Math

Finding the Mass, Volume, and Density of Water Lab (Google Sheets)

Liz BelasicLeave a comment

Materials:

Goals

  • Students will practice their measurement skills using a graduated cylinder to determine volume and a triple beam balance to determine mass.
  • Students will determine the density of water by completing 10 trails and finding an average.

I use this lab to tie their measuring skills together and introduce the concept of density. We then do further explorations of density and practice using the formula.

This lab is a modified version of the lab posted at Middle School Chemistry – for further details about the lesson, please click on this link.

Reading a Graduated Cylinder – Rotation Stations

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Materials:

Lesson Tips

  • Introduce how to read a graduated cylinder using the meniscus.
  • Review how to determine the increments for each graduated cylinder.

Free Science Starters, Bell Ringers, Warm Ups, Writing Prompts

Liz Belasic11 Comments

Public Copy of Science Prompts 2017-18.jpg

Google Slides – click here to access my Science Prompts from 2017-18. The slide # is the prompt #. For example, slide 14 is prompt # 14. These are the ones that I wrote – I deleted copyrighted material from other sources such as science starters from Science Spot. 

Prompt Notebook Paper (Prompt Template pdf) – print 20 sheets double sided and place into 3 prong poly-folder, add more pages as needed

I start each class with a science prompt – which was assigned for homework the night before. On Monday, I post the prompts for the week and students are able to work on them for homework instead of the start of class. They can do more than one each night, but we only go over one each class.  I found this to be a much better use of class time and started each class with a 5 minute review of skills and content.

When students come in, they come to my desk for the ‘stamp’ of the day, take a seat, and once everyone has arrived, we go over the answers and discuss. A stamp counts for 2 HW points. They have to follow the directions to earn 2 points, if they just write an answer, they only earn 1 pt. I do a quick spot check, but don’t make any corrections at this point. I randomly pick on students each day to give an answer and they make corrections as needed.

 

 

Welcome to my blog!

Liz Belasic6 Comments

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!

 

Owl Survival Simulation Activity to use with the Novel ‘Hoot’ by Carl Hiaasen

Liz Belasic1 Comment

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:

  • simulate the struggle for survival of an owl family.
  • bring food back to the nest despite obstacles.
  • feed and take care of owlets.
  • live in a nest as an owlet.
  • experience how adaptations affect a species.
  • discuss the importance of resources for a community.

Lesson Plan Resources:

 

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Materials:

  • Colored Chalk (to outline nests) or painters tape
  • Black Beans 1-3 lbs (food)
  • White Beans – 5 beans (poison)
  • Additional larger Beans to represent mice, rodents, etc
  • Plastic forks (2 per owl parent)
  • Small paper or plastic cups (1 per owlet)
  • Owl Assignment Sheet – Cut up for students to pick their role

 

Metric Ruler – Guided Practice for cm & mm

Liz BelasicLeave a comment

Ruler Practice (Student Copy)

Materials:

20170927_132725

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,

Famous Scientists “Wanted Poster” Using Google Draw

Liz Belasic6 Comments
Wanted Poster Sample- Jacques Cousteau.jpg
Sample Wanted Poster

Added 8/8/18:

Lesson Information

This is one of my favorite projects of the year and using Google Draw allowed the students to work on it both in class and at home. In the past, we used a software program to design the posters, but it had a lot of restrictions as to when and where they could work on their posters. By using Google Draw, students were also able to share their posters with me and I could proofread it much more easily and offer suggestions.

We hold a scientist ‘draft pick’ when making our selections. Students come up with a list of their ‘top 10’ scientists and each student draws a number. I select a number randomly and whoever has that number gets to choose first. Once a scientist has been chosen, no one else is allowed to pick that person. Sometimes students choose to spin the “Wheel of Science” when they are not sure who to pick and will allow the wheel to pick for them.

Basic Requirements:

  1. Google Draw to design your poster – Print in color on 8 ½ x 11 paper
  2. First, middle, and last name of your scientist
  3. Picture of your scientist
  4. His/her birthday (Month, Day, Year if available)
  5. ONE sentence of why they are famous or “wanted”  
    • This sentence has to be approved
  6. Country he/she was born in
  7. Where he/she did their work – was it at their home, at a school, a lab, etc
  8. Date of death or current age if living today
  9. Summarize His/Her accomplishments in your own words:
    • One paragraph using 3 – 5 complete sentences
  10. Your name in the bottom RIGHT corner of your poster
  11. List of your sources used for information, pictures, etc on a separate Google Doc.

Choose up to 4 of the following requirements to add to your poster:

  1. A quote by your scientist
  2. 1 – 2 additional pictures of your scientist
  3. A picture of what they worked on
  4. Where they went to school/college
  5. If they had any other jobs
  6. Family information: husband/wife, children, parents, brothers, sisters
  7. What else was happening in history when this scientist was famous
  8. Did this scientist work with another scientist?
    • Who was it and what did they do?
  9. Are there any museums or other places that are named after your scientist? Where is it?

Added 12/26/16: I first posted this lesson in 2000 (as Liz Belasic) here is a version from 2002 with  additional details

How to edit Google Slides to meet your needs

Liz BelasicLeave a comment

how-to-edit-google-slides-1

I have been getting a lot of requests for editing access to the Google Slides on my blog, so I wrote this tutorial on how to save and edit any of the Google Slides on my website. I can’t permit editing rights because it will change my copy of the slides and your edits will be visible to everyone that visits my blog.

How to edit Google Slides – Step by step tutorial (Public)

Hope this helps!

Thanks,

Liz

Heights Lab – How tall is the average 7th grader?

Liz BelasicLeave a comment

Heights Lab (Public).jpg

This introductory lab is a fun way to analyze data and the students look forward to finding the results each year. Who will be taller, boys or girls? Will we be taller than last year’s class? You can really analyze the data in multiple ways, you can also add the concept of min, max, mode, and range in addition the mean, you can look for trends, and you can talk about sample size, etc…

Materials

  • Heights Lab Introduction and directions (Google Slides)
  • Data Collection (Google Sheets)
  • Heights Lab Template (Google Doc)
  • Construction paper taped to wall/column
  • Metric Tape Measures attached to wall or column over paper
  • Marker
  • Ruler

chart

 

Scientific and Engineering Practices (SEP 1 to SEP8) Consolidated

Liz BelasicLeave a comment

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Images above are from: http://www.nap.edu/read/13165/chapter/7#50 

This post highlights the eight Scientific and Engineering Practices and spotlights a few lessons related to each practice. I had this as eight separate posts but decided to consolidate for easier viewing.

For more details and examples about the Science and Engineering Practices, visit NSTA.

Tag: SEP8 – click for more lessons that cover this practice

Tag: SEP7 – click for more lessons that cover this practice

Tag: SEP6 – click for more lessons that cover this practice

Tag: SEP5 – click for more lessons that cover this practice

Tag: SEP4 – click for more lessons that cover this practice

Tag: SEP3 – click for more lessons that cover this practice

Tag: SEP2 – click for more lessons that cover this practice

Tag: SEP1 – click for more lessons that cover this practice