Abbe Dirling

Students will be conducting two mini lab/activities that show hands on, inquiry based experiences regarding the electrical charges of balloons and salt. Formative questions are incorporated into this mini lab/activity handout.

Students first need to brainstorm what classifies an object as "alive." After deciding as a group on the necessary characteristics of life, the group of students must classify 20 objects and defend their classification based. Excellent activity to expose student misconceptions. Answer Key: For the cards, columns 1 and 3 are LIVING and columns 2 and 4 are NONLIVING.

Six stations designed to review and reinforce the concepts presented for enzymes. Station one: overview Station two: chemical reactions Station three: graphing enzyme function Station four: analyzing enzyme function Station five: show video clip Station six: saltine crackers and amylase warm up and exit ticket included no answer key

After being introduced to guiding questions, hypothesis, data types, and data collections, this fun and easy to do "lab" allows students to have a fun and unique experience while doing science. The activity can be used in the first week of school as an introductory activity to both the course and peers. Updated September 2024 Claim, Evidence, Reasoning along with graphing class data added.

Students can work individually, in pairs, or small groups to simulate "thinking like Mendel" using the data he collected in his gardens. Students will (hopefully) draw similar conclusions about the fundamentals of inheritance as they work through the assignment. I use this task BEFORE teaching Punnett squares in an effort to have students understand the methodology/logic of Mendel's procedures. Updated March 2025

Single period lab where students can test various substances (whatever you have on hand!) to see if they are polar or nonpolar. Students will sample 6 different substances and explain how they drew their conclusion about polarity. Aligns as supplemental scaffold for properties of water (universal solvent). Focus on: SEP: Plan and Conduct an Investigation: How can you determine the polarity of a substance?

Easy set-up and execution for having students determine the accuracy of the glassware in the lab; SAFE follow up lab to teaching accuracy and precision

Students work through their understanding of structure determining function through inquiry questions. Students first examine the structure of their hand and then relate the structures to their functions (knuckles for knocking, etc). The questions build on highlighting the relationship between structure and function for the ultimate understanding of changing the structure will change the function. Nice beginning of the year, walk around and get to know students type of assignment.

Outlines the proper form of having students solve "speed" problems by defining their given information, the formula they are using, their calculations, and their answer.

This cooperative learning activity allows the students to "think-pair-share" or work in small groups while discovering the uses of common tools in the science lab. The students are required to learn about a specific problem that scientists are currently working on and decide which tools are neccessary to solve the problem. Includes worksheet and activity cut outs. Great for an introductory general science class or introductory biology.

Class presentation for introduction to biological themes and taxonomy/classification