Intro to Meiosis with a comparison to Mitosis
Amoeba Sisters Videos:
This is a fun and creative activity to tie all of the following concepts together into one lesson: DNA sequencing & transcription, mRNA translation, amino acid codons & proteins, genotype, phenotype, recessive & dominant alleles & traits.
Students will help solve a crime based on DNA evidence left on a lollipop at the crime scene. There are 3 versions of the same scenario that will identify 3 different criminals so you can use them for 3 classes – this avoids having the kids tell the next class who the suspect is ;). Each student will receive one of the 4 DNA samples – you can have students work individually, or have a group of students work on suspect 1, another on suspect 2, etc. (Sorry – I do not have an answer key to post)
Directions: Worksheets: DNA-RNA-Crime-Snorks-2018 & Amino Acid Codon Wheel, & additional resource: 20 Amino Acids
This lesson was modified from the one found on Biology Corner: https://www.biologycorner.com/worksheets/DNA_snorks.html
Free Resources:
Videos:
Materials:
Lesson Tips
Materials and Set Up – this was so easy and inexpensive to do and had the same effect as using dialysis tubing. Great demo/lab as part of our unit on osmosis and diffusion!
For every two students:
Iodine Preparation
Prelab Prep:
Observations
Update – I let the set up sit over the weekend, and when I came in today, the water was almost completely clear – looks like just about all of the iodine moved into the bag:
I hope you are enjoying your summer! August will be a busy month as teachers prepare for a new school year. If you are a new teacher, or a veteran teacher, looking for new science lessons and ideas to add to your curriculum, my website is here to help. Everything I have posted is free for you to use in your classroom. All of my Google Slides can be edited to meet your needs – here is a quick tutorial to help you make modifications.
To help you find what you need quickly, there are several options available:
Search box in the upper right corner – click on the magnifying glass and enter key words to find lessons.
Tag cloud – scroll down, on the right you can choose either a topic or standard. Each blog entry also has tags on them to help you find related lessons.
Category Menu – scroll down on the right and look for lessons related to your topic, such as ‘Life Science’ or ‘Skills’
Enjoy the rest of your summer and best wishes for the 2018-19 school year!
This lesson plan was modified to be used along with the novel “Hoot” by Carl Hiaasen. It can be used as a stand alone lesson as part of your Ecology Unit.
Objectives:
Lesson Plan Resources:
Materials:
Updated 11.25.18 – click links for most updated versions:
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I made these cheat sheets for my 7s to help them with our Meiosis and DNA unit. These are two of the most complex topics we cover in Life Science and it helps them synthesize all of the information into one page.
Download these free PDFs below:
DNA Cheat Sheet – 2017 – Google Docs – this covers the fundamentals of DNA at a 7th grade level
Meiosis Summary Cheat Sheet – 2017 – this covers the basics of Meiosis along with a comparison to Mitosis at each stage for a 7th grade level
Materials:
I use this activity as a guided review of reading metric measurements in cm and mm. Each student receives one metric measurement, you can laminate and hand out individual task cards to students, or simply print and cut apart so that students can write on each card as well.
As the measurement is projected on the board, the student with that task card will come up to the board and draw a line on the ruler for to represent that measurement, and add the value. Each student will mark the measurement on their own handout as well. Advance to the next slide, and a new student will add their value to the ruler. Continue until all students have added their values to the ruler,
Click link for the PDF of this worksheet: Qualitative-vs-Quantititive-Observations
This is a nice review sheet to practice identifying Qualitative and Quantitive observations. Qualitative (think quality) are observations you can’t really put a number on, while Quantitative (think quantity) are observations that are measurable or have a number value. In this exercise, I have the students also underline the word(s) that help them decide if the observation is Qualitative or Quantitative.
For fun, and to review Inferences, I have the students infer what the dog is thinking as s/he listens to the human given directions 🙂
Middle School Science Blog 