middle school science

With the end of the school year approaching, educators are not only developing their semester exams, they are preparing for the upcoming school year as well. Although each individual educator has their own approach to improving their curriculum, many will be spending their summer aligning their curriculum to the Next Generation Science Standards.

Previously I wrote about taking part in a district-wide high school blended learning pilot. You can read about it here. I received my Chromebook cart near the end of February/beginning of March. A little late but just in time for the periodicity unit I was planning as a blended unit. The following is a breakdown of how I designed the unit.

Upon sharing my array of apps with some future chemistry teachers, they asked why so many Periodic Tables?  My response was “Well not all periodic tables are the same”, upon which was followed by several blank stares… Let me explain:  I currently have the following periodic table apps loaded on my iPad:

This year in the midwest United States, winter has been a fickle friend.

At the beginning of this school year, I decided my focus would be to not try a bunch of new approaches and techniques.

Late last school year at a staff meeting, teachers were informed that we were going to be coached and encouraged to introduce more vocabulary instruc