Intro to Meiosis with a comparison to Mitosis
Amoeba Sisters Videos:
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
Updated 4/13/2020
Distance Learning – Google Slides in Google Classroom
![[Template] Acids & Bases Venn Diagram (ONLINE).jpg](https://middleschoolscienceblog.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/template-acids-bases-venn-diagram-online.jpg?w=636)
Materials:
This is a fun activity to get students thinking about the properties of acids and bases based on their prior knowledge. Then using what they know, can they figure out the rest of the properties?
I like to do this activity as a friendly competition and see how many each pair of students can answer correctly. Before the students place items into the Venn diagram, I ask them to look at the properties and write a red “A” next to the property if they think it belongs to an acid, a blue “B” if they think it belongs to bases, and “AB” if it belongs to both categories.
Once they have completed categorizing the properties on their own, have each student share their answers with their seat partner. What was the same? What was different? Have them discuss their reasoning for each answer and try to come to a consensus. (You can add an additional step by asking partners to compare answers with another set of partners.) When they are ready, reveal each answer, one at a time, and discuss. Students will write (or glue in) each property into the Venn diagram.
Please click on the tags below to find additional lessons on Acids, Bases, and pH.
After taking an in-depth look at missions to Mars (blog entry) and learning more about the planets in the solar system (blog entry), we learned about past, present, and future unmanned space missions and their mission objectives.
Materials
Each group of students created a shared Google Slides Presentation, and within each group, students were assigned 4-6 numbered slides with specific missions (public link). This was a great way for the students to learn about different missions, practice their research, tech, and collaboration skills, and to get a better understanding of the history of unmanned space missions.
When students were done with their slides, the next class involved a fun game of “Name that Mission” (girls vs boys). Using slides that the students created, I pulled a total of 20 or so slides from different groups and classes and added animations to them. If they could name the mission without clues (just an image of the spacecraft) they earned 2 points, if they named the mission with clues, they earned 1 point.
Below is a video about DAWN – the mission will be arriving at Ceres this week (March 6th) narrated by Leonard Nimoy. LLAP.
I used this activity last week with my 6th graders and I was happy with how the activity went. Students were engaged, challenged, and made great observations about the planets. They came up with a variety of ways to organize the planets into categories based on data from the fact cards.
It was challenging to come up with categories that neither student had used yet once they met with their 3rd partner. This lead to longer discussions and deeper thinking between each pair, which lead to categorizing the planets in categories that were less obvious at first.
Students worked at their own pace and let me know when they needed a new partner. This staggered the pairings and allowed both the students who needed more time and the students who worked quickly to work at a pace that was comfortable for them. Students also enjoyed trading partners and changing seats.
Materials
Part 1
Part 2
Possible Categories that students will use:
Updated October 2018 – Instead of doing this as a jigsaw activity, each group comes up with an analogy for each cell organelle based on their chosen theme. Each group then presents their theme and analogies to the class. Below are some sample slides for one group’s theme which was our school:
This is an updated version on how to use the ‘Jigsaw Method’ for students to learn about cell organelles that includes a tech component – each expert group will create Power Point slides for their assigned organelles. When each expert group is done, they will have one complete set of slides that they will use to teach each other in their home groups, use as a resource to review at home, and/or print out flashcards (4-6 slides per page) if needed.
Materials
Links for research
Group 1 contains an expert from A, B, C, & D. All of the “A” members will sit together to research their assigned organelles. Each member of group A will research and create their own slides for the Nucleus (slide 2), Nucleolus (slide 3), Chromatin (slide 4), and Centrioles (slide 5). Home group members (B, C, & D) will add their information to the rest of the slides at the same time A is adding information from the A expert group.
On each slide, they will include the following information:
Encourage students to use the animation feature to have the information appear sequentially instead of seeing all the information as soon as they advance to the next slide. This will help with note taking when they are presenting their information to their home group.
After each expert group is done with their research, they will return to their home group. The member from group A will go first, and using presentation mode in Google Slides (via desktop/laptop/tablet) they will teach their home group about the nucleus, nucleolus, chromatin, and centrioles. Members B, C, and D will write their notes on the handout provided. When A is done, the member from expert group B (via desktop/laptop/tablet) will present his/her organelles in the same manner.
If possible, having each student use their own laptop or desktop for the research phase (expert groups) and then only one laptop or tablet for the presentation part (home group) would be the best option so that their focus is on the person who is presenting.
Additional Resources
Google Slide Template (public Link)
Fact Cards:
If you have a unit on genetics, this is a must have as part of your lesson plans. The worksheets were created by Tracy and posted on her website, ScienceSpot.net (link). I created a Google Slides presentation for my 7th graders to help them set up, solve, and analyze Punnett squares.
As a class, we worked on the first few problems together. Then, students worked with a partner and self checked their work using the ppt slides. For homework, they were to finish the problems and self check using the ppt slides. In class the next day, we reviewed some of the problems to check for understanding.
Materials:
I love when we have an opportunity to collect real-time data in class, as part of our unit on tides, we used NOAA’s website (link) to learn how to find real-time tide information, to learn how to read tide graphs and charts, and to find water temperatures for 10 different stations and compare their data. The kids enjoyed picking their own cities and sharing their findings.
Resources:
The second activity, included graphing information for high tides at Atlantic City for the month of January. Students will learn how to read a tide chart and graph tide data to see the relationship between tides and moon phases. This activity was also a great way to practice graphing skills. Creating graphs by hand, instead of on a computer, is something that they don’t get to do very often.
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