Science Education Idea Exchange

I am still revamping and adding cute clipart to my resources. But, I did create my MS-PS1-2 lesson plans with portions of them available separately. Here is the description of the lesson plans: These chemical reaction lesson plans have activities to help students create and gain a basic understanding of physical and chemical changes. They start with an introductory phenomenon on changes. Next, students have research, stations, and a lab to understand the objective better. Two assessments are included: a CER and a critical thinking question about physical and chemical changes.

I have been busy updating my products and combing through for improvements. I did manage to create this one!  Physical and Chemical Changes Background Digital and Print Stations The physical and chemical changes background stations provide a kinesthetic way for students to gain a brief background on the physical changes, chemical changes, chemical reactions, evidence of changes (density, solubility, flammability, melting point, boiling point, states of matter, and odor). 10 stations can be printed for the classroom or shared digitally with students. Each station includes a check for understanding questions to lead to the next station. A student worksheet has a spot to record the station answers. The teacher's guide has the answer key and the order of the stations.

I have had fun making note sheets and decided to build stations to provide the background information necessary to complete the note sheets. Atoms Background Stations & Note Sheet Bundle The  atoms background stations  provide a kinesthetic way for students to gain a brief background on the structure of atoms (protons, neutrons, electrons, valence electrons, nucleus, and orbits), types of bonds (ionic and covalent), atomic mass, atomic numbers, the periodic table of elements, types of molecules (compounds and elements). 12 stations can be printed for the classroom or shared digitally with students. Each station includes a check for understanding questions to lead to the next station. A student worksheet has a spot to record the station answers. The teacher's guide has the answer key and the order of the stations. (Stations, teacher’s guide, and student worksheet are secured PDFs.) This  note sheet  is a single secured PDF that includes a black-and-white and a col...

ESS2-6 Coriolis Effect Activity In this Coriolis Effect activity, students go through three stations to simulate the impact of uneven heating and the Earth's rotation. They create a map to synthesize their learning. At the end, students complete a claim-evidence-reasoning over ocean currents. ( Included in the  ESS2 Bundle ) Ecology and Biome Note Sheet The cell parts note sheet has key terms for a unit on ecology. Topics include levels of organization in an ecosystem, abiotic versus biotic factors, representations of energy flow (trophic pyramid, food web, and food chain), and biomes. 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? Ecology and Biome Vocabulary Review Game The classic "Who Am I?" game has 28 cards that cover common terms in ecology and biomes (see list below). Simply print the secured PDF with cards and instructions and play! (Definitions...

I heard another educator say we are teaching the YouTube generation, so why not embrace it? Videos are truly powerful resources for teachers. Early in teaching middle school, I had a mentor who used Eureka! videos to teach concepts. They are a little bit dated, but they are short, easy to follow, and provide silly examples to walk students through scientific principles. The only way I have found them is on YouTube, but I am sure there are better ways that don't infringe on the rights of the creator.

 I finished my products for the MS-PS2 series on Forces and Motion : MS-PS2 Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions Activity Bundle MS-PS2-4 Measuring Impacts (Relationship between Gravity and Mass) :  Students test out how impact craters change with objects of different masses. This can be as a class demonstration or a lab. At the end, students reflect on the relationship between gravity, mass, and the force of the different objects in a CER and conclusion questions. MS-PS2-5 Magnetic Field Activity :  Students look at magnet interactions when the poles are the same and different. Afterward, they apply their understanding in a CER over Maglev trains or toys. Newer materials for Forces and Motion are my vocabulary game,   note sheet , and a review game bundle . And, finally, I added more resources on one of my favorite topics: genetics. Genetics Review Game Bundle Who Am I? Game- Genetics

 I found this note sheet   from Scientific Notation , another new and impressive store. They created a note sheet on chemical formulas and notation for compounds. What I love: Spots for students to doodle Eye-appealing Answer key included Easy to follow Needless to say, I cannot wait to see what other materials they create as their store grows. Photo by Debby Hudson 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

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.

This week, I found a reading and writing resource on heat transfer created by A Dad's Classroom . Included in the PDF is the reading, two pages of questions, a KWL chart, and an answer key. I love that the questions are in a variety of styles to allow students to demonstrate their understanding of the reading. This could serve as a great introduction to conduction . Download your copy here ! Photo by Becca Tapert on Unsplash

 I worked on creating new bundle s   and here is where you can find them: Birthday I and Online Birthday Escape Puzzle Room Birthday II and Online Birthday Escape Puzzle Room All three Birthday Escape Puzzle Rooms Build You Own (pictured above)- You can choose items from my store to bundle together NGSS MS-PS1 Activities on Atoms and Matter Since I have the NGSS MS-PS1 Bundle, that means standards 5 and 6 are done! See more information about them below. MS-PS1-5:  Conservation of Matter Chemical Reaction Model Students create a model of a chemical reaction to show how atoms are conserved. This activity assumes students already are familiar with atoms, and it would pair best with a mini lesson on the Law of Conservation of Matter. The lesson starts off with a brief demonstration and a kinesthetic activity to show how matter is not created or destroyed. MS-PS1-6: Thermal Energy and Deicing Project In this project on thermal energy and chemicals, students choose an effecti...

 I am working on completing activities for all of the NGSS PS1 standards, so stay tuned! For now, here is a new one that I created: MS-PS1-4: Phase Change Models for States of Matter S tudents create a model drawing of phase changes for a pure chemical. There are two templates to make the states of matter models. It can be printed or designed into a slide presentation (instructions included). This activity assumes they already know about atoms, states of matter, and thermal energy. The activity included is no-prep. Simply upload or print the materials and go! Included are: Teacher's guide with suggested chemicals and chemical boiling/melting points (secured PDFs) Graphing Model Template and instructions (secured PDF) Drawing Model Template and instructions (secured PDF) Standards/Objectives: ✅NGSS: MS-PS1-4 In the life science camp, I ha ve my  Genetics Vocabulary Note Sheet . The genetics note sheet has key terms for beginning a heredity unit. Students color and label informa...

I have a few atoms and physical science based products that are new to my store. 1.  MS-PS1-1: Atomic Structure Activity- Building Molecules This activity would serve best as an introduction to atoms and matter. Day one consists of students learning how atoms bond to form molecules using the premade model. On day two, students create their model to make an assigned molecule. In a pinch, day one could be a print-and-go activity. Students could cut apart their atoms in class to save prep time. Standards/Objectives: ✅NGSS: MS-PS1-1 This product includes the following activities: ⚪Looking at patterns ⚪Creating molecules ⚪Creating molecule models 2.  MS-PS1-2 Poisonous Pee Chemical Reaction Lab Students examine whether chemicals are safe to use as a cleaner on toilets to learn about chemical reactions. Their task is to help OSHA determine what cleaners are safe for a fictitious school to use and what should be investigated further. Background knowledge of chemical reactions is best...

  No-Frills Science is a new TPT store created by a teacher with many years of experience. Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash I found their freebie scavenger hunt on the periodic table of elements in a recent search. It offers a lot for a free resource! What I like: print-and-go lesson plans and answer keys included could be utilized with a sub bad puns

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 saw this awesome idea years ago and unfortunately cannot remember where. (If you know, please comment with the links below!) During lessons about forces and friction, have students design the sole of a shoe!   Photo by Ox Street on Unsplash First, have students create sketches of ideas for the sole textures they want to try. Then, on a cardboard shoe cutout, have students cut pieces of foam and glue them to the bottom of the cutout. They can measure the friction created by dragging their shoe by a spring scale across the floor or table. Just a plain cardboard shoe could serve as a control. Ask students to consider what applications for shoes would high friction work best and where would less friction be better.

Available as of April, a new puzzle room to help review forces and motions. I included graphs students need to read to find the velocity of an object. There are practice calculations for speed and acceleration. Discussions of Newton's Laws of Motion. You can see samples of what's included above.   

My cohort and I realized that our students were scoring low on a question about the relationship between density and temperature on our check point. I created something similar for the students to draw in their notebooks and we viewed a couple things as we discussed, like this amazing convection current video  and this animation of molecules and temperature from Middle School Chemistry. I think it helped clear up a few cobwebs. We'll find out more over the next week! I added a free graphic organizer that can be downloaded on my Teachers Pay Teachers account. Please check it out and leave feedback!

This year, I wanted to offer learning as it's own reward. I had originally created a binder of science-y extensions that students would look at when they're done. I learned quickly that it wasn't very effective. I was reading an article on differentiation and it suggested making extensions/anchor activities a requirement. I had an idea! I would create a tic-tac-toe board with options on activities related to our current topic. In my grade book, I have a "0" weight category for practice assignments, like checkpoints. My students did a great job with our first go! For our physics unit, I created the board below. I wanted to incorporate different types of activities like review games, vocabulary posters, links, and quick labs. To set one up for your classroom, choose activities for your tic-tac-toe board.  Create a tic-tac-toe board with titles, descriptions, a spot for their score, and your signature. Every student should receive one when you explain y...