Hands-on Activities for Teaching Biology to High School or Middle School Students. By Drs.
Ingrid Waldron and Jennifer Doherty, University of Pennsylvania The expression "hands-on, minds-on" summarizes the philosophy we have incorporated in these activities - namely, that students will learn best if they are actively engaged and if their activities are closely linked to understanding important biological concepts. Many of our activities are explicitly aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards, as indicated by (NGSS) in the descriptions below and the links to the right. Additional information is provided in Summary Tables and in the Teacher Preparation Notes for these activities.
To accommodate limited budgets, most of our activities can be carried out with minimum equipment and expense for supplies. Additional resources for teaching biology are available at More Minds on Activities for Teaching Biology. Read More Intro and Biological Molecules Is Yeast Alive? Enzymes Help Us Digest Food(revised, July, 2016) Who Took Jerell's iPod? Hands-on Activities for Teaching Biology to High School or Middle School Students. Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology - Biology in a Box. Your Guide to Science Fair Topics, Ideas, Experiments, and Winning Displays. About My Science Box. Feathered Friends Activities : Cornell Lab of Ornithology: BirdSleuth K-12. Our friends at Pennington Wild Birds are working with us to educate and engage children and families in citizen science and the pleasures of wild bird feeding and bird watching!
A free download perfect for elementary educators is available: these easy-to-use activities will help you teach science content year-round through the birds that visit. Click the woodpecker to download your free lessons… if you already have the lessons, click the cardinal to find links and resources connected to the lessons. By putting up a feeder, you can attract feeder birds to you schoolyard, a great first step toward getting students outside observing and learning. Pennington® Bird Feeders have been donated to BirdSleuth as part of this alliance. Everyone can get a free feeder with the purchase of a BirdSleuth kit. Educational Idea Sheets - Resource Area For Teaching. Idea Sheets are hands-on experience guides linked to core curriculum topics.
Every Idea Sheet is cross-referenced to one or more of the curriculum subjects listed in the Content Standards. Use this Idea Sheets Search Tool to rapidly pinpoint activities that are perfectly suited to the grade level, subject area, and content standard you want to cover. Idea Sheets are based on readily-available, low-cost materials such as cardboard tubes, bottle caps, old CD's, etc.
You can also Search Idea Sheets by Standards. For more information about RAFT resources matched to Girl Scout badges and Boy Scout activities in STEM see www.raft.net/scouts 1000 Wins Adding 3-digit numbers gets easier with this easy-to-learn and fun-to-play card game. 2-Tubaphones Make an instrument with an adjustable pitch to explore the science of sound waves and the art of music!
This card game helps students learn to add numbers in their heads. 3D Topo Views. Share My Lesson - Free K-12 Resources By Teachers, For Teachers. Lesson Plans. The lesson plans presented here are a sampling from NWF's collection of over 1,000 lesson plans designed to introduce students to life science, ecology, wildlife biology, scientific identification and observation.
All lesson plans are aligned to the National Science Education Standards. Check back regularly! We will be continually adding to our online library of resources for educators, beginning with the addition of lesson plans from our NatureScope series. Habitat Lessons designed to introduce students to concepts of ecology, habitat care and species identification: Energy Conservation Lessons designed to engage student in learning good conservation techniques and practices to use at home and at school: Energy Conservation: Did I Remember To… (grades 4-6) Ecosystems Lessons that explore ecosystems within the United States: ArcticWatersheds Wildlife Lessons that introduce students to wildlife and wildlife behavior:
NatureWorks Episodes. Free Teacher Resources. Discovery Education.