Ecology Warm Ups, Bell Ringers, or Interactive Notebook Pages

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You've been asking for them.....

..... and here they are!

Ecology Warm Ups and Bell Ringers

Thank you for your patience as I completed this set.  I kinda got all wrapped up in this.  Just when I thought I was finished, I would think of something else I wanted to include.  So it kept growing and growing until it ended up being 80 student pages, 80 pages of teacher answer keys, a 6-page teacher guide, a template for creating cover pages for your interactive notebooks, and a template for creating your own warm up / bell ringer!  WHEW!!

In case you don't already know, this is the third set of warm ups / bell ringers that I have created.  The first set was "Introduction to Science," and the second set was "Cell Structure, Function, and Physiology."  There are two previous blog posts detailing each of these.  You can read the previous blog posts here and here.

All of the student pages look like this.  The pages are printed landscape style and each activity is 1/2 page.  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.







A wide variety of skills and question types are used throughout the student pages.  Many of the activities require the student to draw, color, diagram or graph, while other pages are more traditional and require the student to explain, define, compare or analyze.

How can these pages be used?

• Warm Ups or Bell Ringers
• Exit Slips
• Additions to Interactive Notebooks
• Homework Assignments
• Tutoring and Review
• Completed notebook is perfect for semester exam review. 

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

The topic is ecology.  It is such a HUGE topic that I broke it up into 6 categories.  Each category has between 9 and 18 student pages.  Each has been saved individually so that you can print only the ones you want to use.

Unit 3 Ecology includes warm ups for the following categories: 

(1) Introduction to Ecology, (2) Population Ecology, (3) Community Ecology, (4) Energy Flow and the Recycling of Matter, (5) Biomes, and (6) Humans and the Environment

Introduction to Ecology (12 pages):

·    Introduction to Ecology

·    Today’s Environment

·    Graph the Data 1

·    Graph the Data 2

·    What Affects Climate?

·    The Ozone Layer

·    The Greenhouse Effect

·    Levels of Ecological Organization I

·    Levels of Ecological Organization II

·    Biotic and Abiotic Factors

·    Habitat and Niche

·    Thinking Critically About Ecology

Population Ecology Titles (14 pages):

·    What is a population?

·    Dispersion Patterns

·    Survivorship Curves (Patterns of Mortality)

·    Life History

·    Introduction to Population Growth

·    Exponential Growth

·    Carrying Capacity

·    Logistic Growth

·    Limits to Growth

·    Density Dependent Factors

·    Density Independent Factors

·    Human Population Growth

·    Age Structure Diagrams

·    Thinking Critically About Populations

Community Ecology Titles (11 pages):

·    Community Interactions

·    Competition

·    Predation

·    Parasitism

·    Symbiosis

·    Name That Relationship!

·    Properties of Communities

·    Disturbances

·    Succession Part 1

·    Succession Part 2

·    Thinking Critically About Communities

Energy Flow and the Recycling of Matter Titles (16 pages):

·    Introduction to Energy Flow and Matter Recycling

·    Feeding Relationships

·    Food Chains

·    Productivity

·    Ecological Pyramids 1

·    Ecological Pyramids 2

·    Matter and Energy Cycles

·    The Water Cycle

·    Water Cycle Drawing

·    The Carbon Cycle

·    Carbon Cycle Drawing

·    The Nitrogen Cycle

·    Nitrogen Cycle Drawing

·    Nitrogen Cycle Summary

·    Phosphorus Cycle

·    Thinking Critically About Energy Flow and Matter Recycling

Biomes Titles (18 pages):

·    Introduction to Biomes

·    Tropical Rain Forest

·    Temperate Deciduous Forest

·    Savanna

·    Desert

·    Temperate Grassland

·    Chaparral (Woodland, Shrubland)

·    Taiga (Boreal Forest)

·    Tundra

·    Name That Biome!

·    Marine Ecosystems

·    Ocean Zones 1

·    Ocean Zones 2

·    Ocean Zones 3

·    Hydrothermal Vents

·    Estuaries

·    Freshwater Ecosystems

•  Thinking Critically About Biomes

Humans and the Environment Titles (9 pages):

·    Humans in the Biosphere

·    Resources

·    Forest Resources

·    Air Resources

·    Fisheries and Water Resources

·    The Ozone Layer

·    Carbon Dioxide Levels

·    The Biodiversity Crisis

·    Thinking Critically About Humans and the Environment

More warm ups have been included than can be used for this unit.  This gives you the flexibility of choosing which topics are most important to you and your students.

The idea of using warm ups or bell ringers is one that has worked well for me. I love that my students start working immediately upon entering my classroom, and that it give me a few minutes to get organized while the students are working.  

Thanks for making it to the end of this really long blog post.  I hope you are having a wonderful school year!

Links to warm up products:
Introduction to Science
Cell Structure, Function, and Physiology
Ecology

Back to School Biology Scavenger Hunt

What will you be doing on the first day of biology class?

First impressions count. They make a difference. Whether it is a job interview, or meeting potential in-laws for the first time.... first impressions are important.

When students walk into your class on the first day of school, what first impression will you make? There are alphabetized seating charts to be made, textbooks to be issued, supply lists to go over, grading policies to be discussed, and syllabi to be passed out. There is just so much "business" that must be taken care of!!!

But....  Is this the impression you want to make on the first day of school?

Why not get the kids out of their seats and do something fun on the first day of school?  If you make a great impression on the first day, then students don't mind so much when you go over the "rules" on the second day.  The first day message to the students should be, "My class is exciting.  My class is different.  My class will be demanding, but I want to make learning fun."

My new idea this year for a first day activity is a "Back to School Biology Scavenger Hunt."  I teach in a large public school.  It is not unusual for students to walk into my class only to discover that they do not know anyone in the room.  And, as quickly as possible, I would like to know the skill level of the students I'll be teaching.  This activity covers both.  The scavenger hunt will allow the students to get to know one another, and it will help me determine how much they already know about biology.

Click on image to download this resource.

So how does the scavenger hunt work?  Take the students outside.  This can be done in an outdoor classroom, the playground, or just any area of the school yard.  I am fortunate enough to have a pond and a wooded area that border our school.

Students will work in groups of two to find examples of the items I have included on their 2-page handout.  Examples include:

• Find and name three heterotrophs.
• Find 2 biotic and 2 abiotic factors.
• Find an organism with an exoskeleton.

Students record their answers on the handout.  In addition to answering the biology questions, the students must write down the name of their partner and a "fun-fact" about their partner.  After answering 6 questions, students must change partners and work with a different student on the next 6 questions.  

I hope you and your students enjoy the activity, and I hope you have a GREAT first day of school.

Have a great year!

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

Biology Interactive Notebooks

Interactive Notebooks?

Warm-Ups?

Bell Ringers?

Exit Slips?

Whatever you want to call them, they are a great classroom management tool and a wonderful way to teach, review, and reinforce vital concepts in biology.

A few days ago I wrote a lengthy blog post about my success in using "warm-ups" for my biology classes last year.  Click this link to see that blog post.   In this post I described the materials I used in my first unit of the school year.

This blog post is about my second set of interactive notebook inserts or warm -ups.  This set covers a unit on cell structure and physiology.  This ended up being a set of 59 warm ups or pages that cover cell structure and function, photosynthesis, respiration, and mitosis and meiosis.

As discussed in my previous blog post, these activities turned the first few chaotic minutes of my class into a time of meaningful learning.  But the absolute best thing to come out of this was that it created a fabulous study guide for my semester exam.

The content that is covered is evident from the titles:

Cell Structure and Function Titles (16 pages):

·    The History of Cell Studies

·    Cell Structure 101

·    The Animal Cell

·    The Plant Cell

·    The Size of Cells

·    Surface Area to Volume Ratio in Cells

·    Internal Organization of the Cell

·    The Cell Membrane

·    Ribosomes and the Endoplasmic Reticulum

·    Mitochondria and Chloroplasts

·    The “Other” Organelles

·    Plant versus Animal

·    Cellular Organization

·    Transport Across the Membrane 1

·    Transport Across the Membrane 2

·    Thinking Critically About Cells

Photosynthesis Titles (11 pages):

·    Energy Flow

·    Chemical Energy and ATP

·    Introduction to Photosynthesis

·    Light! Pigments! Action!

·    The Chloroplast

·    Electron Carriers

·    Overview to the Stages of Photosynthesis

·    Light Dependent Reaction

·    The Calvin Cycle

·    Alternatives to the 3-Carbon Pathway

·    Thinking Critically About Photosynthesis

Cellular Respiration Titles (14 pages):

·    Chemical Energy and ATP

·    The Relationship Between Photosynthesis and Respiration

·    Overview of Respiration

·    Glycolysis

·    The Fate of Pyruvic Acid

·    The Mitochondria

·    Overview of Aerobic Respiration

·    Krebs Cycle

·    Electron Transport Chain

·    ATP Accounting

·    Respiration Recap and Review

·    Fermentation

·    Comparison of Photosynthesis and Respiration

·    Thinking Critically About Cellular Respiration

Cell Division (Mitosis and Meiosis) Titles (18 pages):

·    Introduction to Cell Division

·    Chromosomes

·    The Cell Cycle

·    Let’s Draw the Stages

·    Name That Stage!

·    Interphase

·    Prophase

·    Metaphase

·    Anaphase

·    Telophase / Cytokinesis

·    The Mitotic Spindle

·    Differences in Animal and Plant Cell Mitosis

·    Results / Importance of Mitosis

·    Asexual versus Sexual Reproduction

·    Cell Division and Chromosome Number

·    Meiosis

·    Comparing Mitosis to Meiosis

·    Thinking Critically About Cell Division

The above pictures show the student pages.  Each is also accompanied by a teacher answer key.

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