Science Education Idea Exchange

On Monday, December 2nd, and Tuesday, December 3rd, there will be a sitewide sale for Teachers Pay Teachers! You will save 20% on all the items in my store and others. If you use the following code, you will save an additional 5%: cyber24 

One of the best things about being a substitute teacher is seeing how others organize their classroom. In October, I covered for a teacher and love how she handles seating charts! She has a binder with tabs for each class period. Directly underneath is a layout of the tables in her room. She has the names of the students written on tiny sticky notes. This is great because it's easy to:  Make quick changes to a seating chart when you inevitably put two students together that do not promote a good learning community. Arrange students when it's time for a new seating chart. No typing in names or moving it around on a computer before printing it off. It looks much crisper than a handwritten seating chart, too. Photo by Christina Victoria Craft on Unsplash

Photo by Philipp Pilz on Unsplash In a search for new items, I found this worksheet on carrying capacity and limiting factors by Growing New Scientists . Kirsten has many accomplishments, so I recommend this product and others in their store! The worksheet is available in three different formats: Word, PDF, and online. It has two parts to help students review abiotic and biotic factors and carrying capacity. What I love: Three different formats to make it fit your needs Answer key included to take out the guesswork Questions of a variety of styles to tap into what students know The worksheet is easy to follow and understand for students Download your free resource and check it out!

Here are the new additions since my last post: 1. Ecology Escape Puzzle Room This puzzle escape room would be great as a review or a day there is a sub in the classroom. Topics covered are food webs, food chains. energy pyramids, abiotic versus biotic factors, limiting factors, carrying capacity, and symbiotic relationships. Hints for the clues are all printable and distractors are included. The instructions tells you how the clues are solved, the code, and where it leads to next. 2. States of Matter Vocabulary Note Sheet The states of matter note sheet has key terms for a unit on phase changes, thermal energy definitions of states of matter, and molecule movement. Pair this with your favorite reading, presentation, or video for students to summarize the key terms and concepts. (Background information is not included.) 3. Plate Tectonic Review Games Bundle This bundle includes two activities over plate tectonics to help students review vocabulary terms on plate motion and concepts. The...

I have been subbing for a year in a few different schools and age groups. My favorite is the middle school teachers who are prepared for a guest in the room. They all tend to have some variation of my list below: 1. Lesson plans 2. Emergency procedures 3. Rosters/seating charts with pictures: Include any special information, like if the student has band lessons during class. 4. Important contact information, like admin (grade-level, if applicable), attendance, tech department 5. Hall passes: when are they issued, how are they issued 6. Supervision or other duties 7. Do you share your room during your plan? Bonus points for the teachers that put it in a clearly labeled binder. It's a lot of work, but it makes it easier for me to run another teacher's classroom successfully. Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

  This week's freebie is a practice of identifying physical and chemical changes by Mudds Science . The resource can be downloaded from their store here . This is a simple activity with a PowerPoint slide with 12 pictures. The answer key goes into great depth about the reasoning for each. I like this resource for the details in the photos and explanations. Furthermore, the more practice you can find on this topic, the better! My students have always struggled with this topic. Photo by Joshua Newton on Unsplash

 I have been busy, but it took me awhile before I posted some new products. Here they are: Christmas Escape Puzzle Room Celebrate Christmas and the winter in style! This escaped room is designed with four different codes (numerical, letter, and directional) hidden in puzzles and visual clues that lead to matching Christmas presents with their missing tags. The students are told they are Santa's elves on Christmas Eve. Bundles Autumn Holiday Escape Puzzle Rooms: Halloween & Thanksgiving Cells & Genetics Escape Puzzle Rooms Rock and Rock Cycle Note Sheet The rocks note sheet has key terms for a unit on rocks, types of rocks (metamorphic, igneous, and sedimentary), and the rock cycle. Pair this with your favorite reading, presentation, or video for students to summarize the key terms and concepts. (Background information is not included.) Who am I? Plate Tectonics Vocabulary Game The classic "Who Am I?" game has 22 cards that cover vocabulary terms associated with pl...

Enchanted Learning is an old website that I relied on as a new teacher years ago. I cannot believe they still have it up and running! The nice thing is that you can create worksheets from the website and it includes answer keys. The downside is that it won't be pretty without time and effort.

Photo by Trnava University on Unsplash This week's freebie is from a newer TPT author named Hannah Carroll . They created a Google Form that provides examples of experiments. The student identifies the dependent and independent variables and other parts of an experiment . It can be downloaded to your Drive here . What I love about it: You can modify it to your needs The answer key is built-in Great examples for a quick check