We are so excited to announce the official launch of The Science Duo All-Access Membership for the 2021-2022 school year!

We know you have a lot on your plate. Countless hours searching for purposeful lessons…tweaking and editing activities…creating standards-based materials from scratch.

It’s an incredibly tough job, but the most important one!

We want you to be able to focus your time on your students this year. So we’re inviting you to join our membership site composed of hundreds of interactive and engaging activities!

Members of the site will receive all of the following with an active subscription

• Access to EVERY Science Duo Resource for a low monthly fee
•  All Updates
•  All Future Resources
•  Exclusive Members Facebook Support Group
• Digital Additions and Options

Our ultimate goal is to help you get loads of your valuable time back.

You’re definitely going to want to check out the video below to learn more about this opportunity:

In order to fully support our members, our All-Access Membership is only open to new members a couple of times per year. You’re going to want to act fast as the current enrollment period ends Sunday, August 1st, 2021. 

Come join us and let’s work together to bring high-quality, engaging, and interactive activities into your classroom.

As always, feel free to contact us anytime. We’d love to hear from you!

Take care,

Scott and Natalie

We accept school and district purchase orders –  The Science Duo School and District Purchase Order Form.

The post The Science Duo: All-Access Membership appeared first on The Science Duo.

Our goal has always been to make your life easier. We have teamed up with Chris from Kesler Science and we have created the ultimate STAAR review for your students.

The Lone STAAR Launch is a 15-day, student-led review that will allow your students to build their confidence prior to taking the 8th-grade science STAAR test. All the heavy-prep has been done for you.

Lone STAAR Launch Highlights

• 54 Student-led Stations – Each of the 54 stations includes an engaging activity, an extension, and reflection questions that are aligned with the TEKS. The student-led stations cover all of the middle school science readiness and supporting standards.

• STAAR Practice Questions – A unique STAAR-formatted question for each station is included. A STAAR practice mastery sheet will help students measure their level of understanding for each standard.

• Four Original Escape Rooms – To take engagement to the next level, we’ve included four brand-new escape rooms. The escape rooms cover all readiness standards for reporting categories 1-4. Implementation is a breeze, even if you’ve never run an escape room before.

Scope and Sequence

The Lone STAAR Launch covers the readiness and supporting TEKS for the 8th-grade science STAAR test in Texas. However, they may align with your state also. 

There are a total of 54 stations that cover a wide variety of middle school science concepts.  You can download the full list of standards covered here.

The Lone STAAR Launch Sequence Calendar offers several different options on how to run the review. 

What’s Included in the Lone STAAR Launch?

Check out the graphic below to see a quick glimpse of all of the materials included in the Lone STAAR Launch.

School and District Purchases

• Each teacher needs a license.
• School and district license fees renew each year.
• A license can be transferred to a new teacher if the original teacher no longer requires it.
• A license includes access to professional development videos.
• Purchase orders are welcome.

Bonuses for School Purchases

School purchases include renewing, transferable licenses and access to professional development videos. You can start your school purchase order here – Lone STAAR Launch for Schools and Districts

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q: Do you accept purchase orders from schools?

A: Absolutely. Fill out a quote request using this link – Lone STAAR Launch for Schools and Districts

Q: Is the Lone Staar Launch included in the All-Access Membership?

A: The Lone STAAR Launch is a collaborative project with another company (Kesler Science) and therefore will not be part of the All-Access Membership. That said, all future Science Duo only products will be included with your membership.

Q: Are all of the 8th grade Readiness and Supporting TEKS covered?

A: Every readiness and supporting TEKS covered on the 8th grade STAAR test is included in the Lone STAAR Launch.

Q: How does the licensing work?

A: Each teacher will need to have their own individual license. The license allows the teacher to use it with all of their classes.

Q: What is the difference between a teacher purchased license and a school purchased license?

A: A teacher-purchased license is paid for directly by the teacher. School licenses are purchased with school funds. These licenses renew annually. They come with transferable rights and additional professional development videos.

If you’ve been looking to take your STAAR review to the next level, the Lone STAAR Launch is perfect for you! You can learn more and sign up for the full review here – Lone STAAR Launch.

Take care,

Scott and Natalie

The post Lone STAAR Launch: The Only 8th Grade Science STAAR Review You’ll Ever Need appeared first on The Science Duo.

Let’s get right down to business.  As a teacher, you are constantly searching for tools to help engage ALL of your students within your daily lessons.  Unfortunately, many of you are also often faced with increased class sizes and a severe lack of science equipment and supplies.

We know how difficult it can be to teach with outrageous class sizes.  The pressure to reach all of your students can be overwhelming.  And sadly, an enormous lack of funding just adds more fuel to the fire.

Don’t be discouraged!  We want to share with you how our S.C.I.E.N.C.E. Station Labs can be a huge benefit in your own classroom.

Over the past 9 months, we have hand-crafted 61 unique station labs covering a wide variety of major science concepts.

These labs have been used in classrooms across the nation with as few as 2 students or as many as 45 students.  Each one is differentiated and student-led which allows you to be a facilitator (whew…huge sigh of relief).  Even better, the 7 different tasks each station lab includes helps to increase overall student engagement

What about supplies required?  That’s one of the very best aspects of these station labs.  Each one requires very minimal setup and supplies that can be found in every science prep room.

Below you’ll find our “Quick Start” Guide to using the S.C.I.E.N.C.E. Station Labs.  Also, if you subscribe to our list (click banner below), you’ll receive our Layers of the Earth Station Lab completely FREE!

S.C.I.E.N.C.E. Stations Introduction

Our S.C.I.E.N.C.E. Stations are designed to get your students engaged, collaborating, and moving in your daily lessons.  Each station provides a different method for reinforcing important science content.  Each of the 7 stations correlates to a task that is represented by a letter in the word SCIENCE.  These stations will have students Summarize, Create, Interpret, Experiment, Navigate, Challenge, and Extend.  Upon completion of the 7 S.C.I.E.N.C.E. stations, students will also reflect on the activity to communicate their level of understanding.

S.C.I.E.N.C.E. Stations Descriptions

The 7 S.C.I.E.N.C.E. Stations included are as follows:

Summarize – Students will read an article relating to a specific science concept.  After reading the article, students will write a brief summary of the main ideas and key concepts contained in the article.

Create – Students will create a “graffiti wall” that will include words, phrases, pictures, diagrams, and/or icons to represent a specific science concept.  Each student or group of students will add to the existing creation at this station.

Interpret – Students will interpret graphs, data tables, charts, diagrams, and/or pictures in order to answer a series of questions.

Experiment – Students will conduct a quick experiment or hands-on activity in order to demonstrate a specific science concept.

Navigate – Students will navigate through a card activity in order to decipher a code of symbols, numbers, and/or letters.

Challenge – Students will complete a challenge of digital BOOM Cards using computers, laptops, tablets, phones, or any electronic device with a modern web browser.

Extend – Students will extend their knowledge of a specific science concept.  Students will answer questions to provoke deeper thought of the real world applications of science.

S.C.I.E.N.C.E. Stations Suggestions for Use

The following are ways to utilize S.C.I.E.N.C.E. Stations in your classroom:

• Use at the end of a unit of study to gauge student understanding
• Use as an assessment activity
• Use in tutorials or student pullouts for struggling learners
• Use as a review or reteach activity
• Use to increase overall student engagement

Timing and Student Rotation

You may choose to set a timer for each station or allow your students to rotate freely from one station to the next.  If you choose to set a timer, we suggest using a timer that can be displayed for all students to see.  Online Stopwatch (www.onlinestopwatch.com) is a wonderful tool to use because it offers several different timer options.

Timer Method – A few of the stations, such as Experiment, Challenge, and Navigate will generally take a little longer to complete than other stations.  It may take some time to adjust, but allowing students 2 timer sessions at these stations should provide enough time to complete the required tasks.  Typically 4 or 5 minutes should be enough time to complete most stations (8 to 10 minutes may be necessary for the Experiment, Challenge, and Navigate stations).

Free Rotation Method (Preferred) – This is our preferred method for using S.C.I.E.N.C.E. Stations products.  However, it is completely teacher preference.

If you choose to allow your students to rotate from station to station without the use of a timer, the following suggestions will be useful.

• If space in your room allows, you may want to duplicate ALL stations. Or you may choose to duplicate the stations that require more time, such as Experiment, Navigate, and Challenge.
• Each station should have no more than 4 students at a time.
• Students will work at their own pace and rotate to an “open” station at any time.
• Students should leave each station neat and organized prior to rotating to another station.
• The order in which the students complete the stations does not matter. They may start and finish at any station.
• Give the students several reminders of the time remaining in class (i.e. 20, 10, 5 minutes remaining).
• Allow early finishers to assist other students (teacher preference)

Independent vs. Partner/Small Group

You may choose to have your students work independently, with partners, or in small groups.  All S.C.I.E.N.C.E. Station Labs are versatile and designed to be used in all of these scenarios.  No matter which method you feel is best for your class, we recommend that students fill out their own student recording sheet.  This will allow students to complete a personal reflection at the conclusion of the lab.

Teacher Facilitation and Best Practices

Each S.C.I.E.N.C.E. Station Lab product is completely student guided so that the teacher can truly be a facilitator.  You should be able to freely move around the classroom to assist when needed.  Be sure to give students the responsibility of completing all of the tasks on their own (we want them to become problem solvers).  It may take a little practice, but students will become more independent each time they participate in a S.C.I.E.N.C.E. Station Lab.

Assessing Your Students

There are a couple of different ways to use S.C.I.E.N.C.E. Station Labs to assess your students.  You may grade the student recording sheets or simply use them as data-collecting formative assessments.

• Grade the entire student recording sheet for accuracy or only grade certain sections. The Interpret, Navigate, and Challenge stations are generally the easiest to grade if you are looking for “concrete” answers.
• Use the student reflection portion of the recording sheet (shown below) as an exit ticket/formative assessment. Compile a list of students who do not feel they have fully mastered the content.  You may do this by reading your students’ responses to their areas of weakness or by their “Level of Understanding Scale Score.”  Any number below a 7 on the scale is a concern.  These students may need extra remediation in tutorials, pullouts, small groups, or other beneficial interventions.

If you are interested in using these labs in your classroom, we have created a S.C.I.E.N.C.E Station Lab Bundle that contains 61 unique station labs covering a wide variety of major science concepts.

We hope these stations will help to relieve some of your planning stress while offering engaging, interactive, and meaningful lessons for your students!

Thanks for reading!

Scott and Natalie

The post Start Teaching S.C.I.E.N.C.E. Like Never Before appeared first on The Science Duo.

What are BOOM Cards?

BOOM Cards are digital task cards that are able to be accessed and played on any modern web browser (hosted on BOOM Learning℠).  That means students are able to use these resources on desktop computers, laptops, Chromebooks, tablets, and cell phones.

Quite possibly the best aspect of BOOM Cards is that they require virtually no prep work.  There’s no printing, cutting, laminating, or grading.  It’s all done for you!

BOOM Cards provide a variety of questioning formats such as true/false, multiple choice, fill in the blank, and short answer.  Also, most cards in each deck contain pictures, icons, or diagrams (just like printable task cards).

How do I get access to BOOM Cards?

You can purchase BOOM Cards directly off of our BOOM Learning site (then click “Digital Task Card” tab on left side of screen) or through Teachers Pay Teachers.  All of the BOOM Card decks that we have created offer a playable preview.  This preview allows you to view a small sample of 4-5 cards that are included in a specific deck.

What are the benefits of using BOOM Cards?

• Track student data – After students have completed a deck you will be able to access a report that contains their data.  This report includes an overall score (accuracy), student responses per question (correct or incorrect), and the average time taken to answer each question.

• Differentiate your classroom – You have control of the decks you want to assign to your individual students.  Assign the same deck to the entire class or choose a specific deck to assign to certain students.

• Variety of uses – Just like printable task cards, these sets are perfect for early finishers, stations, rotations, tutorials/pull outs, homework assignments, and extra practice.  They are extremely versatile and offer great value within the classroom.

Do I need a membership to use BOOM Cards?

If you want access to student success reports and data tracking – yes!

If you simply just want your students to play the decks – no! (Note – Free accounts allow students to play the decks, but do not record student progress.  Most decks are self-grading so students are able to see their own personal results.)

New users to BOOM Learning (via TPT purchase or BOOM’s website) receive a 90-day free trial membership for up to 150 students.  At the end of 90 day trial, the membership expires unless you choose to purchase a paid membership.  However, as long as you keep your account open (free or paid) your students can still access and play Boom Cards using Fast Pins.

There are 4 main membership levels – Starter, Basic, Power, and Ultimate.

1. Starter – This is a free membership level.  It allows you to create 1 section (class) and includes data tracking for up to 5 students.  This membership level is perfect if you home school or need to focus on a select few students in your class.
2. Basic – This membership level costs $9 per year.  It allows you to create 3 sections and includes data tracking for up to 80 students.
3. Power – This membership level costs $19 per year.  It allows you to create 5 sections and includes data tracking for up to 150 students.
4. Ultimate – This membership level costs $25 per year.  It allows you to create 8 sections and includes data tracking for up to 200 students.

Want to try a FREE BOOM Card deck?

If you would like to test out all of the features BOOM Cards have to offer, you can click here or on the image below to sign up for our email list.  You’ll receive our Energy BOOM Cards completely free as an added bonus!  We would love for you to try them out and let us know what you think.

We also have created a Science Digital BOOM Cards Bundle of 30 unique sets.  This bundle covers a variety of life science, earth science, space science, and physical science concepts and is priced to save 35% over purchasing each set individually.

We hope you will give BOOM Cards a try with your students.  We promise they will LOVE them!

As always, thanks for everything you do for your students. Take care!

Scott and Natalie

The post Go Digital with BOOM Cards™ appeared first on The Science Duo.

The “5 Days of Holiday Cheer” promotion is specifically for our newsletter subscribers.

This is the perfect time to join our Science Duo email list if you have not done so yet.  Joining the list is absolutely free and you will be provided with information on special sales, new products, updated resources, and ideas or techniques to use in your classroom.

If you are planning to join our list (or you are already on it), be sure to check your inbox Monday morning for the 1st Day of Holiday Cheer.  Have a wonderful and restful weekend!

Take care,

Scott and Natalie

The post 5 Days of Holiday Cheer – 2020 appeared first on The Science Duo.

***GIVEAWAY INSTRUCTIONS***

To join the giveaway you need to enter our King Sumo promotion below.  After you enter our giveaway, go to each blog at the bottom of this post and enter their individual giveaways as well.

For our individual promotion, we are giving away the following prize to FIVE winners: CHOOSE ANY BUNDLE from our Teachers Pay Teachers store, The Science Duo!  This is potentially a $229 value for each winner.  There are multiple ways to enter and increase your chances of winning.  Check it out below!

But that’s not it!  In addition to our individual giveaways, we put together one HUGE blog hop giveaway.  It’s just for secondary science teachers grades 6-12.  We are giving away FOUR $100 Teachers Pay Teachers gift cards!  Each blog post has a secret code word and a number.  Collect the words from each blog, write them down in number order, and copy the secret sentence into our joint rafflecopter giveaway.  This rafflecopter form is the same on every blog, so you only need to enter once from any one of our blogs (scroll to bottom to visit other blogs and enter the secret sentence).

Our clue word is “5. BECAUSE.”

This is an incredible opportunity, so please share this with your science friends.  We wish you the best of luck and hope you have great start to the year!

– Scott and Natalie

Visit the blogs below to find the secret code.  All of these teacher-authors have amazing resources that you’ll definitely want to check out!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The post Secondary Science – 2018 Back to School Giveaway! appeared first on The Science Duo.

Team building activities taught my students to work productively and successfully with one another which was crucial while completing labs, projects, and other group activities in class.  There are tons of great activities out there, but here are 3 of the tried-and-true ones I always used for my classroom.

Helium Sticks

I loved this activity because it only required 1 “helium stick” for each group of students.  I liked to use a meter stick in my classroom, but you can use any type of rod as well.  I had my classroom arranged into groups of 4 students, so I had my students complete this activity with their table partners first.  The students split to form 2 rows that faced each other (2 students on each side in this case).  I had them hold out their index fingers so I could then balance the meter stick on top.  Your students might have to raise or lower their fingers in order to make sure the meter stick is horizontal before they begin.

The objective of the activity is for the students to lower the meter stick to the ground without dropping it.  The catch though is that every student must keep both index fingers on the bottom of the meter stick at all times.  Also, they are not allowed to pinch or hold it in any way by curling their fingers around it or using any other part of their hand.  If they break any of these rules, then the group has to start over from the beginning.

This sounds like such simple task but once they start, my students would see that their helium stick would actually go in the wrong direction!  Because they had to keep their index fingers on the meter stick at all times, one or more students tend to overcompensate which actually pushes the stick up.  After a lot of laughter, they realized that they had to communicate with each other more effectively in order to move the stick down.

After all of my groups had completed the activity, I liked to bring out much larger helium sticks.  To make the larger helium sticks, I just duct taped 3-4 meter sticks together at the ends.  I made a few of these for my classroom and had 3-4 groups combine together to repeat the activity.  The larger the group, the harder it is, which made it so fun for me to watch!

Tower of Cups

This is a great team building activity because there’s so many different variations you can do with it.  The basic idea of this challenge is for students to move plastic cups into a specific formation using only a rubber band with string.  The supplies are pretty simple, but you might need to cut and tie some string ahead of time.

Each group will need 6-10 plastic cups and 1 standard rubber band with 4 strings attached to it.  Again, I had groups of 4, but you can change the number of strings based on your group sizes.  The strings need to be evenly spaced out on the rubber band and I usually made them about 12 inches long.  I liked to tie them to the rubber band in order to limit movement, but some teachers like to just have kids loop the string through and hold both ends during the activity.  Personally, I think 1 hand is more challenging.

I started the activity by placing the cups face down at one end of the table.  I told my students that they had to move the cups to the other end of the table and stack them into a pyramid.  However, they were only allowed to use the rubber band with strings to do so.  Each student in the group held 1 attached string.  If I had a smaller group of 3, then someone held 2 strings.  When everyone was ready, I started the activity to see which group could build the pyramid first.

Students had to work together to pull on their strings in order to stretch the rubber band so it would fit around a cup.  Then they would lift up the cup and move it to the other side of the table.  Once they got it in their desired location, they would pull on the strings again in order to stretch the rubber band to lift it off.  They did this over and over until they had correctly stacked the cups to complete the challenge.

After all of my groups had completed their pyramid, I liked to give them different cup formations to stack in order to keep the activity going and make it more fun.  I tried to make different designs that had some cups face up too in order to make it more challenging.  Some teachers like to make a set of task cards with the different cup formations already printed for each table group.  I preferred to keep things simple, so I just used an extra set of cups at my desk to demonstrate the tower I wanted them to make.  It’s was easier to change my formations as I liked and my students loved to help come up with their own tricky tower designs throughout the activity.

Newspaper Towers

This is another fun activity I loved to use in my classroom because it focuses on non-verbal communication.  For this challenge, student groups compete to build the tallest tower possible out of newspaper and tape that can support a golf ball.  The hard part is that they can’t talk or make any noises once the challenge starts.

For this activity, it is important that each group gets the same amount of each supply.  I liked to give each group 5 full sheets of newspaper, 3 feet of masking tape, and 1 golf ball.  However, you can change these amounts to whatever you’d prefer.  The more supplies you give your groups, the taller the towers they can build.  If you don’t have newspaper, you can use magazines or even construction paper.  If you’re limited on the number of golf balls, you can just bring one over to each group when they’re ready to test their tower.   You can also change the golf ball to be a ping pong ball, a tennis ball, or even a baseball.

After I explained the purpose of the activity to my students, I set a timer for 2 minutes to let the groups quickly discuss their strategy.  Not only do they have to build a tower, but they need to develop a way to communicate with one another without talking.  They can use hand signals and gestures, but they are not allowed to make any noises at all.  Once their 2 minutes of planning time is done, I reset the timer for 15 minutes.  Students have to work quickly and silently in order to build their tower by the end of the 15 minutes.  I liked to keep the challenge fast paced, but you can adjust the timer based on how you feel your groups are doing during the activity.  It’s fun to see how each group chooses to communicate and the super creative tower designs they produce.

I know there are tons of amazing team building activities out there but these are 3 that I used consistently.  I’d love to hear about your favorite ones you like to use in your classroom!

Thank for reading!

Natalie

The post Team Building – 3 Strategies to Promote Student Collaboration appeared first on The Science Duo.

However, I wish I would have started sooner because it was far less work than I expected and my kids absolutely loved it!

During the first few days of school, I took a few moments to introduce each animal’s name, interesting facts, and proper way to handle them.  That way my students felt more comfortable and were more prepared before taking each animal out.

Wait…did you just say take them out?

Every teacher is different, but I always allowed my students to hold my animals during the passing periods before and after class.  I couldn’t believe how fast my students got to my class!  My rule was that they had to get their notebook and warm-up out first, but then they could hold any of the animals until the bell rang.  Once the bell rang, they had to place the animal back, wash up, and head back to their seat to complete their warm-up.

After the first couple of weeks, my students were complete pros.  I found that they really liked the responsibility of taking care of the animals and actually held each other accountable when handling them.

They were also great about keeping the animals near their respective habitats and away from any other animals in the classroom.  After all, some of my animals were natural predators of other ones in the wild.  Although I taught my students about the importance of food chains, I didn’t exactly want to witness one in my classroom!  J  My students knew that holding my animals was a privilege and they could lose the right to interact with them if they were not properly taken care of.

I’ve had many different types of animals in my classroom over the years, but these are definitely my top 5 go-to choices.

1. Fancy Rat

 Pros: These were by far my students’ favorite animals!  Rats are extremely social (so you should definitely buy them in pairs) and very interactive which of course makes them so much fun to play with.  They’re also very budget friendly and you can find them at any local pet store.

Cons: They poop…a lot! The cage can get a little smelly if you don’t clean the bedding regularly.  They go through their food and water pretty frequently so you need to make sure you check the supply every couple of days.  Sadly, they have a shorter life span and are prone to abnormal growths and tumors.

2. Corn Snake

Pros: This was always a close second in popularity with my students.  Corn snakes are very tame and become extremely active when handled on a regular basis.  They are very low maintenance and only require food every 1-2 weeks and a water bowl.  You only have to do a spot cleaning of the bedding as needed and most will eat frozen mice (thawed first before feeding) that can be purchased in packs and kept in the freezer.  They come in a variety of colors and patterns and can have a long life span of 15-20 years (although some of you might consider this last part a con!)

Cons: The initial setup can be a little expensive.  Corn snakes need a tank with a sliding and locking top so they don’t escape (that would be fun to explain to your administrators.)  They also need a heating pad to help regulate temperature and a log to aid in shedding their skin.  All of this, plus the cost of the actual snake, can really add up.

3. Bearded Dragon

 Pros: These are fairly low maintenance animals that can be found in most pet stores.  Bearded dragons are omnivorous and eat leafy greens and insects such as crickets and mealworms (which is fun for the kids to watch).  They can be very active (especially when hunting) and like to jump on and off their log/rock.  When held consistently, they can also be very docile.  Mine always liked to perch high up on my shoulder to hang out.

Cons: You need to change out the uneaten leafy greens daily and it is recommended to dust their insects with calcium supplements.  Bearded dragons are also prone to impaction (intestinal blockage) so you have to be careful not to feed them too many insects.  They also require a larger tank with both daytime and nighttime bulbs.

4. Russian Tortoise

Pros: These are also fairly low maintenance animals.  Russian tortoises are extremely easy for students to handle and are very calm animals.  You can place them on the floor, counter, or lab table to let them walk around and get some exercise.  Plus you don’t have to worry about them running away too quickly. 

Cons: Russian tortoises tend to be the least “exciting” of the animals.  They often just sit there like a rock when they bask under their heat lamp or hide out under their covered area to cool off.  When startled, they pull into their shell and you often have to wait a while to coax them back out.  Their leafy greens (dusted with a calcium supplement) and water bowl also need to be changed daily.

5. Short-Tailed Opossum

 Pros: This was always a fun animal for my students because it was something unique.  Don’t let the opossum part of this scare you.  Short-tailed opossums are actually very small (about the size of a mouse) and very cute!  You can’t really tell it’s an opossum until you see its long mouth with lots of little teeth.  They have a prehensile tail that can grasp your fingers, but my students always knew not to let go since their tail wasn’t that strong when born in captivity.  Their food dish and water bottle lasts quite a while (even for weeks) and my students enjoyed watching them hunt when giving them a treat of crickets or mealworms.

 Cons: They can be little escape artists so you need to make sure the lid is always kept on the tank.  Although short-tailed opossums adapt quickly to the classroom life, they are technically nocturnal and often like to burrow in their house to take a nap.  When awake, they are extremely active (which sounds like a pro) but the constant running in the exercise wheel can be distracting for some students who sit next to the tank.  They are also fairly expensive, especially for their small size, and can only be found at specialty or exotic pet stores.

Although these are my top 5 animals, I’ve tried out several others over the years.  Guinea pigs, leopard geckos, hedgehogs, tarantulas, aquatic frogs, and fish have all made it into my classroom at one point.  However, I felt these all had more cons for one reason or another so I eventually just stuck with my tried and true top choices.

If you’re worried about the maintenance of having classroom animals…don’t be!  You’ll be surprised at how fast your students will jump at the chance to feed them for you and even do the dirty work like cleaning out their tanks and cages.  That’s what I call winning!

I also offered a first come, first served opportunity for my students to take my animals home over our extended school breaks like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Spring Break.  After sending an email home to parents, all of my animals would be spoken for within hours and I never once had to take one home myself over vacation.  Your students will love the chance to have them all to themselves for a while and their parents will love that there’s no long-term commitment!

If you’ve been on the fence about keeping animals in your classroom, I hope I’ve given you some good reasons to give it a try and a few fun animal suggestions to think about too.  You only have to start with one animal and then you can slowly grow your classroom zoo over time! 

Thanks for reading!  If you get a chance, comment below and let me know what animals you love to have in your classroom!

Natalie

The post Top 5 Animals for your Science Classroom appeared first on The Science Duo.

Interactive notebooks are widely used in science classrooms all over the nation.  They are a powerful tool to help students compartmentalize important science content through the use of guided notes with pre-made templates.

However, we’re the first to admit that it took us quite a while to jump on the interactive notebook bandwagon.  We were extremely hesitant to give them a try because, well…if we’re being completely honest, we felt that all of the cutting and gluing was such a waste of our valuable classroom time.  We quickly realized that this process did not take as long as we thought.  It actually increased the effectiveness of our lessons and helped our classrooms run much more efficiently.As a husband and wife who both taught science, we obviously bounced a lot of our classroom ideas off of each other.  During our first few years as teachers, we thought we would be those “cool” teachers who allowed students to decide what they wanted to bring in order to be prepared for our class.  In addition to bringing the obvious supplies such as a pencil and paper, we gave our students the option to bring a binder, spiral notebook, folder, or whatever they felt worked best for them.

It sounded great to us.  We simply just told them to stay organized and make sure to keep track of our important assignments and notes that were completed in class (because surely they would know what was important, right?)  By giving our students choice, we would ultimately empower them to become more independent in the learning process.  What could go wrong?

Then, each year the reality of a middle school classroom set in…lost papers…question after question…confused and unprepared students.  It wasn’t the fault of our students.  The fault was on us for failing to implement a clear system which offered the support they really needed.

So we were forced to finally admit defeat and knew that something had to change.  And as many of you already know, change can be hard when it forces you out of your comfort zone.  However, if we wanted to effectively empower our students and create more independence, we needed a better system in place.

Cue the interactive notebooks!  If you’re new to the classroom or simply want to try a proven system, you definitely need to introduce your students to interactive notebooks.

Here are our top 5 reasons to use interactive notebooks with your students.

1. Interactive notebooks allow students to take ownership of their learning.  Interactive notebooks are personal to each individual student.  Interactive notebook pages focus on the key concepts we want them to know, but still allow students to use their own ideas in order to make the learning process more meaningful.  For example, some students like to doodle or draw pictures to demonstrate certain concepts, while other students prefer to write phrases or sentences.  We always encouraged our students to treat their notebook as their own “journal of ideas” or “science diary.”  You can also help to encourage this by allowing students to create a unique cover page for their interactive notebook that represents them or the things they’re interested in.

2. Interactive notebooks focus on the key concepts learned in class.  Let’s face it.  During a typical class period there is a lot of information to digest and it can be quite overwhelming for students.  We would be teaching a gripping and captivating lesson (because aren’t they all?) but were constantly interrupted with the question “Do we need to write that down?”  We soon realized that our students could not be truly engaged in class if they were constantly struggling with recognizing the important information we wanted them to get.  With interactive notebooks, students are now able to focus more on the classroom discussion or activity because they know that the most valuable information and key concepts will be covered on their guided notebook page(s) for the day.

3. Interactive notebooks allow students to be prepared for class each and every day.  It’s pretty simple.  Students need their interactive notebook and a pencil each day.  That’s it.  We provided anything else they would need such as glue sticks, scissors, and colored pencils.  We liked to have our students create pocket folders within their notebooks to help with organization.  For example, the front of the notebook always had a pocket folder for warm-ups.  That way it was easy for our students to locate it each day when they came into class.  Then, our students created a pocket folder for the current unit.  Here they could place important papers and various interactive notebook pages that hadn’t been glued in yet for that unit.  Once the unit was complete, they then made a new pocket folder for the next unit.  We preferred to keep it simple with only one pocket folder per unit, but you may choose to make separate folders for graded assignments, homework, etc.

4. Interactive notebooks help to create student “buy in.”  We always allowed our students to use their interactive notebooks on classroom activities, labs, and particular quizzes and assessments.  Wait, what?  We know, we know…many teachers have very strong opinions on this!  Although teachers are torn on this idea, we wanted to add as much value to the notebook process as possible.  We found that our students put more effort into their notebooks and were much more detailed in their responses which in turn helped them learn the information better.  You’d be surprised to see how the level of engagement increases when students KNOW the information within their notebooks is valuable.

5. Interactive notebooks are the perfect reference guide for students.  Interactive notebooks act as a “one stop shop” for any class material your students need.  All important information from both past and present units is easily accessible and literally at your students’ fingertips.  We made a point to stress the importance of always having this resource to refer to.  In addition to the obvious of using it to study and prepare for tests, this also greatly reduced questions during classroom activities because it allowed our students to seek out the information they needed within their own notebooks.

These 5 reasons sound great and all, but if you’re like we initially were, you’re probably still thinking, “I don’t have any time to allow my students to cut and glue!” Remember, we were once in your shoes!  But please, hear us out! 

Here’s a list of our time-saving strategies to help you incorporate interactive notebooks as efficiently as possible.

5 Time Saving Strategies

1. Have students make a pocket folder at the front or back of the notebook (or just use the one they already made for the current unit) .  Cut out all necessary templates that will be used during a certain week or unit.  Place all of the templates into a bag and secure them in the pocket.  This takes a little time up front, but saves so much time in the end.  PLUS, it allows students a “sneak peek” at some of the things they will be learning about which is great for sparking their curiosity and creating meaningful discussions.

2. Use as an entry activity.  Place the notebook templates that will be used for the day on several tables around the room for students to pick up as they enter the classroom.  Or you can hand it to each student as they enter the classroom.  We suggest setting a time limit on how long they have to get it cut and ready for the day.  Once the bell rang, we set a timer for 3 minutes and our students knew they needed to get cutting.  If you are consistent, your students will catch on to the process pretty quickly.  It really works!

3. Use as an exit ticket for formative assessment.  We were always looking for a short 3-5 minute formal assessment that could be used at the end of class.  Interactive notebook pages are perfect for this strategy and it doesn’t require any extra work.  We would simply walk around the class and observe our students as they filled out their notebook page.  We were specifically looking for students that seemed lost or had a hard time getting started.  We were subtle in our observations, but strategic.  We then made a quick note to ourselves so that the next day we could revisit the concept at the beginning of class.

4. Keep your students on task by having them prepare for a future lesson.  No matter what you do, there’s always that one lesson that runs short.  We would fill that extra time at the end of class by having our students cut out any upcoming notebook templates.  This strategy saved us many times!  It helped keep our students productive and also acted as a great segue into the next day’s lesson.  Plus it’s a life saver if an administrator decides to pop in unannounced near the end of a lesson that didn’t take as long as you originally planned for. 

5. Have your high achievers or teacher helpers cut a few extra notebook templates for absent students.  A great idea is to create an “I’m Finished, Now What?” area in your room.  We would place extra notebook templates in a basket for students to cut out.  Of course not all students want to cut extra templates, but there was always a few in each class that were more than willing to help out.  We found that those  students could cut more than enough templates for us which was a great time saver the next day.

Well hopefully we’ve provided you with enough reasons why interactive notebooks can be a successful tool in the science classroom.  If you would like to give them a try in your own classroom, you can click HERE to check out our Science Interactive Notebook Bundle.  This bundle includes 9 units for you to use within your science class and each of the individual units are also available for purchase separately.  Each notebook pages comes with directions and a photo of the completed activity.

Try out our FREE Interactive Notebook Sampler and let us know how it went!

Thanks for reading!

Scott and Natalie

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***GIVEAWAY INSTRUCTIONS***

To join the giveaway you need to enter our rafflecopter below.  After you enter our rafflecopter, go to each blog at the bottom of this post and enter their individual rafflecopter giveaways as well.

For our individual rafflecopter, we are giving away the following prize to TEN winners: $10 worth of resources from our Teachers Pay Teachers store, The Science Duo!  There are multiple ways to enter and win:

1. Write a blog comment below suggesting a topic you would like to read about on our blog this year.
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3. Tweet about this giveaway on Twitter

a Rafflecopter giveaway

But that’s not it!  In addition to our individual giveaways, we put together one HUGE blog hop giveaway.  It’s just for secondary science teachers grades 6-12.  We are giving away FIVE $100 Teachers Pay Teachers gift cards!  Each blog post has a secret code word and a number.  Collect the words from each blog, write them down in number order, and copy the secret sentence into our joint rafflecopter giveaway.  This rafflecopter form is the same on every blog, so you only need to enter once from any one of our blogs (scroll to bottom to visit other blogs).

Our clue word is “ASKS” and it is the 15th word in the secret sentence. 

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This is an incredible opportunity, so please share this with your science friends.  Be sure to sign up for our email list to receive some awesome FREE resources.

Also, feel free to follow our TpT store for time-saving science resources and our Facebook page if you like funny memes, incredible science blogs, and wonderful classroom tips and strategies.  We wish you the best of luck and hope you have great start to the year! – Scott and Natalie

Visit the blogs below to find the secret code.  All of these teacher-authors have amazing resources that you’ll definitely want to check out!

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