Science Education Idea Exchange

Start off the school year right! These lesson plans include answers, handouts to help convert the metric system, practice problems, and a student-choice project. The project at the end has suggestions for differentiation, and all students create some product to demonstrate they understand unit conversions. Click the link above to see the new product. This product includes the following activities: ⚪Pennies, Dimes & Dollars ⚪Metric System Problems ⚪Conversion Practice Project   https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Metric-System-Lesson-Plans-11856800 I have bundled it as well with my Density and Water Lab so you can save 30%. Click here to see it.

After months without a new upload, I am proud to announce: a new density lab is ready! It has students create a procedure to determine the density of water. Ideally, it would be right after lessons on measuring volume, mass, and length so the units are fresh in students' minds. But, it should come before they have a deep understanding of density as an introductory activity.  Meanwhile, I continue to work on updating my store. I would say I'm over 75% of the way there. The goal is to be complete in time for school to start up again.

I found my students struggled with technical and procedural writing. Many years ago, I adapted an activity my elementary school teacher had us complete: write a procedure for an alien on how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich ! Hilarity ensued as my teacher acted as if she had never done it before. It was engaging and powerful. Photo by lilartsy on Unsplash When I had my students try this, they had to explain how to sharpen a pencil . They were frustrated when I started acting out their procedures, but the point was made: procedures need to be detailed so someone else can carry them out.

 I read this article  from Edutopia on using advertisements to teach scientific literacy. Why not? We are constantly bombarded by messages and do not stop often enough to examine what it means. For example, you could spend time on the philosophy of science and discussing what are acceptable rates for certain symptoms from a drug? When do the risks outweigh the benefits? What goes into getting a drug approved for the masses? I can't help but think of how timely this science is with concerns over vaccine safety.

To help my students write thorough conclusions, I created the following document based on someone else's idea. The link for it is here.