Want a lab that will be the highlight of your students’ school year? Then you need to download this lab. Students are mesmerized by the reaction that takes place and they will ask you to repeat the lab over and over again. This lab activity can be used in the middle and high school classrooms.
At the high school level, this lab activity teaches students about endothermic/exothermic reactions, as well as, identifying if a decomposition, synthesis, double replacement, etc. reaction took place.
This lab comes with:
a procedure
observational and thinking questions
a teacher’s key
a pdf and word version
NGSS Chemistry Alignment
NGSS.HS-PS3-4
NGSS.HS-PS3-2
NGSS.HS-PS1-4
NGSS.HS-PS1-5
Introduce students to equilibrium with this cool lava lamp lab! The students absolutely enjoy making lava lamps and love trying to figure out how equilibrium relates to this cool experiment! They will ask you to repeat this experiment again and again and again!
When you download this file . . .
you receive it in pdf and word form
you receive an answer key
you get picture examples of students completing the lab so that you can have a clearer idea of how to carry out this lab activity with your own students
This lab aligns with NGSS Chemistry.
NGSS.HS-PS1-6
Evolution is a biological topic that many students find to be incredibly boring. This project helps to solve this issue by allowing students to show how our current actions will affect the way our species will look and act in the year 3000. The project helps to bust any misconceptions about evolution being a concept of the past.
Students get to choose from several interesting topics:
video games (teenagers today spend most of their waking hours playing video games)
TV (teens can spend days binge watching their favorite shows)
the internet or usage of phone apps (teenagers practically live on the internet and have their phones attached to them all the time!)
fast/processed food (due to how busy our lives have become a large portion of our population relies on fast/processed food).
. . . and they also get to choose how they want to present their information:
an essay
a video presentation
an illustration
a song
When you download this free file you receive a do now that probes students’ background knowledge and thoughts on evolution, detailed explanation of evolution project, rubric for project, and sample student project examples.
NGSS Biology Alignment
NGSS.HS-LS4-3
NGSS.HS-LS4-4
NGSS.HS-LS4-5
Students put their artistic and creative skills to use when they develop a children’s book on Conservation, Reducing, and Recycling and their relation to climate change.
The pdf document comes with a description of the Children’s Book Mini Project, the requirements, and several student examples of books created.
The best part about this project is its alignment to NGSS. It could be used in a high school chemistry class during the climate change unit or could it could be used as an Earth Day project. The possibilities are endless!
This bundle is here just in time for Thanksgiving! It includes an engage “anchoring phenomena” activity with a sample key. This anchoring phenomena involves a video of a turkey making gobbling sounds and questions that have students thinking carefully about the turkey’s behavior. The students also come up with their own questions that they have about turkeys after watching the video and they explore in detail one of the questions.
The explore activity in this bundle is a mini poster project that allows students to take learning into their own hands by exploring a question that interests them regarding turkeys. The goal of the mini poster project is to answer the question they developed in an informational and easy to understand manner.
Use this PowerPoint to introduce yourself to the students on the first day of class! The slides give you an idea of what students should know about you, about the class, and your expectations for them academically and behaviorally. The slides encourage you to include pictures that relate to your life, that relate to former students, that showcase upcoming activities they will do in your classroom, and that relate to your teaching philosophy and vision for the classroom. Feel free to tweak the slides and background color to better suit you.
On the first day of school, you want to get to know your students better by having them in engage in this brief activity. Begin by telling students to find someone in the classroom to interview. Once all of the students are finished interviewing one another, have them share their responses with the class. This is a great icebreaker activity that I have used with my students in three various schools.
On the first day of school, you want to get to know your students better by having them in engage in this brief activity. Begin by telling students to find someone in the classroom to interview. Once all of the students are finished interviewing one another, have them share their responses with the class. This is a great icebreaker activity that I have used with my students in three various schools.
This “anchoring phenomena” activity is meant to grab the students’ attention, develop interest in decomposition, and probe their background knowledge. The students begin by watching a time-lapse video of pumpkins rotting while answering questions that spark their curiosity of decomposition.
This document allows students to design and investigate a factor (light, air, water, etc.) that accelerates the decomposition rate of pumpkins. Students collect data for 30 days, and present the results at the end to their class in the form of a presentation and final lab report.
Note: It is strongly recommended that you download the Anchoring Phenomena - Decomposition video and questions and it is recommended you also download the Decomposition Modeling Activity before moving onto this lab activity. Doing so, will give your students the necessary background and foundation needed to succeed in designing and implementing this lab activity.
Students model in groups of 3-4 on large poster paper the decomposition process of a pumpkin. Download to see the requirements and details of this modeling activity. Note: It is strongly recommended that you download the anchoring phenomena video and questions on decomposition before moving onto this modeling activity.
This worksheet is part of a unit plan on decomposition (see below note). Students research various methods used to preserve food. They then choose the method they find the most interesting and elaborate on how the method works. They also include an illustration of the method.
Note: It is recommended that you complete with your students the anchoring phenomena activity, modeling activity, and the lab before moving onto this “Elaborate” activity.
This is the rubric for the Rotting Pumpkin Lab Presentation. You will need to download and have students complete the NGSS - Designing and Investigating Factors Affecting Decomposition Rate lab first before using this rubric. After students design and complete the investigation, they are to present their findings to the class in the form of Google Slides or PowerPoint presentation.
Just in time for Thanksgiving, this anchoring phenomena with a sample key involves a video of a turkey making gobbling sounds and questions that have students thinking carefully about the turkey’s behavior. The students also come up with their own questions that they have about turkeys after watching the video and they explore in detail one of the questions.
This leads us to the Turkey Informational Poster Mini Project found on my TES store. Be sure to check it out as both the turkey anchoring phenomena and informational poster go hand-in-hand together.
This lesson plan is complete with NGSS standards, an anchoring phenomena, a purpose, learning objectives. It is written using the 5E’s (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate). The lesson plan is very detailed and you will find the necessary worksheets and other instructional materials needed for this lesson on my online store (see below).
Instructional Materials Needed for Lesson:
Anchoring Phenomena - Decomposition Sheet
NGSS Decomposition Modeling Activity
NGSS - Designing and Investigating Factors Affecting Decomposition Rate
Rotting Pumpkin Lab Presentation Rubric
Food Preservation Methods Worksheet
This NGSS Decomposition Unit Plan is here just in time for Halloween and is complete with
an anchoring phenomena activity
a modeling activity
a lab experiment that students self-design and carry out
a brief research activity
two forms of assessments (formal lab report and presentation with rubric).
detailed lesson plan (coming soon!)
At the end of this unit, students will have learned and explored the decomposition process a pumpkin goes through. They will have also researched different methods used to preserve food.
Just in time for Thanksgiving, this mini poster activity allows students to take learning into their own hands by exploring a question that interests them regarding turkeys. The goal of the mini poster project is to answer the question they developed in an informational and easy to understand manner.
Attention- This poster project goes hand-in-hand with the Turkey Anchoring Phenomena activity found on my TES store. Complete the anchoring phenomena activity first before moving onto this poster project.
Finally a collection of activities and lessons that will interest students and get them excited about chemistry! This lesson is formatted using the 5E’s.
Students begin with an anchoring phenomena that involves watching a time-lapse video of cookies getting baked.
They then model the stages a cookie goes through when it’s getting baked.
Next, students watch a video that explains the science behind baking cookies and they answer questions on the video.
Afterwards, they look at two cookie recipes and apply what they learned about baking cookies.
Finally, students answer two exit-slip questions that tie together what they learned.
Wow! All of these activities and questions in one document which is available in pdf and word form. There’s more. You also get a key which is available in pdf and word form. Your students will thank you for choosing an exciting topic to teach them about food chemistry!
This exit-slip is a quick way to assess how well the students understand the lesson. It could be used in any subject with any topic in any grade level.
The exit-slip has students explain which topics they understand really well, which topics they somewhat understand, and which topics they are completely lost on. They also outline what steps they will take to ensure they are very comfortable with all of the topics covered in the lesson.
Your students will love this assignment! They get to listen to different genres of their choosing and see how their heart rate changes in the process to learn more about homeostasis.