Want to incorporate more outdoor science lessons in your urban classroom but lack the green space to do it? These 15 tips will have you and your kiddos slapping on the sunscreen and your sunglasses and heading into the great outdoors in no time!   Use what you’ve got: Even in urban areas, schools often have some outdoor space that can be utilized for learning. Rooftops, courtyards, balconies, parking lots or any available open space can be used for observing local wildlife, planting container gardens, viewing the sky…   Use your community: Do you have local parks around your ..read more

Want to incorporate more outside time in your science class but lack the green space to do it? These 15 tips will have you and your kiddos slapping on the sunscreen and your sunglasses and heading into the great outdoors in no time!   Use what you’ve got: Even in urban areas, schools often have some outdoor space that can be utilized for learning. Rooftops, courtyards, balconies, parking lots or any available open space can be used for observing local wildlife, planting container gardens, viewing the sky…   Use your community: Do you have local parks around your school? Botan ..read more

“I love the ecology unit! Thanks for all your hard work! Do you have any basic answers for the unit 3 symbiosis want ad assignment (like what type of relationship each group has)? This would help so much when it comes to grading them so I don’t have to research each one to ensure the students have it correct! Thanks for the great product!” – Amy T. What a great question, Amy. It’s a smart idea and we honestly have no idea why we haven’t included it in the lesson before now. Then we thought, it might be a great resource for any teacher out there, regardless of whether they have our activity o ..read more

Whether you are homeschooling, distance, online or at-home learning, we want to make sure we are supporting our educators and parents however we can. We’ve had tons of questions regarding how you can use the products you’ve already purchased from us in an atypical, online or at-home learning environment. To address the many inquiries we’ve gotten, we’ve compiled this blog post to help you use what you already own. PLEASE READ THIS IMPORTANT BIT OF INFORMATION: Our products consist of Powerpoint presentations and secured PDFS – we are required to secure them in order to protect our copyright an ..read more

Wanna walk a day in our shoes? Here’s what a day in the life of a Nerdy science teacher (aka Mel and Gerdy) looks like: 7:00 am: Arrive at school. Gather materials to be copied if needed. We loved raiding the copy machine for as long as we could each morning in order to get our copies made for the day, week, month, unit, and one time even for several months for maternity leave! Try “copy calisthenics” using the copier as a support device for squats and leg lifts. Complete lunges, jumping jacks and hallway races/stair races afte ..read more

It’s time for school already?! It’s still hot outside and the days are long but it’s time to get back into the swing of things and we hope we can help you out!  A big group of us on TeachersPayTeachers are excited to do just that. We have an amazing giveaway for all of you science teachers! We are giving away FOUR $100 TeachersPayTeachers gift cards that you can use to purchase whatever you may need to make this year an amazing one!  So while you’re busy decorating your bulletin boards and prepping your lab closet, take a moment to visit each of our blogs to collect our secret words. The kick ..read more

There have been SO many requests for us to detail out our year-long agenda – what order we teach lessons, how long a unit takes to teach, how much content is delivered, etc. These are all great questions, and we are so happy to be able to share with you our scope and sequence – how we like to teach life science. After introductions, syllabi and getting familiar with classroom expectations and procedures, it’s time for the meat of your lessons. We come from the old school theory of thought – that all of science builds upon the p ..read more

Interactive notebooks aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, so you might as well learn all the tricks of trade for these student-centered hands-on learning tools. Don’t know where to look? Don’t worry – we’ve done the work for you. Here are 10 of the best blog posts packed with tips and tools for implementing INBs in your classroom.  Each one provides actionable tools you can use right away, whether you are just beginning or need some fresh ideas to spruce up your current ISN curriculum!  Enjoy! Tips for Using Interactive Noteboo ..read more

There ain’t no bones about it – humans would be a big pile of muscles, skin and gooey organs if it weren’t for the skeletal system!  We love teaching our human body unit from the inside out – skin, muscles, bones, and all the other systems that work in-between. Our next stop after the muscular system is the skeletal system, and here’s what we’d do to get down to the bare bones of what we’re made of: Sponge or Bellwork: Our lessons always start with a bell-work question or activity that gets kids thinking about the topic at ha ..read more