Upgrading A Research Report So many "research reports" are really just "regurgitation re-writes." Here's one way to take a research report to a much more interesting level.
Updating Old Questions: A Mere Model of a Cell Why are my best biologists just restating facts we already know?
Taking Flashcards Up To “Analyze” We had a pack of animal flashcards. But my kid can already read. So here's how we took these low-level cards up to Analyze – in three different ways.
Help my students remember these confusing terms! If you want students to memorize, you can't aim for memorize. You have to aim higher – and then memorization comes along for free.
Creating Seemingly Unrelated Analogies Want to encourage students to find unexpected connections across content? Here's a quick framework based on the most important terms from both bits of content.
Thinking Like Producers About Consumers Here's how I'd use ethics and multiple perspectives to get students thinking about producers, consumers, and decomposers in new and interesting ways.
Lunar Survival Skills We're supposed to rank fifteen items according to usefulness if we were stranded on the light-side of the moon. The items range from pistols to powdered milk. Some seem useful, but are actually worthless while others seem unnecessary on earth, but are actually vital when stuck on the moon. However, the structure of the activity as a website is not optimal. Let's improve this and make it an awesome problem–solving exercise for our class.
Creating A New Creature We're not doing a fluffy art project here. Kids are developing a realistic, made up creature that could have actually lived in a particular biome.
Think Like An Engineer: Egg Drop At our school, 6th graders participate in an annual egg drop. To increase the rigor, I looked for unique scientific roles and came up with three: designing a parachute to slow the egg's descent, testing materials to pack inside the structure, and developing the structure itself. Each of these roles will be developed into a scientific discipline.
Reader Question: Unusual Animals A reader asks how we can take the typical "look up facts online and then present with PowerPoint" task to an appropriate level of challenge.
