Science Education Idea Exchange

 I almost completely forgot, but here it is! I am having a sale on all items in my store !

 I have used this strategy for notebooking for years after it was introduced to me. Students divide their page into three different-sized sections. (See below for the labels and relative sizes.) I have the students complete the summary at the very end of their notes. They write 3-4 sentences highlighting the big ideas.

 I have heard many times over that students have better recall of notes they write when they are handwritten. I was looking at Twitter this afternoon and saw a person sharing her students' sketchnotes and it caught my attention. What is it? Basically, it is a combination of text and drawings to summarize learning. The Tweets mentioned earlier had the students using a comic book template to write about the Milky Way Galaxy. Why does it matter? It has students synthesize information in a meaningful way to them. And, by creating visuals along with text, important information is easily highlighted. (I'm sure drawing it out helps commit it to memory as well.)

 In science, there are so many opportunities to collaborate! I always tried to encourage my students to form pairs based on interests rather than previous friendships. Who knows who you might be missing out on? Here are some questions you could pose to your students to have them form new pairs relatively quickly: Candy Corn: Yes or No? Zombie or Vampire? Pirate or Ninja? Beaches or Mountains? Ice skating or Building a snowman? Listening to music or Reading a book? England or France? How many languages do you know? Video games or Computer games? Black licorice: Yes or No? Are hot dogs sandwiches: Yes or No? Superpower: Flying or Speed? Before they begin their work, they could have a chance to explain their answer to their partner. It would be a great way to break the ice. ***UPDATE: I made this into a freebie you can get here! ***

 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.

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.

 I love to create breakout rooms for my students (as you may have noticed from my Teachers Pay Teachers page). To create your own: To get me started, I have used the template from Breakout.edu . I just discovered they have many more resources. To find pre-created resources: Search Facebook for groups- I belong to a science group that is no longer active, but you can still find resources for free Breakout.edu- requires paid membership after 14 days Teachers Pay Teachers Others? Share in the comments below