Deb Smith Lessons

This lesson uses a play format to help students learn about the nature of how life began on Earth. The script for play is based upon the BBC 2016 article by Michael Marshall and on student's researching 24 different scientists that have played a fundamental part in helping us to understand how life began on planet earth. The play is a great demonstration of the Nature of Science and how the science community works together to develop theories overtime through learning from what previous scient

Student Self-Reported Grading is a great way to effect student learning and to empower your students to do their BEST. This form offers students a great and simple way to evaluate their behavior and academic efforts within the classroom. This one-page form comes with instructions on how to use it for various purposes beyond grading, such as parent teacher conferences, etc. as well as how to train your students to use it.

This is a fun experiment and research project is geared toward helping middle school students learn: that all things come from natural resourcesabout decompositionabout how matter recycles through the earthabout food webs in general and soil has its own food webhow to conduct an experimenthow to conduct research to understand the outcome of an experimentthat research is part of conducting an experimentNGSS Standards Covered: MS-ESS3-3; MS-LS1-6, MS-LS1-7; MS-LS2-3, MS-LS2-4 Included in this les

Check out these easy to use Cornell note templates that include space to collect information used to create a citation. Templates can be easily printed or used electronically. Includes four different templates that can be used for researching books, book chapters, magazine articles, websites, podcasts, blogs, lectures, speeches, interviews, videos, movies, etc.

Here is an easy to use Basic Cornell Notes Template for all ages of students. Includes an area for keywords & definitions, main ideas, a summary, and connections. Comes with suggestions for different uses and an easy to print or post template.