to cover!

This happens to me EVERY. SINGLE. YEAR!!  I really can't think of any topic in my biology class that I don't enjoy.  I am a biology nerd and I love teaching! But there are certain topics that I REALLY love and I spend too much time on them.  Cell physiology, biochemistry, cell division, photosynthesis, respiration, genetics, DNA, evolution ..... I get so excited about these, and I love the labs that go with these topics, and well, I just spend too much time on them!  Which brings me back to the purpose of this article:  I need to get the invertebrate material covered, and I have very little time to do it.

It's time to flip my classroom.

For most concepts, I prefer a traditional teaching approach. Flipping my classroom means that I am shifting the responsibility for teaching and learning to the student. The idea is that the student must study and learn the material at home, and class time is used to answer questions and clarify any misconceptions students might have about the concepts.  As I said above, I am a traditional teacher, and I prefer to teach most topics "the old-fashioned" way.  But I do believe that certain topics require less instruction from the teacher, and these topics can be covered quickly and efficiently by shifting some or all of the responsibility over to the students.

Like the invertebrates!  I want my biology students to be well versed about the origins of the animal kingdom.  They need a basic understanding of embryology, body form and symmetry, and the unique characteristics that place an animal in a particular phylum.  After a few really good lectures on embryology, I usually shift the rest of the learning over to the students. There is nothing difficult about the characteristics of each phylum, and my students often are relieved and excited for things to be a little different in the classroom.

So how will I cover the invertebrates? You are probably already familiar (hopefully!) with my warm ups and interactive notebook pages.  I use them all year long as warm ups, homework assignments, and for review and reinforcement.

For the invertebrates, I use them as a tool for flipping the learning over to the students.  Students are placed in cooperative learning groups - (groups of my own choosing, and not theirs!) - to complete the interactive pages on all of the invertebrate phyla.  I give them class time to work, but some of the work will have to be completed outside of class.  Each day, I devote time to answering questions the students might have, and focusing their attention to a few concepts that might need a little more traditional instruction.

I have my students prepare a notebook on the invertebrates.  You can get an idea of how this works from the photos below.  Click on any of the images below to view these products in my TpT store.

 

Each set can be purchased individually (click on each image above) or you can save money by purchasing them in a big bundle.  Use this link to view the big bundle.

I hope this gives you a few ideas of ways cover some topics quickly when you are crunched for time. Good luck in your teaching!

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!

Amp Up Your Unit on Plants!

Ginkgo

It's time for your unit on plants.  Excited or dreading it?

As I sat down to begin the writing of this post, my initial thought was to lead with, "I just love teaching plants!" And then it occurred to me that I begin almost all of my blog posts on biology topics in the same way.  But the truth is.... I am excited to begin teaching almost any topic in biology. I love them all!  I am sure that I have a least favorite unit to teach, but I would have to give that some thought to determine which unit it is. That is probably a topic for another blog post.....

So back to plants.  Having taught school for over 30 years, I have taught thousands of students and have interacted with many, many teachers during this time.  What I know is this:  Students don't like studying about plants (too boring!) and teachers don't like teaching about plants (students don't like it!) As a result, I have noticed that many middle and high school life science and biology teachers will either:

1. Leave plants out of the curriculum entirely, or ...
2. Skip through it too quickly, leaving out the depth that this unit deserves.

I find plants fascinating.  And because I do, I look for ways to make it interesting for my students.  Not the topic of this blog post, but have you ever tried the C-Fern labs from Carolina Biological?  My students literally shout with excitement when they see (using a microscope) the sperm cells swimming to the egg and the frantic mob of sperm that surrounds the egg.

Students love lab work and it definitely helps makes the class more interesting and exciting, but we all know that the "down and dirty" classroom days are needed to teach the information to our students.  I developed this set of 34 warm up / bell ringer / interactive notebook pages to use with my students while teaching about plant evolution and classification.  I am really excited about this set, and I feel that it is one of the best sets that I have written.

• If you complete these pages with your students, I guarantee that your students will come away with a solid foundation and knowledge base about the evolution and classification of plants.

Click image to view product in my TpT store.

• These pages are NO PREP for the teacher!!  I have done all of the prep work for you. You can spend more time concentrating on your teaching.

• Don't use these pages the same way everyday.  Use some as warm ups, and others as homework assignments.  Some will make great quizzes.  I like to add a page or two of these as a lab station while carrying out our plant experiments.  While lecturing, I will break up the lecture time by having my students complete one of the pages for review and reinforcement.

What topics are covered?  These 34 warm up pages cover the topics commonly found in an introductory unit on plants.  Highlights include: Characteristics of plants, the plant life cycle, alternation of generations, the evolution of plants, the transition of plants to land, classification of plants, nonvascular and vascular plants, the bryophytes, the liverwort life cycle, the moss life cycle, the fern life cycle, the seed plants, gymnosperms and angiosperms.

What topics are not covered?  Plant structure and function, plant responses, and plant reproduction are covered in different sets.  Links to these sets are seen below.

Plant Structure and Function

Plant Reproduction

Thanks for stopping by, and have fun teaching!

The Nervous System

Click image to view product.

Interactive Notebooks!

Warm-Ups!

Bell Ringers!

Of all the human body systems, I think the nervous system is the hardest to teach.  Start a discussion on resting potentials, action potentials, and sodium potassium pumps and just watch the students get that glazed over look in their eyes.  What is the trick to teaching this tricky body system?  Give out the information in small doses, break up instruction time with short demonstrations and activities, and review, review, review!

If you have visited this blog at any time during the past year, you know I have become a huge fan of warm ups and bell ringers.  This teaching tool has insured that my students get the review and reinforcement they need to be successful in my class.  Daily warm ups require the students to look back into their notes from previous instruction to complete the daily review.

I am particularly excited about this set of nervous system warm ups.  This body system is complicated, and the daily review and reinforcement is vital to student mastery.  This set of warm ups has 37 student pages.  I use them for warm up activities, homework assignments and preparation for the unit test.  I require my students to keep the pages in a warm up notebook.  These pages are also ideal as inserts into interactive notebooks.  I have definitely noticed an increase in test scores since I started requiring my students to keep a warm up notebook.

This Table of Contents will give you a better idea of the topics and concepts that are covered by the 37 student warm up pages.

The last 5 student warm pages are always used to prepare for the unit test. These pages consist of multiple choice, fill in the blank, compare and contrast and true/false questions.  They are first used to prepare for the unit test, but later become perfect for the semester exam review.

If you are looking for more human body system review, you can also read this blog post on excretory system warm ups and bell ringers for biology, which focuses on kidney function, nephron processes, and daily review activities.

More Human Body Warm Ups and Bell Ringers for High School Biology

Build a complete human body review routine with these related blog posts featuring warm up activities for high school biology.

• Biology warm ups and bell ringers
• Excretory system warm ups and bell ringers
• Nervous system warm ups and bell ringers
• Immune system warm ups and bell ringers
• Human body interactive notebook pages and warm ups
• Respiratory system warm ups and bell ringers
• Circulatory system warm ups and bell ringers
• Skeletal, muscular, and integumentary system warm ups
• Endocrine System warm ups and bell ringers
• Digestive System arm ups and bell ringers

Teaching About the Immune System

Tough Topic!

(Made Easier with these warm ups and interactive notebook pages.)

I have a love/hate relationship with the immune system.  I love teaching it.  It is interesting, confusing, amazing, and mind-boggling.  Students are interested in this topic, they are more alert on these days, and they ask great questions.  This is where the "hate" part comes in.  I am just a science teacher, with multiple college degrees, but I have NOT been to medical school.  When teaching about the immune system, students LOVE to ask you all sorts of medical questions.  Some I can answer, but many I cannot ... and should not ... even attempt!

So what's a science teacher to do?  Even though I don't know about every medical condition known to man, I still enjoy teaching about the immune system.  I love the lines of body defense, infectious diseases, the Germ Theory, and Koch's Postulates.  Lymphocytes and antibodies are the best!  I can get really excited and animated when talking to students about the specificity of antibodies, how they are made in the body, and why we get sick, but later have immunity.

Keep your students focused on the important information.  Avoid medical issues, and refer the students to their physicians when those sorts of questions arise.  My newest set of warm ups and interactive notebook pages on the immune system is a perfect way to keep the students directed, focused, and on task.

Click image to
view product.

My "modified" version of interactive notebook pages are not "foldables" and they do not require any elaborate cutting, pasting or folding.  They are truly "NO PREP" and perfect for a high school classroom where every valuable minute of our class time must be utilized as efficiently as possible.

The student pages are half-page in size and easily inserted into their student notes.  I like to have my students keep a warm up notebook.  These pages are perfect for the first few minutes of class.  Students begin to work on them immediately as they enter the classroom.  The review and reinforcement nature of the pages provides ample opportunities for students to master the information.  I use these pages as warm ups, homework assignments, and even as short daily quizzes.

The warm up notebook is the best method of test prep I have found, both for the unit tests as well as for the semester exams and end of course exams.

Here is a preview to what is offered in my Immune System Warm Ups.

More Human Body Warm Ups and Bell Ringers for High School Biology

Build a complete human body review routine with these related blog posts featuring warm up activities for high school biology.

• Biology warm ups and bell ringers
• Excretory system warm ups and bell ringers
• Nervous system warm ups and bell ringers
• Immune system warm ups and bell ringers
• Human body interactive notebook pages and warm ups
• Respiratory system warm ups and bell ringers
• Circulatory system warm ups and bell ringers
• Skeletal, muscular, and integumentary system warm ups
• Endocrine System warm ups and bell ringers
• Digestive System arm ups and bell ringers

Digestive System Interactive Notebook Pages and Bell Ringers

Take your students on a trip down the alimentary canal!

When covering the digestive system with my biology classes, I like to take the opportunity to teach my students about more than just the parts of the digestive tract.  I try to throw in a few "life lessons" about the importance of health, fitness, diet and exercise.  I am around a LOT of high school kids, and what they eat on a daily basis scares the weight right off of me!  It seems that my students are getting less and less exercise, and are eating more and more junk food.

As I was writing the interactive notebook / warm up pages for the digestive system, I knew I wanted to include concepts about food groups, the food pyramid, nutrients, and the importance of vitamins and minerals. This is also the perfect time to review carbohydrates, proteins and lipids.  If your curriculum flows like mine, you likely teach organic compounds near the first of the school year, and get to human body some time in the second semester.  This is a great time to review the organic compounds for the upcoming end of year tests.

This set of interactive notebook pages does all of the above and more.  The 31 student pages cover all of the topics you would expect to find in a unit on the digestive system.   You'll find a complete list of topics and titles below.  As you know from my previous posts, I have my students keep these pages in a warm up notebook.  You can also call it a "modified" interactive notebook.  It is modified in the sense that my pages are completely NO PREP.  I love the idea of interactive note booking, but I do not EVER have enough class time to do it.  Our curriculum is so jam-packed that I cannot spare one minute on the gluing, cutting or folding of paper for a notebook.  I have found this single-page format to be perfect for the amount of class time I have.

These pictures will give you a better idea of my digestive system interactive pages.  Click on any of the images to view this product in my TpT store.

More Human Body Warm Ups and Bell Ringers for High School Biology

Build a complete human body review routine with these related blog posts featuring warm up activities for high school biology.

• Biology warm ups and bell ringers
• Excretory system warm ups and bell ringers
• Nervous system warm ups and bell ringers
• Immune system warm ups and bell ringers
• Human body interactive notebook pages and warm ups
• Respiratory system warm ups and bell ringers
• Circulatory system warm ups and bell ringers
• Skeletal, muscular, and integumentary system warm ups
• Endocrine System warm ups and bell ringers
• Digestive System arm ups and bell ringers

Respiratory System Warm Ups and Interactive Notebook Pages

These snazzy new warm ups, bellringers and interactive notebook pages on the respiratory system will take your breath away!!  

(Cue up the canned laughter....)  All corny jokes aside, I am very excited to share my newest set of interactive notebook pages with you.  I am slowly but surely working my way through the human body systems.  This set of 19 student pages covers the respiratory system.  The following pictures and images will give you the best idea of what is included in this newest product.

Click on any image below to view the product in my TpT store.

This product can be purchased individually, or as part of a growing bundle. This is the first time that I have tried out the idea of a "growing bundle."  I have many return customers who are eagerly awaiting the completion of all of the human body system warm ups.  In the past, I have bundled together many sets to offer at a discounted price.  Many people have requested that I give them the opportunity to buy the bundle from the very beginning.  So I have tried to honor that request by offering this growing bundle.

What is a growing bundle?  A “growing bundle” is a bundle of products that is being posted to my store before all of the individual products are complete. As the new individual products are developed, they will be added to the bundle.  With this “growing bundle” I am offering you the option of buying the bundle before the completion of the individual products.  

As of this writing, the bundle contains:

•  Introduction to the Human Body

•  The Skeleton System

•  The Muscular System

•  The Integumentary System

•  The Circulatory System

•  The Respiratory System

The rest of the of the human body systems will be added to the bundle as I get them completed.  Click the image below to view the growing bundle in my TpT store.

I hope that you are having a restful and relaxing summer.  Take time to recharge and regain your sanity because the new school year will be upon us soon!

More Human Body Warm Ups and Bell Ringers for High School Biology

Build a complete human body review routine with these related blog posts featuring warm up activities for high school biology.

• Biology warm ups and bell ringers
• Excretory system warm ups and bell ringers
• Nervous system warm ups and bell ringers
• Immune system warm ups and bell ringers
• Human body interactive notebook pages and warm ups
• Respiratory system warm ups and bell ringers
• Circulatory system warm ups and bell ringers
• Skeletal, muscular, and integumentary system warm ups
• Endocrine System warm ups and bell ringers
• Digestive System arm ups and bell ringers

The Circulatory System Interactive Notebook Pages

Good news!  Thirty-three student pages on the human circulatory system are now available for your biology or anatomy / physiology interactive notebooks.

I believe I have included a great range of content starting with the basic concepts of the circulatory system and progressing through more and more complex information.  My goal was to write pages that could be used with my general science students all the way up through my AP Biology students.  There are enough pages included in this product that you can easily pick and choose the perfect mix for your science class.  As a result, these pages are suitable for general science students in the 8th grade, first year biology students in high school, honors biology students, anatomy and physiology students, and even advanced placement biology students.

Read on for a preview of the circulatory system warm ups and bell ringers, and be sure to download my free sampler pack to get free samples from all of my interactive notebook products.

Click the image above to download free sampler pack.

More Human Body Warm Ups and Bell Ringers for High School Biology

Build a complete human body review routine with these related blog posts featuring warm up activities for high school biology.

• Biology warm ups and bell ringers
• Excretory system warm ups and bell ringers
• Nervous system warm ups and bell ringers
• Immune system warm ups and bell ringers
• Human body interactive notebook pages and warm ups
• Respiratory system warm ups and bell ringers
• Circulatory system warm ups and bell ringers
• Skeletal, muscular, and integumentary system warm ups
• Endocrine System warm ups and bell ringers
• Digestive System arm ups and bell ringers

PS: Looking for a memorable lab that students get excited about? Read more about my Daphnia Heart Rate Lab for biology, where students observe a beating heart, collect real data, and design their own experiment.