As fun as prepared slides are, students always LOVE looking at living organisms under the microscope. I generally order mixed protist specimens from Wards or Carolina Biological, but this year I didn’t get an order put in on time (if your district is like mine it often takes months to
Why the nucleus isn’t King of the castleEver since middle school when students learn about cells, they are taught that nucleus is the control center of the cell. They hear that the nucleus is “the brain” and in charge of all cell functions. When teachers do the cell-as-a-factory analogy, the
One comment I frequently hear from biology teachers is “My students keep mixing up mitosis and meiosis.” I had this problem for many years (the first 5 years of teaching to be exact). During my cells unit I would teach both mitosis and meiosis. I would begin by teaching them
This blog post is all about why I think Cornell notes are beneficial for students, and tips on how to make them easier for teachers. If you don’t want to read my background story on how I came to love them and you just want the nitty-gritty, skip to the
When I moved up from teaching middle school to high school and was looking at my new curriculum I saw the term “keystone species” and scratched my head. It was a term I had never heard before and didn’t remember learning in college. After learning about the terms keystone species
Ahhh the biogeochemical cycles. They are vital to life, but students don’t typically enjoy learning about them. They usually know the water cycle by the time they reach high school, but struggle with carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus. I’ve rounded up some resources you can use to spice up your chemical
I know the term “open note test” makes some teachers shudder. Many teachers are completely opposed to this idea. I get it. We love our content areas and want students to retain the information and really know it. How dare students not remember information from my AMAZING lesson on cell membranes?! This
Okay, so you can tell by the title of this blog post I’m a biologist and not a chemist. (Chemistry teachers, please don’t send me hate mail!) Honestly, I don’t love chemistry and I don’t love teaching it. BUT, I realize how important it is for students to understand biochemistry
If you’ve been teaching for a while, chances are you have had some ELL (English language learner) students in your classroom. I’ve known many teachers that have panicked and asked me “how can I teach them science if they don’t speak English?” I think many teachers tend to think they
Why density is so important Density is a fun topic to teach because it is so hands-on. There are a ton of experiments you can do to help students understand the concept. It’s an important concept for students to understand across all the branches of science: Black holes. Layers of
I posted a picture of my latest bulletin board on facebook and instagram and got a lot of positive feedback. Many people reached out asking for a copy to make their own, so I’ve uploaded it for FREE to my TpT store! I’ve included 2 versions: a non-editable PDF that
Are you tired of hearing the following questions 10 times a day:“What did we do yesterday?”“Was there homework?”“I lost my paper. Can I have a new one?”“What are we doing today? Anything FUN?”“Where do I turn this in? I know I was. Want to save your sanity? I cannot express
