Welcome! I am a 5th grade science teacher at a small independent school in central New Jersey. In 5th grade, we focus on matter, chemistry and earth science. This is my 3rd year teaching 5th grade, but my 11th year as a science teacher. I started teaching in 1996, but took a few years off to be with my 4 sons. My experience includes 6th grade physical science, 7th grade life science, and High School Biology. I hope this blog gives you some new ideas, or variations of old ideas, you can use in your classroom.
Please visit my website for more science lesson plans.
Liz LaRosa
Liz – tell me a little more about how you use pageflakes. Can students comment on page flakes about the current events? Is there any way to create an account for the class without individual student accounts.
Carolyn – for pageflakes, I only have one account. Right now, I use it to find news articles to post on our current event blog. In the winter, I will have the students use the pageflake site I have set up to find science articles to post onto the blog. I think you could have students make up their own page flakes or one for each class, but I haven’t had time to really explore all of its features yet. I am not sure if they can comment on the pageflakes site or not. Sorry I couldn’t help out more.
Liz–I can’t even begin to tell you how much your blog and lessons have helped me this year. I am getting serious about teaching science and I LOVE the notebooks. I am getting ready to go into elements, compounds, mixtures, etc. I was wondering what order you teach all that in. Do you start with the 3 phases and then go from there? I don’t love how my science book does it, so I’m hoping you can give me some guidance.
Thanks
Hi Ashley – I actually found an order that I really liked for sequencing that unit. I have everything mapped out in my plan book, starting with week 11: http://www.middleschoolscience.com/myplanbook.htm . I start with the properties of matter such as mass, volume, density then go into it from there. If you skim the “Big Ideas” you can get a better feel for the order that I used. Glad to hear that the site has been helpful. Good luck!
You’ve got a great blog chockfull of innovative ideas. I’m been using a an online tool called Creately – (http://creately.com) which is a web-based diagramming tool and has a great set of shapes for drawing chemistry experiments and lab equipment that might come in handy.
Cheers
Charan
Thanks! I will be sure to check it out!
Hi Liz,
Thank you so much for this amazing website site! I have been teaching high school for five years (mostly higher level stuff). I just found out that I will be picking up a middle school section and only had a vague idea of what I was going to do, before I saw your blog.
Thanks a million!
ilana
I was wondering how to get the PDF files that you have on your website. I teach special ed. in South Jersey and was looking at some of the stuff you have on hurricanes and they look awesome. Every time I try to click the PDF it won’t let me do it. Any help would be appreciated.
Jenn
To read PDF files, you will need adobe reader, it is a free program you can download from their website. If it is pdf file from another website, the link may be outdated or the file was removed. The hurricane page is really old, so a lot of those sheets may no longer be online. They were posted by another science teacher.
Hello. Thank you for this wonderful website! It is such a wonderful resource.
I wanted to ask: Which website do you use to obtain your clipart?
Thank you!
Hi, thanks! I mostly use the free clip art from Microsoft: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/images/ since I use MS Word or MS Publisher for my documents.
Wow! Your stuff is fantastic. We are also a SMALL (8 students) independent school, but in Northern Vermont.
We moved to a workshop style Exploratory Science Program ala Nancie Atwell’s CTL inspired by http://go.hrw.com/resources/go_sc/gen/HSTPR130.PDF . It has been really tough finding “mini-lessons” that work for the varied ages we work with (grades 4 through 8 usually in the exploratory science. Everything you’ve got is fantastic. I found the middleschoolscience.com yesterday and haven’t walked away from my computer yet! (Including I only got 4 hours of sleep last night!)
It is marvelous that you are willing to share this hard work so that the rest of us don’t have to reinvent the wheel! Thank you so much. To try and reciprocate a little, here is a site with some good activities http://wonderwise.unl.edu/01kids/4h_3.htm we also have a 4-H club (3 times larger than our school!) and our County 4-H educator is a former science teacher so she connects me with good stuff as well.
Thanks so much! I am happy to share what I have if it helps other teachers in the classroom.
Hi Liz. I coordinate an effort called the Oregon Coast Education Program. This collaboration between multiple informal science education institutions throughout Oregon is creating modules for k-12 schools that promote watershed, estuary, and ocean literacy. We do not intend to write curriculum so much as survey what’s out there and use the lesson plans that are the most effective to teach the concepts we would like to share with k-12 schools in Oregon. Your squid dissection lesson plan was the most appropriate lesson I came across for a younger audience and we would like to include it in our modules. Currently, the modules are residing on a private wiki but eventually they will be on a website that can be accessed by anyone. I saw on your FAQs that you are happy to grant permission for teachers to post and distribute your lesson plans as long as they are cited. But, since this was going to be a public website associated with our program, I just wanted to contact you directly about it. Please let me know either way if you have any issues with your lesson plan being part of our module. If you want to reply to me directly, please contact me at xxxxxx Thanks so much.
Brianna Patterson
Hello again. I was wondering, do you have the file for your “balancing equations” activity? I love your idea of using a set of cards but if you already have them made, I’d love to print them out and laminate them. Please let me know if this is an option! Thanks again for your amazing work!!!!
nevermind! found them!
Liz- I wanted to say thank you for taking the time to put together your website and blog. I have really enjoyed looking at it and organizing ideas. I had been teaching for 7 years all at the 6th grade level physical science (chemistry). We have switched our curriculum and schedules and I am not teaching 4 sections of Earth Science at the 6th grade level and 2 sections of Life Science at the 7th grade level. I see that you teach some Earth Science, I was wondering if you knew of any good sites that are set up similar to yours (active lesson plans, notebook) that you may have looked at and gotten ideas or if you have any labs/ideas for Earth science. I looked at the ones on your webpage. Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. The topics we cover are: Atmosphere, Weather, Climate, Earth Surface, Rocks, Glaciers, Volcanoes, etc. Again, thank you for putting so much effort into your website/blog! I bet students look forward to your class each day!
Thanks so much for letting me know!! Glad to hear that it has been helpful!
Marica has a wonderful website that covers all of those Earth Science topics, she has packets that you can buy and use in your classroom:
http://mjksciteachingideas.com/store.html
Hope that helps!
Liz- Thank you for taking the time to put together a wonderful website! For the last 7 years I had been teaching 6th grade physical science (chemistry). I have used your website as a way to organize my lessons and curriculum. Thank you! We have switched curriculums and grade levels in our district. This year I teach 4 sections of 6th grade Earth Science and 2 sections of 7th grade Life Science. I was wondering if you knew of any sites that were similar to yours for anyone that teaches Earth Science? I know that you teach a bit of Earth science and I have looked at your page for ideas and labs. Do you know of any that have active lessons and weekly plans? Our 6th grade curriculum covers Atmosphere, Weather, Climate, Inside Earth, Geology, Water, Volcanoes, etc. Any suggestions or sites would be greatly appreciated! Your students must look forward to your class each day! You have wonderful ideas and are extremely organized. Thanks again.
Hi Mrs. LaRosa,
Im an 8th grade student at MJGDS in Florida and I have to find a mini lab on genetics. I found a great worksheet on the punnett square using plastic eggs. I was wondering if I can use that document but still give you credit of course.
Thanks
Yes of course!!! Hope it was helpful!
Hi! I have been looking over your website, wow! It is amazing.
I was looking at your plans and it looks like you are standard based grading? or how do you grade? And I didn’t see any formal summative chapter tests? So do you just use your lab activities/notebooks for assessments then?
And do you find your kids take care of their notebooks? I would be worried my kids would loose the pages, they’re so unorganized! What made you move away from 3 ring binders?
Thanks so much for your help!!!!
Hi Emily…I don’t do formal chapter tests, I make up my own tests and adjust the content accordingly. Assessments count for 70% of their grade, homework/classwork for 30%. We have assigned test days, I have Day E out of a 6 day cycle, students are only allowed one assessment or major assignment each day of the cycle. We go over hw and classwork daily, and students are expected to make corrections and ask questions about the material. They use their notebook to study from. I don’t grade their notebooks, I check for completion and to make sure that it is up to date periodically. The kids are good about keeping their notebooks organized and up to date. With everything being glued in, and everyone having the same exact notebook, it make it so much easler for them and for me. The notebook is their textbook as well. We keep the notebooks in their binders, so that helps reduce the wear and tear on them. I moved away from binders because it was just a mess! Hope that helps!
Hi there,
I have been finding your resources and website aextremely helpful. I am going to start the article analysis with my 6th grade science students. I think it’s going to be a great way for them to be more involved in science matters and help them with their reading strategies. Do you have a rubric that you used for this assignment? I looked through your old notes and stuff, but didn’t see one.
Thanks,
Jessica
I had tried different rubrics, but never really found one that I really like or worked well. I ended up grading it as V+, V, or V- for effort and completion. I am not doing the current events this year, but I may again next year.
I just checked your life science website. The link for the classification-Making a Dichotomous Key no longer works. Just thought to let you know!!
Great website! I teach 7th grade life science in Georgia. Your notebook is awesome! Thanks for sharing!!!
thanks!!
I am writing a middle grade novel that centers on a young scientist in middle school. Chemistry is a large plot element and I would like to request permission to use specific information, classroom experiments and activities in your site in the book as part of the work my main character and her fellow students perform, as if they had actually crafted the activities themselves. At the end of the book, there will be a page that lists the resources used in creating the novel, and I would list your name and website and blog. Please advise if this is acceptable to you. Thank you very much 3/15/2011
I’m looking for help on how some people fille out the chart on the Creepy Critters. In teaching this, and on the example in the instructions, we go from broad the specific and one drops off each time. I’d like to see how some teachers or your students decided to classify the Aliens.
Hello! Your website has been so helpful! Thank you so much for sharing all of your wonderful ideas!!
I would really like to try your alien classification lesson with my class. I think they would absolutely love it! Do you have a pdf file of the alien cards that you used? I found the worksheet and ppt, but not the alien cards. Thanks again for being so willing to share your fantastic science curriculum!!
Hey Lisa
I wanted to let you know that I am the original author of footprints document. I am an instructional designer now but am taking a part time job being an online Middle school science community manager for Teach For America. I have been looking back over my resources and found this
http://www.middleschoolscience.com/footprints-isn.pdf
Hi Ebony…thanks for letting me know, I will update the document with you as the original author, thanks so much for sharing!! Liz
Liz,
I have used your website a lot this year. I have been a special ed. teacher for 20 years (all elementary), but moved up this year to 7th and 8th grade science in a self-contained situation. Your organizational strategies and fantastic lessons have been my savior this year. Thank you so much for sharing! You have made me a better teacher.
Thanks Bonnie, so happy to hear that you were able to use the lessons in your classroom!
Liz,
I was wondering how you structure your class in terms of time devoted to explaining topics (with a question), notes (lecture/power point), labs. You have a lot of great activities, do you try to do a lab/activity a day?
Thanks and hope you are having a wonderful summer!
Bobby
Hi Bobby, I don’t have a set format that I follow for each class day, each day is different depending on what I want to accomplish and how I want to present the material. I usually start my classes by stamping and going over hw if they have any, then I may introduce a new topic or continue an activity that we started the day before. At the end of class, I dismiss by lab group or lab partners to make sure that everything is organized and ready for the next class coming in. One activity flows into another and one day may be more lab orientated, another day small group activites, demonstrations, rotating stations, another day may be notes and video clips, another day may be independant work, it all depends on what I want the kids to learn and what I think is the best way to present that specific material. Even though each day is different, the kids always know what is going on and what is expected. I hope that helps, enjoy the summer!!
Liz,
I’ve had a link on my website(www.thesciencedesk.com) to yours for a number of years. As of June 24th, I joined the ranks of retired science teachers after 36 years of teaching. I’ll only be keeping my website up and running for a few more weeks, so you’ll need to remove my link then to avoid confusion.
Good luck as you continue teaching science and making it interesting and fun for your students.
-Kevin Roberts
Kevin,
Congratulations on 36 years!! I hope you enjoy your well deserved retirement!! Thanks for sharing your website all these years, I am sure it helped many people. I will remove the link soon.
Best of luck!
Liz
What kind of notebook do the students’ use? Do they purchase them or did you?
Dutch Rosenbaum
The school provides a spiral notebook with a firm cardboard front and back, and they kept them in a binder to prevent wear and tear. A 1 inch binder worked well. This year I am only using binders to save time, paper, and glue.
Liz, I am looking for a science teacher for my homeschooled child in central NJ. This is a part time position. Please contact me if you or anyone you know is interested. Thank you, Mrs. A July 2011
I hope you find someone, unfortuanately I don’t know anyone for the position.
As a new teacher, I just wanted to let you know that you are a savior to us all. The stuff that you post is very helpful – I use it all the time, especially if I”m in a bind and don’t have a fun way to deliver the content in my classes. Thanks!
Thanks so much for your kind note, glad to help!! Have a wonderful school year!!
Liz,
School starts tomorrow and I am SO excited to be teaching 8th grade Science…AFTER seeing your blog and website. I was nervous beforehand and your site is going to be so helpful to me this year! Thank you so much for having this! I was wondering if you have any “Lab Safety Rules” documents? I would like to go over my expectations for Lab Work the first week of school, but am not sure what all to include? Let me know your thoughts! Thank you so much again! Being able to share your lessons with the world is such a gift!
Hi Staci…I was away on vacation, sorry I didn’t write sooner, happy to help and please use whatever you need in your classroom…I do have a safety rules sheet that I use: http://middleschoolscience.com/notebook-2010-2011.htm pg. 4…Best of luck this year!
First Off, love all that you are doing with note-booking and science! what do you use to create your handouts/lessons/foldables for your notebooks? I would love to try to make my own that follow your themes (size, foldables, etc…)
Thanks! I use Microsoft Publisher, which is similar to Word but give you more control over where you place everything on the page.
Thank you for sharing your wonderful lessons! I was wondering if you were going to make you mini packets available online?
Yes, as soon as I get them together, I will post them on the notebook pages.
Even though I do not teach science, (High school Health) I absolutely love your site. I have been interested in trying to do interactive notebooks in my classes for a long time, but can never figure out the best way to make it work. I have some questions about set up and organization, and would love to be able to email to get some advice from you. Thanks for all that you share, you have amazing ideas!
I actually gave up using an interactive notebook, between the paper, the glue, and all the maintance, I went back to using a binder and numbering all the pages for them. Write ups are either typed or handwritten and placed into the notebook with a page number as well. This year has been going really well, there are a few kids that struggle with keeping their notebooks in page order, but overall I am really happy with it. We also have so much more time in class and we can really have more in depth conversations about the topics we are covering because they are not focusing on getting their notebooks just right.
Liz,
Thank you for this website. Is there a way to continue using BrainPop.com? I love the movie clips as do my students. Thanks again. (sorry if you are receiving multiple messages, as we are experiencing difficulties with our school computers)
Sherry
6th Grade Science Teacher, Ohio
My school has a subscription to BrainPOP so that the students can view movies in class as well as at home for reinforcement. The kids really like it, and sometimes I will show a movie as an intro to a topic, or as a review of what we have talked about in class. They also like the quizzes.
Thanks!! I will update the link!