Cell Theory and Early Life Stations

As you may know from a previous post of mine, I have been using stations with my middle school students.  My second attempt at stations focused on cell theory and early life.  Below are the resources that I used and links to download them.




Cell Theory Brochure
This activity can be found on TPT.  It had a rubric associated with it, but I didn't use that part as I wasn't planing on giving it it's own grade.

Cell Theory/Early Life Notes and Powerpoint
Each student had a copy of the cloze notes and they watched a screencast that I made of the powerpoint.  This activity can be found on TPT and Syllabuy.

Cells Brainpop
I love BrainPop and so do my kids!  I had them watch this BrainPop video on cells (which happens to be free for those of you who don't have a BrainPop subscription).  You can find it here.  It has a quiz at the end that I ask the students to take and then we go over the results.  You can print out the quiz ahead of time if you prefer.

Large Printable Periodic Table

When I teach the periodic table to my Chemistry students I always photocopy a periodic table for them to keep in their binders. The problem is that the iformation on the table is often too small for them to see. I just came across this site where you can print a legal sized and 2 page landscape view of a periodic table. I am totally saving this in my files!

Science Themed Period Labels and Welcome Posters

I just updated and uploaded two printables that I've been using in my classroom this past year.  As with all good things, I want to share them you!

The first are welcome posters.  This year I put the 7th and 8th grade ones on my door for the month of September.  My school and 6-12, but my classroom happens to be near the high school rooms and I wanted my students to feel welcome in my room.  I cut them out and laminated them.

Find these for free on Syllabuy, Teacher's Notebook and Teachers Pay Teachers

The second are period labels.  They are lettered and numbered as I know some schools use letters for their periods.  Mine did last year, but this year we switched to numbers (very confusing for all).

Find this on Syllabuy, Teacher's Notebook and Teachers Pay Teachers

Teacher's Notebook Sale

For those of you who are looking for some new classroom resources and want a good price, Teacher's notebook will be having a big sale at the end of October and you'll get double rewards (to be used towards future purchases)



Where do you like to go for classroom resources?

My First Attempt at Stations - Characteristics of Life

This year I am attempting stations in my middle school science classroom in an effort to differentiate and be able to work in small groups with students more.

This lesson took two days as students rotated through 4 stations answering the question What is Life? and learning about the need and characteristics of living things.

1. One station included the students watching a screen cast video that I made of the "What is life?" power point.  While watching the video the students followed along and filled in a set of close notes.  You can find this resource here or here.

2. Another station was a foldable that was a mnemonic device to remember the characteristics of life.  This resource can be found here.

3. Task Cards were at the third station.  Here there were a set of cards and the students needed to identify them as living or non-living.  This resource can be found here.

4. A worksheet was the fourth station.  At this station the students needed to identify each object as living or non-living and use evidence and information from their notes to explain their answer.  This resource can be found here.

There wasn't a specific order that I had the students work in, but I did say that I wanted the worksheet to be the last station.  I felt that the students needed to have completed the notes in order to best answer the questions there.

At the end of the second period we reviewed the answers from the worksheets as well as had a discussion about the information in the notes.