Science Education Idea Exchange

  I have conducted many project-based lessons that last days to a few weeks. I implemented a couple of strategies to help manage the flow. Break-Down of Deadlines : The most important thing is to know the big checkpoints in the project. Start with the end in mind. When does everything need to be completed? Then, work backward based on the pace of your average students. Share these deadlines with students as a roadmap of their project and daily their goal for the end of the class. Even better still, share the deadlines with parents and guardians so they can help check in with their students. Roster of Progress : Write the deadlines you created into a spreadsheet or roster with all the students' names. If they have partners, group them on the progress monitoring sheet. When students complete each deadline, mark it on the sheet. Now, you see what students need additional support and how the class is doing with the progress. Photo by  Alexis Brown  on  Unsplash

 I was wasting time online this afternoon and discovered some activities and past events from the National Wildlife Federation . They would be a great resource to begin projects in the classroom that are ecology-focused and all about helping our students learn about the local area.  They have an upcoming event in May featuring gardening with and for local flora and fauna. Photo by  Erda Estremera  on  Unsplash

  Photo by  Triana Nana  on  Unsplash I am just really enjoying using the poor weather outside to create! My latest creation is using slime recipes to teach students about mutations and their impacts on organisms, especially asexual organisms. It can be found here .

 I just finished adding materials for all five standards to help engage students in learning about ecosystems. The bundle of resources comes at a discount and can be found here ! The resources included are simulations, projects, and labs.  Stay tuned for my part II birthday escape room and projects for heredity!

I am a huge fan of project-based learning! As a result, I create lots of rubrics. Sometimes I write them myself and other times, I like to find premade ones to help me clarify the assessment piece. A co-worker in Colorado introduced me to Rubistar  years back. It's free and pretty user-friendly. They have several premade categories and criteria, but you can alter them to fit your needs. The website is old, but don't let that throw you off.

After months of work, I finally completed another lesson plan bundle with the idea of project-based learning and engineering in mind.  Check it out !

I know that my students always found making graphs daunting, so I created a free cheat sheet that can be downloaded at my store. It includes basic descriptions of how graphs are set up and explanations of the use of four common graphs. I would love to hear your thoughts on this resource so I can improve it. 😊