Hyperdocs in the Science Classroom

Have you used HyperDocs in your classroom?  They can be really great, but sometimes hard to create if you are new at it.  Here is a collection of HyperDocs and a template to get you started.  All subjects are included, but you will certainly find science HyperDocs in the folder.

What are HyperDocs? If you aren't sure what a HyperDoc is, it's a digital lesson plan that organizes the content for a lesson in one place.  It is a way to give students a chance to explore content before direct instruction.  It allows students to use the 4 Cs: critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity.  They are traditionally made as a Google Doc, but I don't see why you can't do the same thing with a Word document. 

Let me know if you give it a try and what you think. 

Crossword Generator

Crosswords can be a fun way for students to review or a great activity for the students who finish early.  The problem is that it is hard to find a crossword puzzle that goes along with the content you are teaching.  Crossword Lab is a free site that allows you to easily make your own crossword puzzles.  All you need to do is to enter the word that should appear in the puzzle and then the clue for it.  For example: dog man's best friend.  In this example dog would be the word that would be in the puzzle and man's best friend would be the clue written.

Give it a try and let me know what you think!

PhET meets PowerPoint

I've talked about PhET before, so you know that I love it! In case you don't know what it is, it's a website that has simulations that you can use in your physics, chemistry, biology, earth science, and mathematics classroom. Many of them are available as part of PhET's free PowerPoint Add-in.

While at first I found this add-in I didn't think much of it. I didn't see the value in it when you can just go to the website. While this is true, the great thing about this add in is that you can use the simulations just like you were on the website but you don't need to leave your PowerPoint presentation.

56 of the PhET simulations are available to insert into PowerPoint presentations through the use of the add-in . With the Add-in installed you can browse the available simulations and insert them into your slides. The simulations work in your slide just as they do on the PhET website.  A note about the add-in; if you are in a Microsoft school your Microsoft admin may have turned off the ability to use add-in or may have to approve them.  So if you are having trouble finding the add in, please reach out to your tech admin. 

Introducing students to the scientific method

One thing I love and hate to do with my students is to teach them to create their own experiments.  I love doing it because the students come up with the craziest ideas and they get to get a sense of what scientists really do.  I hate it because it it's difficult for the students and they resist it.  In the end I am happy with the work that most of my students put into the assignment (you can't get them all, lol)  I try to have a collection of ideas to provide an example for my students and also for those groups who are not able to come up with their own.  Scientific American has a great article that outlines an experiment just as how I would like my student to.  I like to share this with students before we begin so that they can get an idea about what I am expecting.

Where do you get ideas from? 

Cute Syllabus Template

Sharing your syllabus with your students is important, but it's often a very boring looking document.  I found this super cute syllabus template on TPT and it's free!  I had to share it with you.  I've linked it below.  I'd love to know if you end up using it or what other creative ways you have to share your syllabus. 

Creating lab setup diagrams with Chemix

I recently came across the website Chemix and found that it's a great way to create Lab Diagrams.  They recently came out with Chemix 3.0 which no longer needs flash.  Right now it's in beta, but it's an open beta that all can use.   I always do my best to explain in detail how certain lab setups should look.  I'm sure you know as much as I do that students don't always read the directions.  I really like that I can add in visuals to go along with my directions.  The chemistry lab can be a dangerous place and I don't want students making mistakes.

I used Chemix to create a quick diagram to show some steps in an experiment.  Of course it would make more sense with the directions to next to it, but hopefully you get the idea.

Here is a list of some of the equipment that you can find in Chemix.  According to their FAQ they will be adding more in the future.

Equipment: Test Tube, Beaker, Displacement beaker, concial flask, boiling flask, volumetric flask, round bottom flash, petri dish, watch glass, glass jar, thermometer, graduated cylinder, pipette, burette, balance, Bunsen burner, hot plate, magnetic stirrer, stiring rod, wire gauze, filter funnel, evaporating dish, crucible, dropper and timer.

Teaching Students how to Read to Learn in Science

Do you remember when MOOCs (massive open online courses) were all the rage? They are still around and I came across one from Stanford University called Reading to Learn in Science. This course is running now and goes until the end of May. The great things about MOOCs is that you get from it what you put and you don't have to feel guilty about not completing the whole thing because they are free! The course is designed to address such concerns, giving teachers the tools to help students read for understanding in science. With NGSS, CCLS and any other new standards you state or district might be adopting, reading in science is key. Students must know how to do things like cite evidence or support/critique an argument.

If you think that this course is for you, I suggest you check it and get registered. Even if you aren't sure, I would still register so that you have access to the information and can always go back to it later.

Teaching a new subject - Study.com

When I first started teaching Chemistry after a number of years teaching Biology I was worried that I would remember everything.  I spent the summer reading through the textbooks and review books so that I could bring my skills up to date.  Youtube was another place that I looked for explanations.  I recently learned about Study.com and had I have known about it when I first started teaching Chemistry I'm sure I would have checked it out.

There are a number of different ways to use Study.com, but for this purpose, I would choose to use it as a student because I am looking to learn myself.  There were so many different courses offered at so many different levels.  It ranges from middle school to college and includes everything and every subject in between.

Depending on the subscription level you choose, you will get access to videos, quizzes, personalized support and even college credit.  There is a free trial if you want to check it out for a few days (or try to cram a bunch of videos into those days, lol).  I suggest checking it out if you are curious about what it's like.  Study.com is also offering my readers 20% their first month if you join via this link.

Do you think this is something that would be helpful to you? 

A secure way to have students take tests and quizzes online

Microsoft has developed a super easy way to lock down students' computers so that they can also access the webpage that is hosting your online test. Student's won't be able to use the clipboard, go to another website or apps, share their screen or print anything.

All you need is the link to your online test (it doesn't have to be anything fancy; I use a form I created through Microsoft or Google) and a way to get the link out to the students. Students do need to be on a computer that is running Windows 10. I also recommend that they use the Edge browser as I haven't encountered any errors using it.

 The link that you need to share with the students is ms-edu-secureassessment:<URL>!enforceLockdown where you would replace <URL> with the url to the quiz. You want to make sure that there are no spaces in the address. I would also recommend that you set the link to display as a word or phrase so that students don't just copy and paste the quiz url instead of the whole long url. If you are not sure how to do this, leave a comment with how you are sending out the link and I will make a tutorial for you! If you want more information on the Take a Test app, you can read about it here.

This post also appears on my technology blog - The Tech Savvy Science Teacher

Resources for the NGSS Classroom

For some of us our state adopted the NGSS a few years ago, some are just adopting them now and still others have yet to adopt them. In any situation I feel that the practices behind NGSS are beneficial for all classrooms. You can find the infographic below from the National Academies Press. It is available as an interactive widget or as a printable pdf document.


If you want more you can download a free version of the Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas.

"A Framework for K-12 Science Education outlines a broad set of expectations for students in science and engineering in grades K-12. These expectations will inform the development of new standards for K-12 science education and, subsequently, revisions to curriculum, instruction, assessment, and professional development for educators. This book identifies three dimensions that convey the core ideas and practices around which science and engineering education in these grades should be built. These three dimensions are: crosscutting concepts that unify the study of science through their common application across science and engineering; scientific and engineering practices; and disciplinary core ideas in the physical sciences, life sciences, and earth and space sciences and for engineering, technology, and the applications of science. The overarching goal is for all high school graduates to have sufficient knowledge of science and engineering to engage in public discussions on science-related issues, be careful consumers of scientific and technical information, and enter the careers of their choice. "

This book is from the National Academies Press and they have over 8,000 other books and many of them are free if you download the pdf version.

Electronic Exit Tickets

Many of us use exit tickets in our classes.  Exit tickets can give us valuable information about students understanding of the topic and how we can adjust our instruction to help students.  While paper based exit tickets are a simple and easy way, they can be time consuming to correct.  Electronic exit tickets can be a great alternative.  There are a number of different ways you can go about this and here are few of my favorites.



1. Google Forms
I would say that Google Forms is the simplest way to collect exit ticket data, but depending on how link will give you more information on creating a Google Form quiz.
you use it, it may not be any easier to grade than a paper exit ticket (although easier to collect).  If you construct a quiz that consists of multiple choice, checkbook ro drop-down questions Google Forms can automatically grade it.  This

2. Poll Everywhere
Poll Everywhere is a great tool if you are looking for something simple.  You can create multiple choice questions, true/false and short answer questions.  What's unique about Poll Everywhere that your students can answer via text if they don't have internet access.  You can even put your polls right into your slideshow so polling students is even easier.  If you decide to project the results you will see them update in real time.



3. Socrative
Socrative is fun way to collect feedback (as well as do a review).  They have four different options to choose from and one of them is called exit ticket.  For this purpose, I would suggest that one.  If you are looking to use it for other purposes, the space race is a fun one and quick questions are good when you want to do an assessment on the fly.
You can learn more about using Socrative by checking out this post and this post.


4. Plickers
If you love the idea of student response systems, but your students don't have individual devices to use plckers is for you! To use Plickers in your classroom you only need one device (apple or here.
android). Students each get a card (that you can print) that looks like a QR code. Depending on the orientation that students hold the card they are presenting a different answer. All it takes is a quick pan across the room with your device and you'll get all of the students responses.  Read my full blog post about plickers

This post is cross-posted on my technology blog The Tech Savvy Science Teacher

Get to know your students with Padlet

I have never really done a get to know you activity with my students because my school is small.  The kids have been together since Kindergarten and by the time they are in middle and high school I figured that they knew everything there is to know about each other.  This year I am trying something new and, of course, I am using technology to help me out with it.  I've decided to have each student share one fact about them that most people don't know.  To do this, I created a Padlet board for each of my classes.  Padlet is basically an online builtin board.  You share the link with others and they an add text, videos and images to the board.  Neither you or the people you share your board with need an account, but I find it help to have one as the teacher.  Padlet gives you the ability to choose a background image and set other preferences to customize what your board looks like.



Once students have all submitted their facts about themselves, I am going to have the students try to guess who they think each fact belongs to.  I'm still trying to think of a fun way to do that part, but I would love any suggestions that you have!

This post is cross posted on my technology blog The Tech Savvy Science Teacher. 

Get organized with a planner

I always feel like I have a million things going on and I have trouble focusing on what needs to get done and what is just fun to do.  I now have two planners: one I use for personal stuff that I carry around with me and another I use for school related stuff that stays on my desk at school.  I have recently started decorating my personal planner with some functional stickers that help me organize my thoughts.  I was contacted by the great people at Oh Hello Co about doing a blog post about how I could use their stickers in a school planner.  I love their stickers and use them in my personal planner so I decided that they would be great in my school planner as well.  Below is a quick video on how I plan a week in my school planner.  If you are interested in checking out these stickers, click on this affiliate link that will take you to their shop.  As a thank you, you will get $5 off your first order.

What do you do to stay organized? 

Disclaimer: Links used in this post are afflilate links. 

The Best Pencil Sharpener EVER!!!

This year I started using the BEST PENCIL SHARPENER EVER!!!  Ok, this may seem dramatic, but as a teacher you know that pencil sharpeners can be a big pain in the classroom.  In my classroom there were two choices - the old fashion pencil sharpener that has been bolted the wall for the past fifty years or the electric sharpener that always gets jammed or makes so much noise.  I had hear about the pencil sharpener from Classroom Friendly Supplies last year and, though it looked good, wasn't sure if it was really worth it.  I finally took the plunge and bought a sharpener.  I am so glad that I did because it really is the best sharpener.  It's super easy to use, quiet and works great.  I recorded a short video so you can see how it works.

I know I mentioned this is the video, but while it comes with a clamp I would suggest that you don't use it.  I have used it with and without the clamp and I think it's better without the clamp.  It falls off and then the kids think they broke it and it just takes up time.  There is a permanent mounting bracket you can get if you want to permanently mount it somewhere.

So since writing is not my strong suit and I'm not good at conclusions, I'm just going to leave you with this:  You need at least one of these sharpeners in your classroom asap.  I regret not getting one sooner.


Classroom Friendly Supplies has provided me with this sharpener for purposes of providing a review. I received it at no charge to me and I am under no obligation to return the product but can keep it for me own personal use. In addition, the above link is a referral link.

My new spin on notes

Every year I struggle with how to give notes to my students.  I have tired giving students cloze notes, cornell notes, no guides, key word keys and full copies of the notes.  I try to think about the grade level I'm teaching and focus my note plan on that.  Especially with my high school students I really want to teach them the skill of note taking, but then I think back to college and remembered that many of my teachers posted their slides.  I know that was almost 10 years ago, but I'm sure that things have progressed since then and most professors are posting their notes.  So this year, I am trying something new with my 10th and 11th grade chemistry students.  I plan on giving them the slides, but not the full set.  Some slides I include for emphasis or illustrative purposes.  I don't feel that I need to print those slides, but I will encourage students to take additional notes if they would like.  In addition, I will often have problems worked out on my slides to give the solution to a problem.  The student version on the notes don't have the answers filled in so that they can solve the problems themselves.

Click here for an example of what I'm going to try.  You can see my teacher copy with the full notes and the student copy.  I am going to print out the slides for them in the notes format so that students have room to take some notes.  I also made sure to label each packet with the unit name.  I keep it simple; so for this measurement unit I will call each packet Measurement 1, Measurement 2......  I know that students don't always keep things organized, so if their papers get out of order at least they will know which papers are from which unit.

What are you methods for giving notes?

Powtoon $10 Million Dollars of Classroom Accounts Giveaway

I have mentioned PowToon before, but in case you missed it PowToon is a way to create short animated videos. It's a really simple way to introduce things to your students or at a presentation. Well PowToon is Giving Away $10 Million Dollars of Classroom Accounts for The New School Year. All you have to do is go this link and create an account.

This won't last for long, so hurry up and sign up today!

This post also appears of my Educational Technology Blog - The Tech Savvy Science Teacher

Organizing your day

As I'm on the topic of organization, I wanted to share with you what I've been doing.  I am not very good with time management and tend to get sucked into the TV.  This is especially bad during the summer as I have no real structure in my day.  I have been reading a lot of blogs and watching a lot of YouTube videos about planning.  Who knew there was a whole planning community out there?!  It seems like a very expensive hobby as these people decorate each page with about 20 stickers.  That is a little too much for me!  It make the page look too busy. 

In my searches I came across the Erin Condren planner.  People seem to love them, but they are so expensive.  They do look great though!  If you do want one, this link will give you $10 off your order.  I had a small 3x5 planner from several years ago, so I took all of the old pages out of it and put in some new ones.  I want something where I can plan my time for one day at a time. Below is what I came up with.

I set it up so that I could do time blocking.  I don't need a planner to tell me when events and appointments are; I have my phone for that.  I want something where I can get into the nitty gritty of my day and plan things out hour by hour.  That is pretty much the concept behind time blocking.  I don't have a lot of lines, because I am just going to time block my time when I get home from school  During the school day, things are already pretty outlined for me.

I am hopping that if I plan out things for when I get home, such as time for blogging, time for cleaning, dinner and things like that I won't get sucked into the tv trap as much.  To help me out with that I'm actually trying to cancel my TV service as we speak.  I say trying because it's always a run around.

Are you a fairly organized person?  What are your strategies to stay organized and not waste time?

Lesson Planning - getting organized

I have mentioned online planbooks before on my tech blog, and for the past two years I have really committed to PlanbookEdu.  At the end of the year they were running a special for a 6 month premium subscription (normally I just use the free subscription), but I figured I'd give it a try.  It was very helpful this past year as I was able to roll over my plans from last year to this year (of course only one course that I am teaching is the same as last year's but at least it's a little time saved).  In addition, I was able to share my planbook with my co-teacher so that she could stay up to date on what I was planning.

I have science classes with labs on various days as well as rotating period for project based learning.  I am able to make it so that planbook automatically grays out the days that I don't have the lab and labels the ones that I did.
Here is a screen shot of what my planbook looks like.  Only two of my four classes are shown because it was just too big to fit on one screen.

What do you use for planning? Do you have any good planning methods you can share?

BrainFlex - summer practice for students

I just received an e-mail from CK-12 and wanted to share it with you. Being that our school's are already out for the summer (at least in my area), I don't know if you could get students on board with this, but if you are a parent this might be good for your children. I might share this with my parents of my previous classes as there are some who are asking what their kids can do over the summer (especially those who have failed)


Here is the information sent to me by CK-12:
"CK-12’s BrainFlex tool is a great way to help prevent the “summer slide” or supplement year-round learning. It’s a great way for teachers to provide students with areas of focus over the summer, or even a preview of some of the concepts they may see next year. We’ve developed a customizable letter that teachers can share with students and parents.

It allows students to build their math and science skills with daily practice. Here are some highlights:

• Free to join
• Self-paced. BrainFlex features a series of tools and lessons students can take whenever the mood strikes
• Versatile. BrainFlex covers a wide range of math and science topics for students of any age
• Customized. Pick the subjects you want to study, practice anytime & anywhere, use unique tools to track your progress

Teachers can invite students to join here: www.ck12.org/summer"
Do you think this is something that would help students or is it something that kids won't want to do?

Crime Scene Classroom

 Some rights reserved by Anoush 

This past week my students have been working on a 3 day long crime scene scenario.  The students had a blast doing it.  I wish I could share the kit with you but it seems that the website is no longer active (I've made some inquiries to see if it's still be offered).  It was a kit called Crime Scene Kids - Anatomy of a Death.  What I like about it is that makes students think critically.  There are some red herrings in there too to throw them off.  This scenario has students reading and analyzing witness testimony, listing to answering machine message, shoe print, fingerprint and handwriting analysis and some "chemical" analyses.

I hope to be able to update this post with a link to the fun activity.  Maybe this is an opportunity for me to create my own crime scene activity to share with all of you!

Do your students enjoy crime scene activities?  Do you have a fun one to share?