Looking to plan a comprehensive cells unit for your middle school class? Get all the worksheets, presentations, quizzes and tests you need in PDF format!
Virtual dissections can be a huge help in teaching science, biology, physiology and anatomy. Here are some of the best resources for your lessons and labs.
How to engage students in science - This is a topic that I get questions about a lot from teachers. How do you engage your...
Try one of these 16+ free engineering design challenges and engineering projects to get middle school students brainstorming, building, and innovating with the engineering design process!
o, you’re looking for examples of balanced and unbalanced forces lessons and activities for your classroom. I'm here to help!
As a middle school science teacher, I always love teaching the scientific method to my students. There are so many routes you can take with teaching it, and I’ve tried many of them. If you’re gearing up to teach the scientific method, then you might benefit from reading this post. (See what I did there?) You probably have many questions. When should I teach the scientific method? What all should I include in my unit? What order should I teach the topics of the scientific method? How do I go about teaching the scientific method? In this post I’ll share what’s worked for me. Plus, you’ll find some links to FREE resources to help get you started. When Should I Teach the Scientific Method? I want my students to have a good handle on lab safety before getting started with the scientific method because it involves labs, tools, and sometimes harmful chemicals. The scientific method is important for studying science in general, so I teach it as early in the year as possible. It is my second unit (right after lab safety). I bring the scientific method up throughout the year, whenever we have labs. After winter break I have a week-long review to brush up on the more difficult aspects of the scientific method. What Should I Include in My Scientific Method Unit? In What Order Should I Teach the Topics? Obviously, all groups of students are different. My seventh graders always come in with very, very little experience with the scientific method. Knowing that, I start with the basics and go over everything I think they need to know to successfully use the scientific method. I recommend giving your students a preassessment before the unit to gauge what topics you can skip and which you need to hammer into your students’ skulls. Here are the topics I always include in my scientific method unit and the general order in which I teach them: The Steps of the Scientific Method Independent and Dependent Variables Scientific Questions Hypotheses Observations and Inferences Research and Procedures Constants/Controlled Variables Analyzing Data/Graphs Scientific Conclusions How Do I Go About Teaching the Scientific Method? In my class, each of the nine topics listed above starts with interactive notebook notes in combination with a PowerPoint. (See the video below of the interactive science notebook pages I use. They're all available in my store and you can get the INB pages in my Scientific Method Interactive Notebook Pages Bundle.) After introducing the topic via notes and a PowerPoint, the students get practice in the form of stations, activities, and/or worksheets. Lastly, I assess each topic with an exit ticket to determine if we need to keep working on the current topic or if we’re ready to move on to the next. The single most important scientific method resource I have is my Scientific Method Stations. I use them at least three times in the unit because they’re so versatile. They give students practice identifying variables, writing good hypotheses, designing procedures etc. I just post them around the room at the beginning of the unit and they stay there until the day of the unit test. I truly believe they are a great resource for the middle school science classroom. They are one of my most loved and best selling resources, so I decided to make a second set. I added my Scientific Method Stations V2 to my store in September 2023! But Really, What Do You Do for Each Topic? The Steps of the Scientific Method: I go over what the scientific method is, what it’s used for, the order of the steps, and what each step might look like. Independent and Dependent Variables: I go over the definitions of independent and dependent variables and how to identify them in an experiment. Then we practice. And practice. And practice some more. Eventually it clicks and then my students HAVE GOT IT DOWN. Scientific Questions: Students learn about what a good scientific question needs to have. We review variables again while examining good and bad scientific questions. Group work and games can be fun with this. Hypotheses: Students learn what a hypothesis is and how to write a good hypothesis. Even my best students need to learn the If/then version of writing a hypothesis because they have only been taught the “I think blah blah blah will happen” version. Hypotheses typically need a lot of practice. Here is a free coloring worksheet to help your students write good hypotheses and identify independent and dependent variables. Observations and Inferences: Students learn the definitions of qualitative and quantitative observations and how to use those to make inferences. Here is a free observation activity you can use in your class. Research and Procedures: Research is straightforward so we briefly discuss where to find accurate information. For procedure, we learn what it is, why it’s important, and what happens if a procedure is poorly written. Constants/Controlled Variables: This is hands down the hardest part of the scientific method for my students. We go over what constants are, why they are important, and how to identify them in experiments. Students need TONS of practice with this. Here is a free exit ticket to check if your students have mastered constants. Analyzing Data/Graphs: I go over where independent and dependent variables go on graphs, what good graphs include, and types of graphs. Then we practice interpreting graphs. I try to include as much data analysis throughout the year as possible because my students always need practice with this. Here is a free data analysis worksheet and a free data analysis Boom Deck. Scientific Conclusions: Students learn what should be included in a good conclusion and practice writing a good conclusion using a data table and graph from an experiment. I hope this post gives you a good starting point for planning your scientific method unit. I love teaching the scientific method and have created many resources for my students. You can find my scientific method resources here, including interactive notebook pages, activities, worksheets, and assessments. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to post a question below or message me. Thanks for reading and have a great school year! You can get another free scientific method resource just for signing up for my newsletter. Sign up for my newsletter here. I added an option in my store to get all of my scientific method resources in one discounted bundle: Scientific Method HUGE Bundle.
Microscopes. My students used to love microscope lab days. Who doesn't like seeing cool stuff like human skin cells, dog hair and pond scum magnified before their eyes? Before I let them loose with the expensive instruments, however, I make them learn the parts and what they do. That's where this came in handy... I love color-coded mapping activities. I think the process of identifying the part and coloring it can help our more visual and kinesthetic learners retain the information. I also have another version. This allows students to label and color the microscope themselves. It also allows for differences in vocabulary. For example, you may use the term objective lens instead of objective in your classroom. I always have them circle the label with the color of the part. Sometimes I have them list the function alongside the label. If this activity would be a help in your classroom, you can find it here. I also have other mapping activities available here.
The Jigsaw Strategy is a collaborative learning strategy that works well for teaching Trends in the Periodic table. Learn how to implement this strategy in your general science or chemistry classrooms.
Virtual dissections can be a huge help in teaching science, biology, physiology and anatomy. Here are some of the best resources for your lessons and labs.
This single classroom procedure has made a HUGE difference in my experience teaching middle school. My first year teaching I didn't do this and I knew that something needed to change. I decided to put into a place a daily bellringer for every one of my classes. I am a Family Consumer Sciences teacher so I teacher 4 different classes!You can call it whatever you want to call it but I call it a bell ringer because my students are expected to be doing it as soon as the bell rings to start class.Her
Have you ever wanted to know how to teach science to middle school students and find the most success? Teaching science to middle...
Every time I spend seven hours in a professional development workshop it changes my teaching for at least a week. I guess I need frequent reminders that human beings are not meant to sit in a hard chair for seven hours with occasional restroom breaks and a 30-min. lunch break. It's interesting that when we are in the role of students, we call it a good day when there's lots of opportunity for movement, group work, and a little fun in our work, but we don't provide those things for our students as often as we should. I love doing gallery strolls and using task cards to get students up and moving. I'll try just about anything to get kids out of those terrible hard seats for a while. I'm super excited about the potential for learning with movement in the recent phenomenon of Escape Rooms. It's a perfect time to try one yourself! The basic idea is that student teams work together to compete against other teams to be first to finish a series of tasks, each of which gives them clues they need to complete the next task leading to a final opportunity to use every clue for the last task and the escape! When kids have spent all day taking tests they will really appreciate and enjoy a chance to chat, laugh, and move around in a "gamified" activity. And if year-end testing is over, then an Escape Room is a perfect way to combat the "we can stop learning now" attitude we often see in middle school kids in the final few weeks of school. I'm happy to introduce my first Escape Room, and hope that the topic - Biomes - will be a perfect theme for this time of year in your class! An InLinkz Link-up
10 inexpensive rewards to use in your middle school class.
I'm Sick, Now What? It's 3 am and you wake up feeling terrible, but you know you have to teach later on that day. The first thing I used to think was,
Hands-on learning isn't just for younger students! These hands-on activities for middle and high schoolers will help older students enjoy learning and stay actively engaged in the process.
Are you taking the leap into the wild and wonderful world of teaching elementary science? Congratulations! 🎉 From making science notebooks your best friend to transforming your classroom into a curiosity-filled lab (minus the lab rats), we’ve got tips and tricks that even Albert Einstein would high five us for! Ready to become the next superhero ... Read more
If you are like me you HATE lecturing. I simply cannot find the strength every class to get in front of students and blab on while...
For this science fair project, kids will learn how to make a lemon battery. They can conduct this classic experiment using readily available materials.
As we studied levers as part of our middle school science lessons, we had some questions, so we performed experiments to find the answers. Here's what we found.
Social studies and science students can learn about pangea, an important theory about the formation of the earth and its continents.
I actually meant to upload this post awhile back, but then State Testing madness and prep hit... so I didn't get a chance to post this. My...
Home page for ALL's free teaching resources on underage drinking and its effects on the brain, including primers, curriculum plans, and videos.
You can reuse these recycling anchor charts year after year!
This is one lab that you don’t want to miss! It’s easy, the materials are inexpensive (you probably already have them at home), and it ties together multiple concepts. Winner!In this lab, students will analyze a pedigree of a fictitious family. In the introduction, students read that “Jon and Sue Smith” were in a car ... Read more
If you're searching for the best homeschooling curriculum for middle school, check out this awesome list of helpful resources!
I've been working with science interactive notebooks for several years in the classroom and the question that I see come up over and over is, "How do you
Free printable PDF math templates for algebra, algebra 2 and even geometry, some of which will work great in middle school math. I LOVE math templates. It makes life so much easier to know my warm up is all set to go. When I first wrote this post, I had only made 4 Algebra and Algebra 2 templates. Since then, I've added a whole bunch more.
Students use subscripts and coefficients to count the number of atoms, elements, and molecules.
So one of my goals this year was to put student work up on the walls in my classroom. You see, with 200+ students, how do I put all students' work up? Well that's just it... I don't. I was already collecting sample work from students (you know, keeping the REALLY good ones to show next year's students what their final product should look like), but wasn't doing anything with those samples aside from keeping them in a drawer until the following year. That's when I decided that it was time to put those samples up on the wall. I realized that I don't have to put up samples from EVERY student... meaning, I don't have to put up the eye-sores non-sample work. Below are pictures of what now adorns my very colorful and educational wall. I have already referenced projects on the wall several times... And my 8th graders are reminded of the science they forget from learned in 7th grade. Fun, right? And after receiving numerous emails requesting templates to make some of the foldables shown above, I decided to make a few tutorial posts. You see, my students are AMAZING artists and therefore none of the above projects required templates. Just instructions. So here they are. Organization of Life Foldable Tutorial Cells Foldable Tutorial Cell Cycle Foldable Tutorial Happy Projecting! (I know, I totally made that word up.)
The biggest challenge with teaching middle school is the race against the clock! Ideas for how to structure a 60 minute class period.
Use these Six Minutes podcast lessons and follow up activities to plan engaging and fun lesson plans for your middle school ELA students.
These homeschool co-op class ideas will help get you started on choosing the best classes for your group. My hope is that you will tailor these co-op class ideas into an educational experience that is perfect for your students.
Movement in the classroom is beneficial for many reasons. First and foremost, getting up to move in the classroom might help anxious students relieve stress.
Teach about the rock cycle in a creative way with this printable geology rock cycle board game~ The Rock Collectors. Geology will never be boring again!
Teaching ideas and activities to support the personal financial literacy standards in middle school!
Some days you just need a break from the monotony! Preparing for exams, transitioning to a new unit, days when half your students are gone for a basketball tour
MATH: IXL min. 1/2 hr each week. Focus on area that you are trying to write test for in Math Basics. Remember your new goal (DUE: by Mar. 15th) Caribou Math Test (Wed. Feb. 13th) LA: Eminent Fig…
We are in Unit 4-7 of Layers of Learning and today's science lesson was on plate tectonics. We do science once a week, usually on Tuesday or Wednesday . . .
Teach students in upper elementary, middle school, and high school
Looking for a way to get students to have fun learning new words AND remember them longer? Try these brain-based vocabulary activities.