Science Teaching Junkie, Inc.: November 2013

Don't Wrap Your Presents! Hide them!

Every year, I have several family members that ONLY want a gift card or in the case of this year, my mother wants a very specific, large gift that would be impossible to camouflage. I feel so lame giving it to them....they know exactly what it is, so the mystery and surprise is lost.

Which lead me and my hubby to this idea.... Don't wrap the presents -- Hide them! This year, we are going to make our loved ones go on a scavenger hunt to find their gifts. Not all of the gifts...just the gift cards and over-sized gifts that would be impossible to hide.

So in the spirit of the season, I thought I'd share the Christmas Scavenger Hunt Cards with my readers. Click on THIS LINK to be taken directly to the download on Google Drive. You can also download the freebie in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

I'd love to hear back on how the hunts went or ideas for cards to add. I tried to include a little bit of everything for all ages. (Note: Make sure you print to "fit" when your print menu pops up.)

Merry Christmas Y'All!

An Exit Ticket FREEBIE - Did You Get the Picture?

I just posted a new product freebie in my Teachers Pay Teachers store that I wanted to share with all of my blog readers. It is an editable PDF form, which allows you to type into one text box and have the the text appear in all 4 text boxes on the page, saving you time and energy. Simply decide on the main idea or concept that you were wanting your students to gain from your lesson and create a question to see if they got it....Get it? "Did you get the picture?"

By the way... Have you heard about the big Cyber Monday and Tuesday sale on TPT? It's gonna be a big one, so start scoping out all the items you want for your classroom and put them on your Wishlist. Don't forget to visit the site on December 2 & 3 for the big sale!! More info to come soon....and a friendly reminder. (:

STEM Makes a Difference in Children's Lives

First Book is a nonprofit social enterprise that provides brand-new books to classrooms and community programs serving kids in need. They distribute over ten million books every year to children across the country, thanks in part to partners like Lockheed Martin.

Any educators serving students in need or working at a Title I school can sign up to get books for their kids – for free and at low cost – online: http://www.firstbook.org/receive-books

I am big supporter of STEM in the middle school classroom. When Brian Minter of FirstBook offered this infographic to share with my readers, I jumped on the opportunity. I know that the "STEM movement" is only on the cusp in some middle school classrooms, but I think FirstBook provides a great service to lower income schools in providing them with resources they may not otherwise have access to.

In working towards earning my Masters of Science in Multidisciplinary Science (STEM) from Texas Tech University, I became more and more aware of the many connections that exist between science and math. It has dramatically impacted my teaching style and has made me a better science teacher. Before, I would stick to my science standards that the state had laid out for me, without even being remotely aware of the standards being taught in the math classroom (right next door to me!). I am embarrassed to say it now, but I know that there are others out there.

My expertise is science....I went to school and got a science degree... I wanted to be a science teacher, never a math teacher. But how can you teach/do science without math? And what real-life application does math have without some mention of science? The answer is... you can't and it doesn't!

We, as science teachers need to do a better job of partnering up with our math teachers to find the common themes, use common vocabulary and find the connections that exist and make them clear and known to the students. So many of my students for so many years have seen each content area as separate. They ask "Why are we reading in science?", "Why do we have to use correct grammar in science", "Why are we doing math in science class?" They truly think that subjects don't overlap or relate at all, which in my opinion is a huge travesty. In the real world, there is no separation. To do most jobs well, you need to be able to read, write, look at data, recognize when information being presented to you is not backed by substantial evidence and when it is. In the real world, there are no distinct content areas.

Think this seems too overwhelming or don't know where to start? Wait a minute...it truly is easy.

If you don't know where to start, simply look at the concepts you teach that involve math. Make a list of these concepts and visit a math teacher.

What vocabulary do they use? I was surprised to see that some of the vocabulary was exactly the same, while there were some terms that were similar, but without making the students aware of the similarity, they may have never made the connection.

At what point in the year does the math teacher teach a similar concept or review this concept that was learned in previous years? Will you (the science teacher) be the first one introducing the concept or will the math teacher? If you come to the material first, what is the best way for you to teach the math portion? Does the math teacher have any tricks?

What ideas in science are supported by the math concepts? Calculating speed is a great example. Recognizing that speed is a rate will reinforce what they are taught in math. How does this rate look when graphically represented? Force, mass, and acceleration calculations work as well. Measurement is an obvious overlap and unless you live in the land of miracles, middle school kiddos still struggle with measurement. Density, work, Newton's Laws, the list goes on and on.

Give kids a reason to use the math and I promise they will become more involved (even the most reluctant student.)

There are also a lot of math teachers who would benefit from this dialogue. Students who struggle in seeing the value or application to the math they are learning might excel when shown what this math can be used for in the context of science.

Give Thanks Middle School Giveaway!

Who doesn't love a giveaway? Well, Krystal from Lessons From The Middle and Kate from Kate's Classroom Cafe have teamed up to create giveaway just for middle school teachers, as a little thank you for all you do! I'm excited to be apart of this middle school giveaway and there are lots of fantastic prizes to be won! Let's get to it!

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Have a little free time? Try 94 Seconds.

I absolutely loathe having free time in my science class. The way I figure it, if I have some "free" time, then there is probably something worthwhile my students could be learning. This is also the time when they start acting up and/or annoying the heck out of me! But there are always those occasions when MOST of my classes needed the entire class period to complete something, but 1 or 2 classes had an extra 5-10 minutes. In these rare instances, I don't want to continue instruction, for fear that all of my classes will end up at different points by the end of the week and I won't be able to keep up with it all. Can you say...nightmare!?!?

So enters in the best kid-friendly, time filler ever! (ok...well, it's really good in my opinion. I can be a bit dramatic at times.)

94 Seconds!

It's one category, 1 letter, 1 word and 94 seconds to reach the highest score.

If you have an ipad in your classroom, just project that puppy on the screen, divide your class into 2-3 teams and game on. And the best part in my opinion is that it's educational, yet the students don't even realize it.

How the game works: Once you start the game, it will give you a category and a letter of the alphabet. The students must come up with a word that could be classified into that category that also begins with that letter. For example, if it said "fruits" & "S", some possible answers would be strawberry, starfruit, or star apple. In fact, the more creative the answer, the greater the chances you have of earning more than 1 point for your answer. Otherwise, a correct answer earns you 1 point. The goal is to earn the most points within the 94 seconds. I have seen different categories, such as chemical elements, fruits, vegetables, countries, state capitals, musical instruments, trees or shrubs, types of music, body parts, fish, and many more! If you get "stumped", you can always "skip" the problem, but doing so takes away 3 seconds from your 94 seconds.

It tests your knowledge, activates your gray matter and is most of all - fun! My students get so competitive and I love watching them run through the categories in their brain, looking for an answer that meets the criteria.

The learning continues....

Do you have any educational games that can be used as whole-class time fillers?

Walking Dead Lab

This past week we started our unit on force and motion. One of the first introductory labs we did was a walking lab and to stay with the theme of Halloween and all things creepy, I decided to call it the Walking Dead Lab. I am really NOT into the latest Zombie craze at all, but I thought it would be fun for the kids.

The kids had a blast. I took them outside on the cool, fall Halloween Day (and many of them were already in costume because we were having a school spirit day and a pep rally later in the afternoon), so the mood was set.

In this lab, they were given different walking tasks, collected data on time and distance, then we went back to the classroom to graph the data. It was a 1 1/2 day process, but totally worth it. The students were able to see how their classmates motions were represented graphically. I really feel like my students have a better grasp on the concepts of speed, velocity and acceleration now more than ever before. They knew what a straight line on a distance vs. time graph meant because they had just participated in /performed it. They saw what acceleration looked like on a graph as the line began taking shape as they plotted the data points. What a powerful activity!