Oreo Cookie Mitosis The problem was: What do I do with the students the day before Winter Recess? We were about to finish the Reproduction and Development Unit but needed one or two days of review before the test.  I know a lot of teachers like to show a video but the way I see it you are essentially telling the students that "today isn't an important day, you aren't important to me, let's just take it easy." I was looking for a fun activity that would help the students review and would entertain them and keep them out of trouble for 40 minutes.  For whatever reason I ended up googling: Mitosis Cookies and found resources and ideas on the following websites: www.paec.org www.alopategui.com www.teacherweb.com www.amphi.com I then took parts from each site and created this handout for my 9th grade Biology students:  Click here for the handout oreo cookies provided by students They brought in plenty of c...

     Often in a high school classroom students are sitting. Six and a half hours of sitting with small 5 minute bursts of exercise to get from class to class. I don't know about you but it makes my rear end hurt just thinking about it. So whatever I can do to get my students up and walking around I do it. It keeps the kinesthetic learners more engaged and the students love interacting with one another. I'm fortunate to teach biology which lends itself to laboratory activities and hands on activities that really get all students engaged. One such lab is The Tree Maze (from the Arbor Day Foundation). Here is a link to the lab: http://www.arborday.org/kids/TreemazeFINAL.pdf In the lab it gives you a "walking dichotomous key" which are full sheets of paper that you tape up around the room. You could bring in tree branches for the students to use but I instead printed and laminated cards with pictures of the leaves, bark, seeds, etc of various trees for...

     Like any other teacher I am constantly revising my curriculum based on student likes/dislikes, new motivation strategies, incorporating new labs, review games, etc. It is very overwhelming to keep it organized so here is the method I have devised.      I have a folder where I keep all ideas for future units. In that folder there is a separate sheet of paper for each unit. a separate sheet for each unit Any random ideas I generate throughout the year that would apply to that unit are jotted down on a post-it note and stuck onto the sheet of paper. post-it notes with ideas post-it notes with ideas      What did we ever do before paperclips and Post-it Notes? Any labs that I want to rewrite or handouts I have found are paper clipped to that sheet of paper. This way I am more likely to revise the units as I go through the year. labs, handouts for rewrites and modifications paper clipped to it.  This i...

9/21 9/21    There are few things that my students love more than going outside. The weather was nice, we had some iPods so we went outside to our school's Memorial Grove. Each tree has been planted in memory of a student or employee who has passed away.  The iPods were on loan from our local Boces but some of my students downloaded the app onto their own iPods at home and brought them in the next day. This worked for us because they did not need the internet to do this lab. (our school does not allow personal devices on the district's wifi)          You can buy an iPod Touch here   or you could use an iPhone or an iPad Here are some screen shots from the app on the iPod: The Tree ID App Identify a Tree Search by different characteristics Images to assist you Choose the correct one add more Your results locations in US pictures fruits   T...