Tuesday Tech – How can Teachers can use Google Forms

Keeping records is an integral part of being a teacher. I’m often asked “Did Janine come for extra help?” or “What contact have you had with Joe’s parents?” In the olden days, I kept notebooks and binders with long records of emails, phone calls, conferences, and so on with every parent. Students who came for extra help had to sign in to a binder with the date and content they wanted to review. This served as my resource to sift through whenever I was asked to confirm extra help or parent contact. Google forms is a simple, flexible, and readily available tool for teachers to keep track of all sorts of stuff. Now I use Google Forms to k using google forms for teacers eep track of these things. Here’s how:

Create a Google Form that includes options you want to record. For example, on the form I use for extra help, I include date, time, and content reviewed. On the form for parent contact, I include type of contact and what we discussed.
Bookmark the Google forms so you can access them whenever needed.
Click on the bookmark and enter the info whenever you have extra help or parent contact.
When you’re asked to document your contact, use the built in Google Sheet to search for the relevant student and recall all of your information.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Click these images for your own Google Forms for teachers – make a copy and add/delete anything you want!

Genetics Unit Plans

A genetics unit spans Mendel to Watson and Crick and, in middle school, the focus is on variations. Students learn what causes variations and how they are passed on to offspring.

Here are 10 resources to implement in your genetics unit plans:

Genetics Interactive Notes -Genetics Interactive slides including Mendel, simple dominance, incomplete dominance, and codominance with Punnett Squares. While teaching virtually, interactive notes allow students to pay attention without struggling to keep up with copying notes yet they still have the interactive notes to use later as a study tool.
Alien Genetics (also available as a Jack O’Lantern or as a Snowman)Use these drag and drop Interactive Google Slides to create an alien using the inheritance rules of 9 phenotypes of aliens – face shape, color, number of eyes, number of arms, and so on.
Human Heredity hands on activity Observe phenotypes of 5 human inherited traits in your classmates and predict which genotypes they can have in this hands on activity.
Punnett Squares magic reveal puzzle If your students know the definitions associated with Punnett Squares, they will be rewarded with a magic picture of a palm tree.
Punnett Squares worksheets -15 pages of Punnett Square practice problems including simple dominance, incomplete dominance and codominance. Assign each section separately or all at once for a unit review – hours of practice. Use as a Google Doc or print.
Punnett Squares Interactive Practice Problems –50 Interactive slides that allow students to drag and drop correct answers to demonstrate their understanding of genotype, phenotype, dominant and recessive traits, homozygous, heterozygous, and monohybrid crosses.
Punnett Squares Boom Cards –This 50 card Boom deck can be used to learn, review, and practice Punnett Squares and the application of vocabulary words such as heterozygous, homozygous, dominant, recessive, phenotype, and genotype.
DNA Interactive notes – DNA Interactive slides including structure of DNA, DNA replication, and protein synthesis for middle school.
DNA test kits enrichment activity –This resource addresses the NGSS standards of critical thinking and communication skills including scientific literacy which apply to all of the benchmarks. This activity contains a 2 page document about DNA test kits, and a 2 page worksheet including analysis questions applying what you’ve learned.
DNA Boom cards –This 23 card Boom deck can be used to learn the facts about DNA and mRNA as well as Watson, Crick, Wilkins, Franklin, and Chargaff.

Download a free Google Forms assessment

Assess your students’ understanding of this unit with this free Google Forms assessment. It includes 50 multiple choice questions and is completely editable. Click here to make a copy.

free genetics assessment

Standards Based

This unit addresses the Next Generation Science Standards of MS-LS3 Heredity: Inheritance and Variation of Traits.

History of Remote Learning

There isn’t a school is the world that hasn’t been affected by the pandemic. Many have had to close for at least some time, and some schools haven’t reopened even now, more than a year into it. Most teachers I know are working in some weird hybrid situation – some students in person and some at home. It feels surreal – surely we’re the first people to have to endure this sort of transition, right? Wrong. Remote learning is not new to this generation. In fact, remote learning in the past wasn’t as different from today as you might imagine. The history of remote learning might even hold some lessons for us today.

Correspondence Courses

In 1728, the Boston Gazette ran an advertisement for the first known correspondence course. Learning remotely was implemented via the postal service in the 1840s, Sir Isaac Pitman ran correspondence courses teaching short hand. In 1858, the University of London was the first university to provide a distance learning program. The number of people who could benefit from education expanded dramatically. In 1906, the University of Wisconsin began recording lectures on phonographs and sending them to students.

1918-1919 Influenza Outbreak

One-third of the world’s population was infected with influenza between 1918 and 1919 and 50 million people died. Most schools closed completely. Chicago, New York and New Haven never closed schools, believing that students were safer and better off at school. Those cities were among the hardest hit by the virus and students weren’t allowed to gather outside of school. Students were checked for symptoms every day and isolated if they had any signs of the flu. Many parents were afraid that their children would be infected at school and kept their children home. Schools were overheated during the day and windows were left open to allow for airflow. In hindsight, researchers show that cities who closed schools and enforced quarantines and isolation had fewer cases of influenza, however.**

1937 Polio Outbreak

In 1937, there was a polio outbreak in Chicago which delayed the opening of school for three weeks. Teachers used radio to broadcast their lessons and children had to listen to the radio to complete their lessons.

1995 Internet Learning Begins

The first class offered via the internet was an art course offered in 1995 by Penn State University. By 1999, the term “elearning” was coined.

2020-2021 Coronavirus Pandemic

94% of the world’s schools incorporated some type of remote learning during the COVID19 pandemic.* Some schools closed completely, while many continued to offer classes via the internet, boosting Zoom and Google Meets platforms to the common vernacular. Distance learning and hybrid classrooms became the norm in the United States while 75% of the world relied on television and 50% relied on radio learning.* There is no definitive “best practices” to depend on, and school teachers worldwide struggled through trial and error to find the best ways to help their students. The history of remote learning provides scant evidence of what works to engage and educate children. One could make the argument that educational and political leaders failed to carve clear pathways or even establish guidelines.

What have we learned?

Not being in school is detrimental to the social and emotional health of students, and probably teachers as well. Schools exist not only to provide an education but also to provide an opportunity for human interaction and the provision of support services. At a time when schools can’t do those things, the support structure of the individual child is left responsible for the child’s well being. And, unfortunately, that isn’t enough sometimes. But at its core purpose, the history of remote learning shows us that education can continue in a myriad of delivery systems and students can learn. What we’ve come to think of as the “traditional school” might not be the only way for children to learn, and, through the trial and error of the past 12 months, maybe we’ve learned how to improve on an imperfect system. When things return to “normal,” if that’s even a thing any more, will they return to better?

*Source: https://theconversation.com/remote-learning-isnt-new-radio-instruction-in-the-1937-polio-epidemic-143797

**Source: https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/19/us/schools-flu-pandemic-1918-trnd/index.html

Photo of child doing school work with computer – Photo by August de Richelieu from Pexels

Photo of computer – Photo by Andrew Neel from Pexels

Density Activities for Middle School Science Students

Middle school students need to understand density and also need to be able to use the formulas to calculate density, mass, and volume. Here are some activities to help build depth to your density unit.

Start with a phenomenon. An easy one is a latex balloon filled with helium and another balloon filled with air. Most students know that helium floats, but do they know why? Even something as simple as cereal that floats in milk (Cheerios) versus cereal that sinks (granola) can spark curiosity. You can try the diet soda versus regular soda experiment also (diet soda floats).
Let students explore. Whether you’re remote or face to face, students can pour different liquids together to see how they stack up. There isn’t a student alive who doesn’t love the density column experiment. You find 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 liquids of different densities and pour them into a graduated cylinder, one at a time, densest liquid first. If you’re smart, you’ll be sure the liquids have different colors to make the effect more dramatic. Great success with all or some of these: pancake syrup (density = 1.37 g/mL), antifreeze (1.11 g/mL), salt water (density =1.03 g/mL), canola oil (density = 0.92 g/mL) and isopropyl alcohol (density = 0.79 g/mL).
You’re going to have to teach students how to use D=M/V to calculate density, mass and volume. When I’m teaching remotely, I don’t have a white board to write on so I use interactive notebooks. Here’s what the interactive notebook for my density unit looks like.

4. A more formal lab that you could do with students if you were face to face is to have them determine how the density of ocean water is related to salinity and temperature. This is an important component of understanding global circulation and climate change and is a great way to give students some experience with bigger pictures. Have students measure mass and volume of water as it is heated and then calculate density. Even with classroom lab materials, it is possible to see a change in density between ice water and heated water. Then have students measure mass and volume of tap water and salt water, then calculate density. It’s easy to see that saltier water is more dense.

5. Practice, practice, practice. Students need practice calculating density, mass and volume. I give my students a fast pin link to Boom cards so they can practice whenever they want. I also have used a magic pixel self checking digital worksheet – when students get the answer correct, part of the picture is revealed.

6. Challenge. My students love escape rooms and breakouts. Working hybrid or remotely has limited our ability to do this so I’m working on creating digital escape activities for them. If you haven’t tried a digital escape activity in your class yet, here is a link to a free full length escape activity about weather.

What is your favorite density classroom activity?

Weird Mating Rituals

Natural selection is amazing. It lets favorable traits appear in the next generation and removes unfavorable traits. Some animals have developed weird mating rituals that helps them find the best partner. Here are two animals that build and decorate elaborate structures to attract a mate.

‘The bowerbird

The bowerbird is an Australian bird. To attract females, the male bowerbirds build very elaborate structures called bowers. A bower is a thatched building, sometimes as much as 3-4 feet tall, built from twigs and sticks. To make the bower attractive to the female, the male bird collects stones, bones, and shells to decorate his bower. The bowerbird will even decorate his bower with bottle caps and other man made objects he might find. Male bowerbirds take days to build the bowers, rearranging the decorations until they are satisfied with the appearance.

When a female bowerbird finds the bower attractive, she will step inside. The male hides and tosses objects at her for a few minutes. If she stays, they will mate. But, if she tires of the object he is throwing, she will fly away and he’s left to wait for another female to find his bower attractive.

Pufferfish

Pufferfish are those cool fish that can inflate into a ball to food predators. When male pufferfish are ready to mate, they flap their fins along the seafloor to disrupt the sediment. As they are doing this, the disrupted sediment creates ornate circular patterns as much as 7 feet in diameter. Some pufferfish decorate their circles with shell fragments and sediments with different colors that they have brought from far away. Creation can take as much as 7-9 days. Female pufferfish inspect the circles and, if they are impressed, they lay their eggs inside the circle. The male then fertilizes the eggs and guard them for a few days until they hatch.

Weird Mating Rituals is one of 5 articles in the Science of Valentines Day Jigsaw activity your students will love!

Groundhog Day

Why Groundhogs?

Groundhog Day is February 2. Every year, a groundhog named Phil is pulled out of his hole in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. His official name is Punxsutawney Phil, Seer of Seers, Sage of Sages, Prognosticator of Prognosticators and Weather Prophet Extraordinary.

If he sees his shadow, legend says, we’ll have six more weeks of winter. If he doesn’t see his shadow, winter is over, according to the legend.

The tradition of using a rodent as the mascot for Groundhog day is German. On Candlemas Day, the Germans would look at the badger to see if it saw its shadow. If he saw his shadow, it meant that a second winter was coming. When the tradition came to the United States in 1887, the groundhog was chosen because there weren’t any badgers in North America.

Groundhogs are also known as woodchucks. They hibernate every winter. They emerge from hibernation when winter is almost over which explains why they were linked to predicting the weather.

Punxsutawney Phil

The most famous weather-predicting groundhog is Phil who lives in Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.

But there are other groundhog forecasters. In Tennessee, there is a groundhog named Chattanooga Chuck who has been making weather predictions since 2010. French Creek Freddie lives in West Virginia and has been making predictions since 1980. Buckeye Chuck in Mario, Ohio, has been the weatherman since 1979. Essex Ed in Essex County, New Jersey, has been making his predictions since 1997. Essex Ed also predicts the Super Bowl winner each year. Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, is where Jimmy the Groundhog has been making predictions since 1970. There are also groundhog weather forecasters in Canada including Wiarton Willie who lives northwest of Toronto and has been making forecasts since 1956.

Compare the weather on Groundhog day to the Groundhog’s predictions.

How do you give notes?

Teaching with the NGSS means that much of the content is explored rather than lectured, but there are times when you have to present vocabulary, concepts, or history in a lecture style. I tend to do this for less than 5-10 minutes at a time, but nonetheless, there are times when I “give notes” like teachers did 30 years ago. How do you give notes? More specifically, how do you give notes now that you have a variety of face to face, hybrid, and virtual students on any given day?

The 2 main ways that I give notes are:

Standard slide show and cloze notes. This has the benefit of being familiar to students. In person students can complete the cloze notes on paper and digital students can complete the cloze notes on a Google doc.
Interactive Notes. When I use interactive notes, students pay attention to my discussion, often led with a SlideShow, but then they drag and drop the correct answers into boxes on their own version of the SlideShow. This has the benefit of requiring that students have to write less and therefore (we hope) pay attention a little bit more.

Currently, in my TpT store, I have interactive notes available for the following topics:

Characteristics of Life
Cells
Diffusion and osmosis
Rocks and minerals
Weathering and Erosion
Relative Dating
Absolute Dating
Geologic Time Scale
Plate tectonics
Density
Asteroids, Meteoroids, and Comets
And this season’s best seller – The science of the seasons

So, how do you give notes?

Educators have a seat at the table

The First Lady has some words of encouragement for all of us.

We’re a bruised bunch of educators now. Ten months of criticism from the public – we’re not doing enough, why aren’t we doing this or that – and I’m exhausted from it. I avoid social media because parents hate teachers now, apparently because we want to be safe when we are at work. If you’re feeling bruised, I hope Dr. Biden’s words give you the boost that they gave me.

We’re in this together.

Create your own Digital Escape Activity

Using games, and especially escape activities in the classroom is a great way to boost engagement which, in turn, boosts comprehension and retention. Create your own Digital Escape Activity for your middle school science classroom using this free template!

Have you tried my free Weather Vocabulary Escape Activity yet?

A simple way to make a digital breakout is to use Google Sites. On Google Sites, you can add text to explain the problem, add images that link to puzzles, and add a Google Form onto which students must enter a password that they’ve learned from the clues. Then, to share the escape activity with your middle school students, just Publish the Google Site and share the URL with your students.

Are you ready to create your own Digital Escape Activity for your middle school science classroom? Here is a template you can use to create your own escape activity for your own classroom.

Tips for success:

If students need a clue, tell them to click the different parts of the image and read each of the links.
Allow students to struggle a little before you give them a clue. If you help them too quickly, they’ll learn that they need you to be successful.
Don’t allow students to struggle for too long before you give them a clue. If you don’t help them quickly enough, they’ll learn that they can’t be successful and that effort is futile.
How soon is too soon? How late is too late? Watch for signs of frustration or distraction such as fidgeting or acting out.
Have your students work in small groups – 2 or 3 if they’re advanced or older, 3-4 if they’re younger or need accommodations. If you’re doing this escape room remotely, the best way to do this is through Zoom or a similar virtual meeting application using breakout rooms which allow students to work in small groups without disturbing each other.

Why you should try an escape activity in your classroom

Producing college and career ready students who can think creatively, analyze critically, and make decisions based on data requires intellectual curiosity, a growth mindset, grit, and outside-the-box thinking. Game based learning, including the spectrum of activities such as Quizziz.com, Kahoot.it, collaborative games, scenarios like Breakouts, and video games encourages students who are comfortable making mistakes and taking risks so that they can build the intellectual curiosity necessary to be independent thinkers and contributing members of society.

The research on Breakouts and escape activities is overwhelming. Using Breakout or escape rooms in the classroom, students are “immediately curious” and they use problem-solving skills as they “made mistakes, backtracked, and tried again, moving from one clue to the next” (Goerner, 2016). Breakout activities make learning “more problem-based, more social, more interactive and more physical” (Toppo, 2016). When students must work in cooperative groups, “even the initially reluctant students gained confidence and began taking active roles in the quest for solutions” (Goerner, 2016). Activities that are appropriately challenging without being too difficult are more engaging for students in much the same way that playing slot machines is engaging – you’re never quite sure if this time is going to get you the prize (McBride & Derevensky, 2016). “Breakout creates a real sense of excitement with the students and staff. They have to collaborate as a team to solve problems, use logic and communication skills and they need to have fun to solve the breakout games” (Dutton, 2016).

References

Dutton, L. (2016). Breakout Edu: http://www.breakoutedu.com. School Librarian, (2). 83.

Goerner, P. (2016). SLJ reviews breakout EDU: puzzle-based challenges are the name of the game in these versatile kits. School Library Journal, (10). 10.

McBride, J., & Derevensky, J. (2016). Gambling and Video Game Playing Among Youth. Journal Of Gambling Issues, (34), 156-178. doi:10.4309/jgi.2016.34.9

Toppo, G. (2016). ‘Breakout EDU’ looks to invigorate education. USA Today.July 6, 2016