Genetics Foldable

Some years I am very successful at teaching the students through labs and projects but some years those tried and true tactics don't work as well. This year my students need more guidance and direction, they work and recall especially well when we do activities together and the students repeat information as they write it down. This has led to many spontaneous changes in lessons this year.

Last week we attempted a class trait lab but the students were not getting the abstract connection between traits, alleles, genotypes and phenotypes when attempting lab so I decided it was time to change things up. I sat at my desk for awhile that afternoon trying to decide what to do and then I came up with an idea. I created a "Genetics Foldable."

I used a shutter fold.
Front: On one side of the foldable are the father's alleles (written in blue marker) for traits we had in a previous activity, and on the other side are the mother's alleles
Inside: The inside of each flap contains basic genetics questions, the inside center section is information about the genotype and phenotype of the offspring (written in purple because red and blue make purple)

I provided the students with the questions, I had them use their notes and previous activities to answer the questions, then we went over all of the questions answering them together and repeating the answers as we went.

Pollinators

Today I participated in the Accessibility Fest in downtown SA, where we brought pollinator activities to share with the people downtown. The theme of our events is pollinators, so I created a game for the event.

For the game I purchased 4 serving platters shaped like flowers, 2 ladles that I added construction paper butterflies to, 2 large plastic serving spoons that I added construction paper bumblebees to, and a large bag of cotton balls.

There are 2 ways to play the game.:

1) A single child can play and race the clock. They get 30 seconds to try to get as much pollen as possible from one flower to the other in order to create new flowers.

2) two or more children can race against one another. Again they get only 30 seconds to try to move as much pollen as possible from one flower to the next flower. This can be played with 2-4 children.

This game is a good station to use with elementary students when teaching butterfly life cycles. Students could rotate and make the pasta life cycles,  color a life cycle, play this game, and do some reading and worsheets.

Walkabout Notes

There are many times in 7th grade science where we are introducing a new topic that the students have never seen before so we begin the unit with vocabulary and notes. Sometimes I go over the power point with the students and have them fill in their notes so that I can give them examples throughout the power point. Other times I put the notes on a Prezi, have the students fill in the blanks at home and then we have an in class discussion about them. When the unit is not as exciting to the students as they would like then I offer "Walkabout Notes."

For "Walkabout Notes" I print out the power point and then I put the slides up all over my room. I do not put the slides in order but I often group certain like concepts together in sections of the room. I provide the students with the fill in the blanks notes and I let them walk about the room to find the words that they will use to fill in the blanks. I also put up ten questions with the notes that range in Blooms level. The students answer the questions in their notebook on the page where they will glue their notes, then they glue down the notes so they can flip them up and see the questions underneath. I will then discuss the notes and the questions with the class. I also have a few copies of the power point printed as slides (3 per sheet) in case students cannot find something or if they are struggling with proper class etiquette.

Here are some pictures of how I arrange the notes: