Here are a few templates teachers have found useful when helping students write conclusions.
Here are a few templates teachers have found useful when helping students write conclusions.
The Aki Kurose science department created this set of rubrics to help students understand how to behave during lab. There are three documents:
There are 7 categories, with a total of 27 criteria. The rubrics use “meeting standard” and “below standard” language to convey the fact that these expectations are not arbitrary, as well as familiarize students with more WASL-like language.
Feel free to use or adapt this rubric for your classroom.
The following were submitted by Steve from the Middle School Science group.
A great deal of work has been done to identify the enduring understandings in the Middle School Science Systemic Change Partnership’s adopted science modules. These enduring understandings may be found in this Word document or as a PDF.
I use this rubric to grade my science notebooks. I type in all of the assignments and possible points, then print them out 9 to a page. I make a few copies, cut them apart, and staple a rubric in each notebook so I don’t have to write out what the points are for and which assignments are missing.
To print multiple copies to a page, I look for an option called “Pages per sheet” in the printer properties window, which may be under the tab “finishing” depending on your printer. I print this rubric 9 to a page; you may want to try six or four to a page depending on how hard you find it to read small text.
I type everything once on the first page, then in Publisher, select “insert pages” and insert 8 pages, choosing the “duplicate all objects on page 1″ option.
This site has some truly amazing science articles, in kid-friendly language, on tons of topics and with terrific diagrams. A must-see resource for middle school science teachers.
This Australian site has great activities for math/science teachers. Lots of classic brain-twisters like how to walk through a hole in a gum wrapper, the Moebius strip, magic numbers, and more. Great for getting kids hooked on scientific inquiry without much heavy content to overwhelm them when you’re trying to teach process skills.
Questioning Strategies for Science Conceptual Understanding (also PDF) - includes memory, convergent, divergent, and evaluative questions and questioning strategies useful in science classes.
These Science Notebook Tips (also in PDF) include prompts for student entries, practical teacher tips, and ways science notebooks benefit student learning.
Placeholder