Kyle Porter

Students begin with a starter that opens the conversation for causes of evolution. This is a collaborative activity where students will have a population of beetles. An earthquake occurs (geographic isolation) and separates the beetle population into east & west halves. Different events occur to these separated populations which leads to the creation of new species. Students then compare their beetles to the beetles of other students to observe how these different events led to the evoluti

Students learn about the basic parts of an insect while creating one of their own from a printout of various insect parts. Students learn about the head, thorax, & abdomen. Students then learn about the various structures found on the heads of insects (eyes, mouth-parts, & antenna. Students then learn about the wings, & legs. Finally they can add structures such as stingers or cerci.

Students will create a mock fossil record on a piece of poster paper demonstrating knowledge of common ancestry and similarities of traits (homologous structures). Organisms with common ancestry share similar traits/characteristics. Includes a smaller practice fossil record for you to perform as a class to introduce the activity beforehand. This is a great enrichment activity to be used at the end of an evolution unit, but could also be used beforehand as well. There is an additional resource

After learning about the process of meiosis students will perform this activity to enhance their understanding of the nuances that occur during crossing over & independent assortment. Students flip a coin to determine if sections on homologous chromosomes will perform cross over. They then flip a coin to determine how the homologous chromosomes line up in the middle of the cell. Finally students chart the flow of chromosomes from cell to cell as they perform meiosis I & meiosis II. In co

This is a worksheet covering the 4 macromolecules, monomers/polymers, dehydration synth. & hydrolysis. It also includes a power point presentation covering all items on the worksheet. Also includes flash cards and a grouping activity you can print out. With this type of information being something students just need to commit to memory the flashcards have really come in handy. There is a lot of information which accompanies macromolecules, and this worksheet contains the necessary backg

Students take their knowledge after DNA replication & protein synthesis, and apply those ideas to the consequences of mutations.

This includes a power point presentation which is accompanied with a guided note worksheet. After the power point students will attempt to answer follow up questions to assess their understanding. In conclusion there is a sorting activity where they must arrange pictures and descriptions of the various stages of mitosis in the correct order/arrangement.

Students begin with a starter that helps affirm 5' & 3', and that the sugar phophate backbone runs in anti-parallel directions. The focused instruction will cover differences between DNA/RNA, types of RNA, creating a mRNA (transcription), Codons, start & stop, deciphering an amino acid codon wheel, and finally concludes with an activity where students decode a sequence of DNA into a phrase using an alphabet codon wheel. This activity ties in with my next activity of mutations, where we analy

This is an activity where students will use colored hole punches (which represent the variety of colors found in a moth population) and a variety of fabric designs (which represent different environments) to observe the process of natural selection take place. In order to make this activity work you will need to purchase a variety of fabrics from a crafts store. It is also highly recommended to purchase a "butterfly punch" off amazon for the initial activity. If you didn't want to purchase the

After students have learned about the parts of a flower they will complete a dissection of a real flower. Students will begin with a start in which they will need to know all the parts of a flower. They will then dissect a flower and glue/tape the various structures to a handout. They will label these structures as well as describe their purpose in a graphic organizer.

A worksheet that follows a power point presentation covering the uses of all the cells organelles. Students will fill in key terms on their worksheet as you go through the power point. After the power point students will complete a cell city activity where they analyze which organelles would be analogous to certain city structures. Also includes flash cards for students to solidify their knowledge, and an exit quiz to assess understanding.

This is a to the point metric conversion lesson worksheet, quiz and metric staircase printout. Teachers will want to walk students through the steps to properly convert between units, these steps are listed in the worksheet. I have my students measure their desk and the classroom at the end as an activity and then have them convert these units, but you could take them outside and measure the football field if you wanted to. The worksheet is pretty self explanatory, but you will want to provid