Teaching the Zombie Apocalypse!

The CDC ROCKS!  This year I get to teach epidemics and pandemics in science.  What better way to do this than focusing on the Zombie Apocalypse?  Check out the CDC link emergency.cdc.gov for some great lesson plans.  

Assessment Ideas

Formative Assessment Ideas

Using Wordle to Organize Science Concepts

Wordle can be used as a great educational tool for science class.  There are so many vocabulary words for students to remember.  Learning all these words can be a very daunting task for some.  One idea for using Wordle is to clump together many vocabulary words under one scientific concept.  It would be so easy to create a list of vocabulary words, some matching the concept and some not.  Students would first have to determine which words match and eliminate the others from the list.  Next, they could use Wordle to graphically display the concept and matching vocabulary words.  This would meet the needs of several different learning styles.  This also is a quick way for teachers to assess student understanding.

Example:  Physical Properties of Matter

Exploring Density

Our focus in class last week was density. My students worked on creating a foldable from Middle School Science.  This is probably the best density foldable I've ever used.  I can see my students using it often.  For measuring density and using it as an identification property, we participated in a density cube lab.  Our final density lesson was to create a density column and to watch a Steve Spangler video of the Amazing 9 Layer Density Tower.  I didn't have all of the components to do the 9 layer, but we did make a 6 layer column together instead.

  

Using Animoto to Create a Classroom Tour

Inspiration

I had a little visitor to come and spend some time in my classroom yesterday. My visitor, the daughter of two of my coworkers, is a little girl full of energy.  This kid is so inquisitive and can soak up information like a sponge!  Just precious! We spent some time looking over my Giant Microbes collection. She had tons of questions and I thoroughly enjoyed answering each one.  Until she stopped by for a visit I was feeling a little frustrated and overwhelmed with all the things I still needed to complete. Our discussion reminded me of how much I like just sitting back and talking to my students.  I sometimes spend too much time trying to create a lesson plan or activity but often lose focus of truly reaching my students and catering to their questions. This little girl helped me to refocus my energy.  It really is amazing how inspiration can sneak up on you.  

The Giant Microbes that were the focus of our conversation....

My portrait!  

A Look Inside My Classroom

As much as I hate saying goodbye to summer, I really do enjoy decorating and organizing my classroom.  Now getting up at 5:30 each morning is something I absolutely dislike!  But the students are coming in one week whether the room looks good or not!  So I decided to get a head start on the decorating and organizing.  I still have a lot of things to work on but this is my classroom as of today :) 

This is the welcome sign outside of my classroom. 

This is the back wall and lab station.