Here is an excellent set of five punnett square practice problems students could complete after getting the basics down. I had my students color code them in their interactive notebooks.
Tag Archives: biology activities
Vocabulary and a Beach Ball
Biology Vocabulary Activity
One of the biggest challenges for teaching biology is helping students learn the vocabulary that is foreign to them. I took to a beach ball to assess what the students knew about each of the macromolecules.
Anytime you can get a part of the beach into your classroom you need to take advantage of it. This activity works great to supplement the Biochemistry Boxing Activity that you can get free here by signing up for email updates.
To do this activity you will need a beach ball and a dry erase marker. Write the names of the macromolecules or any vocabulary terms on each section of the beach ball.
Toss the ball to the students and when they catch it they look to see where their right thumb lands and say the definition of the word their thumb landed on.
I then have the students throw the ball back to me to prevent them from being tempted to bounce it off their classmates heads.
Participation is 100% and it allow me to assess their knowledge of the vocabulary. If a students thumb lands on wild they get to pick the vocabulary term. The kids did not want to stop this activity.
Interactive Notebook
The interactive notebook has been a great teaching tool for me for the last few years. The Interactive Science Notebook (INB) is a learning tool that involves an “input” (right side) of teacher’s notes and handouts. It also include an “output” section (left side) that allows students to creatively relate that information to their own experiences or organize the information in a variety of proven techniques or best practices. The versatility of the interactive notebook is only limited by the student or the teacher, therefore it has no limits. Throughout the year, I will post a variety of engaging examples that I use in my classroom. You will be amazed how the interactive notebook reaches all of the learning styles in your classroom and allows students to personalize their learning. I am currently in the process of gathering, organizing and explaining how I implement the activities I do throughout the year into a book. The left side of the notebook is for graphic organizers, charts, stories, raps, poems, pictures and more. The right side is used for notes and teacher handouts (“input”)
Note: Successfully implementing the Interactive Notebook involves extensive set-up and procedures but the pay-off is worth it.
Set up of the interactive notebook:
Lab Report Rubric and Guide
Lab Report Writing Made Easy for Students!
When I first started teaching, I wanted my students to write lab report base on the mealworm lab(see post) that I had them do.
It did not take long to realize that they needed all the help they could get!
It is not a surprise. They had never had to write a lab report before.
In order to help them I spent countless hours building this lab report template and guide that the student could use to help them build high quality lab reports.
I developed a lab report rubric that is about as detailed as it can get. It makes lab reports very easy to do and grade. It is based on 110 point scale.
Do you need a Full Biology Curriculum? We have you covered. Every day of the year is planned out for you. Check it out here!
