Biology was my first class as a high school freshmen and my last class as a high school senior. I was lucky enough to have an amazing teacher named Mr. Smiley both times and it is quite fitting that those biology classes were bookends to my high school career. Mr. Smiley taught me to LOVE science and the puzzle that it presents. He was also one of those teachers that made me want to come back to high school and do the same for someone else. It is an absolute privilege to be back at Fremd teaching and hopefully showing your students how cool being a science geek can be :)
This blog my way to make sure that everyone can keep in touch with what we are doing. The goal is update it once a week with a look back at what we did and a look at week ahead to see what we will be exploring next! If you would ever like to see something more or different, please let me know. I am open to suggestions and trying new things.
Without further ado...what have we been up to? Lots!
8/23-8/31
Thursday - The school year started and we took off running. In order to help awaken their brains after a summer off, I gave the students the challenge of figuring out what the seating chart was. I told them that I created the seating chart by putting them in order based on their birthday. They had to figure out the order which doesn't sound too tricky except for the fact that they were not allowed to talk. At first I saw a lot of crazy hand gestures, but then the creativity came out in full force as they checked to see if their birthday was on their new ID's. When it wasn't, some students grabbed their assignment notebooks and pointed to their birthday date in the calendar and others wrote it out on a sheet of paper. It was really cool to see their brains kick into action. Once we were in our seats, I introduced myself to the students, they grabbed books and I introduced them to our class. We also talked about how to keep our classroom safe and the students did a little mad libs activity with the Flinn Science Safety contract. The homework was to start reading our first lab.
Friday - We picked up right where we left off and finished our conversation about the science safety and then discussed what kinds of hypotheses can be answered by science. Then we quickly discussed how bacteria grow and the students joined their lab group and tried to set up the best possible procedure possible to test whether or not antibacterial soap kills more bacteria than regular soap. Over the weekend they got acquainted with their biology book and were told that they would get to use any notes they took on a short reading quiz on Monday.
Monday - We took the first reading quiz and the students seemed to know their stuff! Then we talked about the different procedures each lab group had come up with and picked the best from each group. From there we improved upon a few steps. Once we had a procedure, the groups were off and setting up the lab. 5th hour decided to get bacteria onto their hands from the lab tables and 6th hour got the bacteria off of the bottom of their shoes. we put the petri dishes into the incubator overnight to see what we would get!
Tuesday - Unfortunately we were unable to take a look at the bacteria growth because it needed a little bit more time. Instead we discussed the importance of learning common prefixes and suffixes and started a second lab with Mystery Matter. The goal of the lab was to determine whether or not the mystery matter was alive so we combined it with sugar, a food source, and warm water in a flask covered with a balloon to see if anything would happen. The homework for the night was to read about the characteristics of life in the book for another reading quiz the next day.
Wednesday - Today we spent a little bit of time talking about the format of the upcoming prefix and suffix quiz and I showed the students where to find information on the website. Then we got to check out the results of our lab below:
This blog my way to make sure that everyone can keep in touch with what we are doing. The goal is update it once a week with a look back at what we did and a look at week ahead to see what we will be exploring next! If you would ever like to see something more or different, please let me know. I am open to suggestions and trying new things.
Without further ado...what have we been up to? Lots!
8/23-8/31
Thursday - The school year started and we took off running. In order to help awaken their brains after a summer off, I gave the students the challenge of figuring out what the seating chart was. I told them that I created the seating chart by putting them in order based on their birthday. They had to figure out the order which doesn't sound too tricky except for the fact that they were not allowed to talk. At first I saw a lot of crazy hand gestures, but then the creativity came out in full force as they checked to see if their birthday was on their new ID's. When it wasn't, some students grabbed their assignment notebooks and pointed to their birthday date in the calendar and others wrote it out on a sheet of paper. It was really cool to see their brains kick into action. Once we were in our seats, I introduced myself to the students, they grabbed books and I introduced them to our class. We also talked about how to keep our classroom safe and the students did a little mad libs activity with the Flinn Science Safety contract. The homework was to start reading our first lab.
Friday - We picked up right where we left off and finished our conversation about the science safety and then discussed what kinds of hypotheses can be answered by science. Then we quickly discussed how bacteria grow and the students joined their lab group and tried to set up the best possible procedure possible to test whether or not antibacterial soap kills more bacteria than regular soap. Over the weekend they got acquainted with their biology book and were told that they would get to use any notes they took on a short reading quiz on Monday.
Monday - We took the first reading quiz and the students seemed to know their stuff! Then we talked about the different procedures each lab group had come up with and picked the best from each group. From there we improved upon a few steps. Once we had a procedure, the groups were off and setting up the lab. 5th hour decided to get bacteria onto their hands from the lab tables and 6th hour got the bacteria off of the bottom of their shoes. we put the petri dishes into the incubator overnight to see what we would get!
Tuesday - Unfortunately we were unable to take a look at the bacteria growth because it needed a little bit more time. Instead we discussed the importance of learning common prefixes and suffixes and started a second lab with Mystery Matter. The goal of the lab was to determine whether or not the mystery matter was alive so we combined it with sugar, a food source, and warm water in a flask covered with a balloon to see if anything would happen. The homework for the night was to read about the characteristics of life in the book for another reading quiz the next day.
Wednesday - Today we spent a little bit of time talking about the format of the upcoming prefix and suffix quiz and I showed the students where to find information on the website. Then we got to check out the results of our lab below:
We talked about the statistical significance of our bacteria lab and then the students had a chance to answer some questions and work with the information from the labs.
Thursday - Today we took our first prefix and suffix quiz in an effort to help us with our vocabulary in the future. The students had to match words with their definitions based on the 20 prefixes and suffixes that we began with. Then, we spent some time discussing the test and the characteristics of life. Using our discussion we determined whether or not our mystery matter was alive (ask your students!) and which characteristics it might have been displaying. The homework tonight was to study for our test!
Friday - We took our first test using Mastery Manager answer sheets (they are awesome and our scanner can even pick up ink rather than just pencil). After the test, the students did a mini district assessment which we will take in small chunks after specific units. These are normally 7-11 questions that all biology students across the district take. During our institute days, the different schools and teachers compare data and we try to hone in on the best techniques for teaching the material. Finally the students could work on a review packet of atoms.
9/3-9/7
Monday - Happy Labor Day! Enjoy the last few moments of summer with your family!
Tuesday - Today we are going to spend some time taking a look at our test and figuring out if there were any topics where students struggled. Then with the remaining part of the period, we are going to work on a periodic table webquest. The homework will be to finish the periodic table webquest.
Wednesday - There are four major types of bonds and before we can understand living organisms, we have to understand the molecules that make them up. To gain a better understanding we have to know how all of the atoms stick together. Hopefully after some notes we will have a chance to act out a few of the bonds to gain a better understanding. The homework is going to be answering questions in a packet (1-22) information can be found in the text book.
Thursday - Today is all about water! We are going to be watching a short video and then playing around with some cool tricks of water. Ask your student to show off some of these demos - they are pretty cool!
Friday - We will finish up any last minute demos and then move into some notes about water. By the end of the day, the students should be able to explain exactly way all of those things happened in the water tricks :)
NOTE - Expect a Prefix/Suffix quiz on Sept. 10 (group 2) and then a Biochem Quiz on Sept. 12
Thursday - Today we took our first prefix and suffix quiz in an effort to help us with our vocabulary in the future. The students had to match words with their definitions based on the 20 prefixes and suffixes that we began with. Then, we spent some time discussing the test and the characteristics of life. Using our discussion we determined whether or not our mystery matter was alive (ask your students!) and which characteristics it might have been displaying. The homework tonight was to study for our test!
Friday - We took our first test using Mastery Manager answer sheets (they are awesome and our scanner can even pick up ink rather than just pencil). After the test, the students did a mini district assessment which we will take in small chunks after specific units. These are normally 7-11 questions that all biology students across the district take. During our institute days, the different schools and teachers compare data and we try to hone in on the best techniques for teaching the material. Finally the students could work on a review packet of atoms.
9/3-9/7
Monday - Happy Labor Day! Enjoy the last few moments of summer with your family!
Tuesday - Today we are going to spend some time taking a look at our test and figuring out if there were any topics where students struggled. Then with the remaining part of the period, we are going to work on a periodic table webquest. The homework will be to finish the periodic table webquest.
Wednesday - There are four major types of bonds and before we can understand living organisms, we have to understand the molecules that make them up. To gain a better understanding we have to know how all of the atoms stick together. Hopefully after some notes we will have a chance to act out a few of the bonds to gain a better understanding. The homework is going to be answering questions in a packet (1-22) information can be found in the text book.
Thursday - Today is all about water! We are going to be watching a short video and then playing around with some cool tricks of water. Ask your student to show off some of these demos - they are pretty cool!
Friday - We will finish up any last minute demos and then move into some notes about water. By the end of the day, the students should be able to explain exactly way all of those things happened in the water tricks :)
NOTE - Expect a Prefix/Suffix quiz on Sept. 10 (group 2) and then a Biochem Quiz on Sept. 12