BigBrainofScience
112 Followers
San Antonio, Texas, United States
About the store
I'm now retired from teaching. But in my 12 years in the classroom I created and accumulated a lot of resources. Although my experience spanned multiple subjects and grade levels, the bulk of my teaching career was spent as a middle school science teacher and Gifted & Talented science teacher. (My 8th grade GT students took 9th grade Biology, too. That's why you'll find a bunch of Biology assignments in my store, too.) And yes, you'll find novel reading, writing and even math resources in my store, too...because, well, I taught those subjects as well. (That happens when you have six Texas teacher certifications.)
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Climate vs. Weather Sorting Activity
This simple sorting activity can be used over and over again to help students distinguish climate from weather. It was originally designed to meet Texas 5th grade Science TEKS, but would be a great review activity for Texas 8th grader science students during their weather unit. I had my kids glue the board in their Science notebooks and save the sort sentences in a pocket or envelop glued to the next page. When it was time to review, they just opened their notebooks to the page and we had a sort
5th - 8th
Earth Sciences
TEKS
SCIENCE.4.10.C
1918-19 Influenza Pandemic Reading with Questions
Students don't do enough reading in science. Here's a brief one-page story about the 1918-1919 Influenza Pandemic that killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide. The reading includes a page of questions and an answer key. It's a perfect introduction for a unit on viruses, or a great extension activity for students whom finish early. It's also a straightforward assignment students can do when a substitute must cover your room. You could also give it as homework in a flipped classroom, or a
7th - 10th
Biology, Reading, U.S. History
3 kinds of investigations worksheet
This worksheet was built to accompany my PowerPointTM presentation of the same name. However, it also works as a stand-alone worksheet or assessment of a student's ability to identify a sceintific investigation as a DESCRIPTIVE, COMPARATIVE or EXPERIMENTAL investigation.
6th - 9th
General Science, Science
Rock Recipes & Rock Identification Activity
Helping students understand the rock cycle always seemed challenging to me, until I hit upon "Rock Recipes." In this activity, students fill out "rock recipe cards" to help them identify how each kind of rock is made (igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks). Then they use the recipes they have assembled to help them identify 5 mystery rocks selected by the teacher. This lesson includes a lesson plan, a student "Rock Recipes" graphic organizer sheet and three colorful IGNEOUS ROCK, SEDIMENTAR
6th - 8th
Earth Sciences
Tangerine novel "Police Incident Report" (plot point summary activity)
Want to gauge how deeply your students understand the content in the popular classroom novel "Tangerine" by Edward Bloor? Here is a graphic organizer made to look like a Tangerine Police Dept. report. After your students read about the climactic fight witnessed by the novel's protagonist, Paul, have them pretend to be a Tangerine police officer and write down a "witness statement" given by Paul.
Challenge students to include details only Paul would know. Challenge them to try to write the stat
6th - 8th
English Language Arts, Reading, Writing
Tangerine "Sinkhole" 5W+H Activity & Writing Exercise
This front/back graphic organizer helps students identify and recall key details of a major plot point in Edward Bloor's novel "Tangerine." The front page challenges students to identify the "Who, What, When, Where, Why and How" of the sinkhole event. (In my classes, we filled in the "Who" and "What" answers as a class. I then had students work in groups to answer "Where" and "When." Finally, they worked individually to answer the "Why" and "How.") As homework, they completed the short writing a
6th - 8th
English Language Arts, Reading, Writing
Net Forces Practice & Quiz
After having two students push and pull on either side of a desk, I introduce net forces to my students with these practice sheets, followed by a quiz. (I also have a "Real World Net Forces Quiz" I follow up with two days later--look for it in my store soon.
5th - 8th
Physics, Science
TEKS
SCIENCE.8.7.A
Half-page Science Careers Scientist Profile Report
Get your students reading about careers in science (and earning a few extra credit points in the process.)
I made two-sided copies and kept a stack of these scientist profile sheets next to my Sally Ride "Cool Careers in Science" book series. Any time a student finished early with an assignment, I encouraged them to read a Cool Careers profile.
I also used this sheet as a class-wide "everybody read two profiles" assignment when substitutes were in the room. (An excellent follow-up to this class
5th - 8th
General Science, Reading, Writing
Prefix & Suffix Identification Practice
Help students master (or review) word prefixes and suffixes with this one-page exercise. I used it with 5th graders, but the exercise would work well with 4th graders or any students with learning gaps.
3rd - 6th
English Language Arts, Grammar, Vocabulary
King of the Mountain Math Simplification Worksheets
Mastering PEMDAS and simplifying equations takes practice. These two worksheets are built around a simple mountain drawing.
Equations get more difficult students "climb up" the mountain. As an added challenge, advanced students can record the time it takes them to complete each page in the lower left corner of the page.
Answer keys for both pages are included.
This assignment was originally created for Texas 5th graders, so it does not include problems with exponents.
As always, students
4th - 6th
Basic Operations, Math, Order of Operations
Showing 1-10 of 10 results
About the store
Experience
I'm now retired from teaching. But in my 12 years in the classroom I created and accumulated a lot of resources. Although my experience spanned multiple subjects and grade levels, the bulk of my teaching career was spent as a middle school science teacher and Gifted & Talented science teacher. (My 8th grade GT students took 9th grade Biology, too. That's why you'll find a bunch of Biology assignments in my store, too.) And yes, you'll find novel reading, writing and even math resources in my store, too...because, well, I taught those subjects as well. (That happens when you have six Texas teacher certifications.)
Teaching style
I typically followed a 5E lesson plan. I piled on the rigor and really tried to fit in labs wherever possible. I thought my kids earned best by DOING science, so my lesson plans typically had my students doing a lot of hands-on activities. I liked to use matching games to help my students (especially ESL students) build vocabulary and retain material. As I slowly build my TpT store, you'll see me adding more and more materials in this vein. You'll also find that many of my lessons are self-guided. Again, this is because I really think kids learn best by DOING, not listening to me (or any teacher) talk.
Awards & shining teacher moments
Twice nominated for teacher of the year by my peers.
First teacher at my school to take a Destination Imagination team to the state tournament.
Accepted into the UT Southwestern STARS summer internship for teachers in 2010. (I conducted research into regrowing nerve cells in the Li Lab of the Neurology Dept.)
Invited for a second UT Southwestern STARS summer internship in 2012.
My own education history
Earned a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Wisconsin in 1982. Began as a pre-med student, so I had quite a bit of coursework in biology as well.
Worked as professional writer for 14 years.
Obtained my Texas alternative teacher certification in 2015.
I currently hold certifications in six areas: 8-12 Composite Science, 4-8 Science, Gifted & Talented, ELS supplemental, 4-8 Generalist, K-4 Generalist.
Additional biographical information
I've also taught photography to adults at a local community college. And I've taught continuing education courses in basic and advanced woodworking. My father was an English teacher for 30+ years. Teaching runs in my blood. I'm now retired from teaching, but miss it. Still sifting through years of lessons to share on TpT. If you need a resource and can't find it, email me. Time permitting, I'll build you what you need...send it to you for free and put in my store for others!
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