Creativity in Mind

If the weather does not permit you to go outside to do real quadrat sampling why not do this one instead? M and Ms take the place of trees. I think you could also modify this activity for a math class in terms of studying probability. It would create a real-life application for probability.

I am including my students' favorite labs and activities for a physical science unit covering motion, forces and energy. The Newton's Scooter Lab is a fun and physical to review Newton's Laws of Motion using a skateboard or scooter and the students' own mass. I used my Roller Coaster Lab to review forces and energy and students had a blast designing various coaster 'prototypes.' The Friction lab, while straightforward is a hands-on approach to this concept. Finally, I am including my Energy Tran

I will be using this the week leading up to Easter break. It consists of three separate labs in which the students will rotate. Each lab will take a class period, maybe a bit more. You could use all three or just pick and choose depending on how much time you had or how much candy you would like to purchase. At this point in the year, I feel students could use a refresher on basic lab skills such as measurement, graphing, and scientific method terminology. I will be using jellybeans for the firs

I used this at the end of my Motion, Forces and Energy Unit. While I have accumulated marble run sets over the years in order to have six lab setups, I have also used pipe insulation and marking tape (with books and ring stands) in the past. Or, you could purchase one set (about $25-$40) and include this as a station in a larger review setup. It was HIGHLY engaging and students loved it, yet at the same time, they stopped to make all necessary calculations and observations. Prior to the lab, we

You can use this in several science courses as it aligns very well with the Human Impact NGSS standards. This is not a new lab, but I've reformulated it a bit to include a graphing component. It also includes a link to a video that explains the concept a bit. I would not play them this until after they have done the activity. They are supposed to act like greedy tyrants- it's all part of the fun!

Add a little fun and creativity to your Chemistry/Elements/Periodic Table units! Students find this project highly engaging because they have ownership of the word they choose for their bookmark. It's a great way to review concepts related to the Periodic Table. Project description, recording sheets, analysis questions and rubric are all contained in one packet To make the bookmarks, I cut out 5 cm by 18 cm rectangles from a standard sheet of posterboard. You will get about 40 bookmarks per shee

I've done this activity from 7th through 12th grades and it's always entertaining to see what they come up with. Since they're not actually building it, they can really think out of the box (ex- nuclear energy and thermal energy become popular). I usually do this after a lesson on energy and then I will show then the OK Go, "This Too Shall Pass" video as that is the ultimate contraption to model (in my opinion). You may also wish to show them Rube Goldberg examples. Or, modify a bit and simply u

What better way to learn about Newton's Laws than to experience them firsthand! In this lab, students are pushed on a scooter (or skateboard) with a constant mass (provided by a bathroom scale). Graphical relationships as well as basic acceleration calculations are analyzed after the masses of two riders are compared. One of my former students once told me that this lab was "the most fun she had in lab during her entire high school career." Note- I scaled back the physics such that this lab is a

Here is a fun little lab to review the concepts of Graphing and The Scientific Method. Students will also practice taking averages of data. You probably have the supplies in a well-stocked storage room- droppers, cups, water and pennies. Enjoy!

I am using this on Halloween, but you could use any time of the year to make this topic even more fun! Materials required: Fun size bags of skittles, bag of mini marshmallows, toothpicks, sprite or similar soda, and three types of candies that could 'dance' in soda (I will probably use mentos, warheads cubes and gummy bears). Also, some standard lab equipment/classroom supplies. I predict each station will take them about 20 minutes, so plan on two class periods if you include time for direction

I used this in my environmental science class but it could be useful in several classes in relationship to the heavy emphasis on environmentalism in the NGSS standards. I found that while water and air pollution were heavily covered, there was little out there to reinforce soil pollution and the types of solid waste. Therefore, I created this web quest to fill in that gap. All needed websites are embedded in the document.

I created this for my Oceanography class, which is an elective. I teach this in the Fall and Spring semesters. I will use it around Halloween and Valentine's Day. I don't normally upload my original Word doc, but I would like it to be customizable for you! Use in any course- English, Science, Social Studies or others...Dictators, Famous Scientists, Book Characters, you name it! The possibilities are endless!

I have started doing weekly readings with vocabulary because our assessments have changed to ones in which decoding from informational text is an imperative skill. This is my reading and vocabulary for The Scientific Method. There are a great deal of vocabulary terms for this unit. Why not add a little extra reinforcement for this tricky topic? Enjoy! :)

I have started doing weekly readings with vocabulary because our assessments have changed to ones in which decoding from informational text is an imperative skill. This is my reading and vocabulary for graphing in science. Although graphing is a skill, it is important for students to know the 'language' of graphing so construction is a smooth process. I will be uploading a fun lab-based graphing project where students collect real-life data to graph very soon. :)

I used this with my Environmental Science class. It is a compilation of owl pellet resources I've used over the years. I re-typed it and added an introduction at the beginning with comprehension questions. It took a full week in a daily 80-minute block schedule to complete this, so a standard 40-minute model would need closer to two weeks. I have included a rubric at the end of the project. I know there are a lot of Owl Pellet activities out there. If you are looking to have students do a DEEP D

At my school we were fortunate to have a wooded nature trail nearby so I thought it would be a great idea to go outdoors for a final assessment in Ecology. Time permitting, have the students showcase their final presentations! ;)

I use this as a precursor for a study of nutrients and the digestive system. It just requires some food labels- check your recycling bin or have students bring them in. Nutrients can be a challenging topic- use some real world examples to make it more concrete. Then, since the students collect so much data, I have them make a bar graph on day two. It is a nice way to practice general graphing skills.

Depth of knowledge questions go from surface level comprehension to more complex and analytical as they go on. I have them do more in the beginning and fewer at higher comprehension levels. You could have them do all of the questions if you wanted to. This guide is for the movie, The Lorax. Enjoy!

I used this for an Environmental Science elective class, but it could be used in any discipline really (famous authors/novels pitted against each other, world leaders, cell organelles...truly anything!). It would also be good for a speech and debate class because at the end they have to get up and debate their bracket partner. I printed enough brackets to have the students fill out one to pre-guess the winners of each bracket and one while we were going through the rounds (to vote on who they th

I used this a few times throughout my environmental science course and students reported that they liked doing it. I assigned each student an individual article that they read and summarized. After a certain amount of time, they grouped up and interviewed each other to learn about the other articles. We did this when learning about microplastics, for example. However, it could be used in any discipline.