I have taught 5 years at a public school - 8th grade Physical Science and 9th grade Earth Science. I have a MSEd from Binghamton University. I am currently teaching and coordinating programs at the Kopernik Observatory in Vestal, New York. See www.kopernik.org All my labs, tests, and worksheets have been actually used in the classroom.
My classes consisted of teaching from a hands-on perspective. Very little lecture. Students did labs and developed skills. I was big on student binders with all their labs and notes. I would allow students to use their science binders on my unit exams. This forced me to make higher level questions and I believed that the students actually learned by taking the tests. My test were very difficult but I also allowed test corrections to give half the points back.
My students always did very well on the state test. Building Mouse trap cars.
More to come
I have recently started a website for Substitute Teaching Coordination. Checkout: www.SubSmartRegistry.com