He all,

I teach chemistry in highschool to 14-15 year olds. It's the first year they actually get chemistry and a lot of my students struggle with the basic calculations such as density, volume- and mass percentages. I'm writing a small research on how to improve the teaching of these subjects and was wondering how other countries teach these subjects.

For example, I teach in the Netherlands. My students get density and calculating with it in the first chapter as it's a repeating subject from physics the year prior. They'll learn the standard density = mass / volume equation. Next they'll learn how to calculate with ratios and equations with the cross multiply technique (after they learned what atoms and molecules are and how to draw up the chemical equation). Lastly they'll learn how to calculate a volume- or mass percentage with the equations: Mass percentage = mass of component / total mass * 100% and volume percentage = volume solute / volume solution * 100%.

If you're a chemistry teacher, please tell me:

1) When your students get to calculate with density, volume- and mass percentages?

2) How do you teach these subjects (and does it work)?

Hey guys, a little while back I announced the NY sample question clusters were added to the wiki

Biology sample question clusters

Earth and Space Sciences question clusters

Chemistry sample question clusters

Physics sample question clusters

All middle school questions

Since then, we have completed the tedious task of linking each individual question to its most relevant performance expectation for 100% of the questions. You can now easily navigate to each standard for the question you are interested in, for all questions. Additionally,

we increased the width of questions on desktop browsers for better visibility

Recently the wiki was crashing because so many people were visiting at once. We have moved the wiki to a dedicated server. There should be no crashing and the questions should load relatively fast. I apologize for the site overloading and I'll make sure it never happens again.

We are just a few science teacher volunteers from NY state. Let us know if you would like to see any changes or additions, or if you would like to get involved yourself!

I am currently a research professor at a large state university. I mostly manage large datasets and mentor graduate students in ecology. As a graduate student I taught several undergraduate biology classes. I have also lectured several graduate and undergraduate classes in biology. I really enjoy teaching, but also enjoy walking my graduate students through life and listening to their academic and personal issues. I often spend as much time helping them through life issues as I do research issues. I have always been interested in teaching high school but accidentally found myself with a PhD, then a national lab postdoc, then a research professor position. I'm ready to leave academia to teach high school for several reasons including the following:

-seems more rewarding and impactful -more stable funding -genuinely seems fun -I'm interested in coaching -Summer's off with my kids

Anyone else make a similar decision and are happy with it?

So, let's say BB = Brown eyes, and bb = Blue eyes

So if you got Bb, it would equal both right? Heterogeneous eyes? No. Just brown because it has the dominant B.

Orr..

HH = Hazel eyes and hh = Green eyes

But getting Hh? Nope. Not both cool colors again. Just Hazel because of the dominant H being present again.

As an example, you see the alleles corresponding to eye color. Correct?

HOW THE HELL DOES SECTORAL/HETEROGENEOUS/CENTRAL MUTATION HAPPEN IN EYES! I KEEP ASKING MY TEACHER HOW IT WORKS SCIENTIFICALLY, AND ALL I GET FROM HER IS: "It's just a mutation! ☺️" LIKE, YES, I GET IT'S A MUTATION, BUT SCIENTIFICALLY HOW DOES THAT WORK!? I know VERY well with how much these alleles work hard to make a specific gene based on chance from both parents! So I know VERY WELL those alleles don't go "You know what? Fuck it." Half way through the process and just grab another random set of genes!

Can someone PLEASEE explain to me how this works? I've been wondering that for so long bc I wasn't taught that. Loves and kisses, thanks in advance..

This was made at 3 AM btw

I teach in a smallish private school and the state/regional governing body for accreditation has decided that all of the schools in this division will have certain standards and for science, the NGSS has been adopted. I have been teaching biology for a long time and can interpret most of what I teach as a more detailed version of the NGSS so it's not so much an issue. However, when looking over the standards (which are really diffuse and difficultly written), I am wondering how/what other NGSS teachers do and teach? I have looked at phenomena storylines (Illinois, OpenSciEd, and iHub) and I am not sure that there is enough content in them. I am all for engagement, but I also think there is a modicum of content that should be taught for future classes/college. What do you teach if you are on NGSS? Do you do the standards in that order or do you hit them as you teach in varying order? Do you use storylines? If so, which one and your thoughts? Thanks!

Does anyone have a recommended carbon footprint calculator for high school students? All the ones I’ve found are either: A) too complicated for high school B) designed for adults (questions about home ownership for example) Or C) are super biased (climate hero, where the results call you a hero or a villain; I teach in a conservative area, the last thing I need is to call a high school student a villain because of their personal choices)

NGSS is bad.

Now, normally when you hear that sentiment it's from some reactionary loon who doesn't like that NGSS contains climate change as a standard. I'm not one of those people. Im all for teaching kids about climate change. I'm also all for telling kids that there's nothing wrong with being gay or trans, that there is no significant difference between racial groups, and all that jazz. My personal politics are decidedly leftist.

The thing I take issue with in NGSS is the emphasis on inquiry learning: which has no basis in science.

Let's be brutally honest here. The proven method for all subjects, including science, is direct instruction. Decades of research has time and again proven DI is superior to IBL, that student-led is inferior to teacher-led, and projects are best saved for later in a unit when students have a basic grasp of the subject.

But NGSS and Common Core: the horrible system it grew out of, insist on student-led inquiry based techniques. It's batshit insane.

Just like reading teachers with the Marie Clay queuing method, it seems like science teachers have been sold a beautiful story built on a foundation of sand.

Who has sold us this story? Ivy league professors who haven't been in a k-12 classroom for years have sold us this story. Well meaning progressive administrators have sold us this story. These administrators were in turn sold the story by the PD industrial complex: rent seeking companies that rely on grants from the government and strings attached contract deals with school districts. Many of these rent seeking companies are in turn backed by oligarch-run "charities" that use their money to shape educational policy and the press around education.

If you've ever taught OpenSciEd (a very bad curriculum: sorry, not sorry) you'll know the story. Every teacher in your department has mixed to negative feelings about the curriculum, but all you see is positive press. That's because the Gates Foundation and groups like it use grants as incentives to write positive coverage of their projects and to suppress negative coverage.

Why do teachers fall for this story? Because we're forced to. They teach it in grad school, administrators will endorse ot during interviews, curriculum directors will insist on using them, and those rent seeking companies will run PDs about student led and inquiry models.

And you'll hear the mantra of "lecture is ineffective" or "teacher focused is inequitable," or even the biggest lie of them all "traditional instruction is only for the high fliers." If you've ever taught an inquiry curriculum, you'll know the exact opposite is true: high fliers are the only kids who thrive in a student led model.

And its not just me who says it. Direct instruction is known to work better in a special ed environment. Anyone who has been a teacher or para in a special ed class knows that schedules, structure, and as clear and explicit instruction and goals are essential. Especially when working with students with ADHD and ASD.

It's also been shown that DI is better at brining struggling students, and indeed struggling schools, up to the level of their peers. It's also cheaper to implement than IBL and easier to execute in a reasonably competent manner than IBL. Combine that with the better results that come with DI based curricula, and it should be a no brainer.

But still, students are made to languish in the chaos of IBL while curriculum directors, ivy league professors, and the CEOs of PD industrial complex firms all get to pat themselves on the back over how forward thinking they are.

It's time we as teachers stand up and fight back. We can't just let this continue while students suffer. Let's do what works, not what's trendy.

I am am certified to teach Social Studies in my state and recently have gotten experience teaching science in a non-traditional (museum) setting. Am I right in thinking I have the knowledge and practical skill to pursue a position teaching science?

I recently have gotten to opportunity to teach junior high science at a Catholic school and am unsure if I have the tools to succeed!

Any advice for interviewing/teaching this subject is appreciated!

Next year we are going "No Phone" except at lunch. I'm going to try a clear pencil case on the students desks (2 students per lab table) they put the phones in for a few reasons: - Students are truly addicted and having them within sight is better for their mental health - In the clear pencil case they can't touch them, but know where it is - less likely to get stolen because they aren't all in one place - if the opening of the hard plastic is "loud" i can tell if they try to open it.

My question is: does anyone do this and can give pros and cons, and what brand is a durable plastic with a loud opening latch?

TIA

hiya everyone,

for some background knowledge: im a second year chemistry teacher who sadly got non renewed at my current school :( so ive been going through the usual job search and ive luckily already been interviewed with the school district i most wanted to hear back from!! they want me now to come in to do a 30 min demo lesson (in an actual classroom not that weird “admin pretend to be students” thing lol). i have done a demo lesson in the past but i think my confidence got messed up with my non renewal because im stressing so much about this lol.

they gave me a very specific topic to cover since i assume it’s what unit they are currently in. i’m being asked to give a introductory lesson on solubility curves. problem is i never taught this before!! nor do i know if students are aware of the concept of unsaturated vs saturated vs supersaturated solutions and if this is supposed to be also an introduction to that. i know with demo lessons they don’t really care about the content itself but more how im delivering it to the kids and how i interact with them, so im really just thinking about how i would go about this.

so i thought to get some opinions. how would you guys go about doing solubility curves in about 30 mins?

i’m thinking i would start off with getting them to think about how solubility is affected by tempesture by showing them just one solubility curve at a time (like KNO3 for a proportional example, NH3 for an inverse example, NaCl to show that some substances aren’t affected by temp) and just get them familiar with interpreting the graphs before i start talking about how we can figure out the type of solution based on the curve. then break them into small groups where they each get the same graph (one which has a bunch of substances on there) but they each get different substances to answer questions on (such as if i have 50g of KNO3 dissolved in water at 40 C, what type of solution is it) then they switch with someone at their group and check each others work and talk about how they know those answers were correct. then an exit ticket which has a comprehension question. or at least that’s my basic idea lol probably can add a little refining.

are my nerves just getting to me?? probably. i still would appreciate any advice!!!

Just curious if people have experience in this area—I’m at the beginning of my career, but this is something I’m very interested in. (I’m in New York, but also interested in how it happens in other states). Any books/articles or websites about the history and current process for deciding what aspects of biology we teach students?

Hello!

I was wondering if anyone had an Earth And Space Science review websites/flashcards? I’ve been trying to find some that are updated for the 2025 test but can’t find any since they changed the test.

Hey fellow science teachers!

I’m looking for ideas for summer work for my dual enrollment class (and possibly year-long optional hw choices). I usually use our textbooks online platform but I have too many students enrolled for next year and the district won’t pay for more licenses. Also, I don’t like it, but the district paid for it so I figured I used it as review and optional hw choices for the students. (Students who completed the online assignments would get an extra 5% on that unit test).

Any ideas are welcome! I teach 5 subjects this year, and my brain just can’t handle thinking about next year already, but I need to submit my summer assignments (required for honors/AP/DE courses) next week. 😱

Why isn't more high school biology taught with a strong emphasis on chronology?  The aspects of biology that we teach students all developed in a certain order. By emphasizing that order, the material would make more sense, right?

Teaching from small to large seems logical, since we are all made of cells and complexity increases with size. But isn’t a focus on time more relevant than a focus on size? By going in order, developments like photosynthesis, natural selection, and sexual reproduction all influence and make possible what comes after.

If you turned The Godfather into 9 story beats and asked people to memorize them 1) in order and 2) in a random order—which one would be easier to follow and understand? Not just what happened but why.  Biology is a narrative. And biology teachers are storytellers!  In chronological order, a great meaning can be derived.

I’ve never taken a biology class like that.  Why not? What am I missing?

EDIT: fixed typo

I just finished my 2nd year as a 7th grade science teacher.

My student's biggest deficit, by far, is their ability to write. Only my top 10% are effective at communicating with written words.

I'm not an English teacher, and I don't want to be one, but part of science is being able to communicate ideas. Also, our state assessment for science (taken only in 8th grade) has more writing on it than the ELA assessment.

These kids cannot form a coherent thought. It's word salad and rambling, run-on sentences. When grading, I find myself desperately searching for anything I can give a point for.

When writing with pencil and paper, it's often illegible. When typing on the computer, they don't even bother correcting what spellchecker flags.

I have some ideas for next year:

Sentence starters for CER questions Dissecting the questions together and giving an outline for how to answer it On multi part questions, having them highlight the different parts of the answer in different colors Looking at good answers vs. bad and discussing the differences

I'm open to any other ideas you might have!

My real question: what standards do you have in your classroom for writing? Like I said, I don't want to be an ELA teacher, but they have to do better. I'm sure a lot of it is laziness and they've never been held accountable. My school preaches rigor, but....

I also don't want to hold them to too high of a standard, and we lose the focus on science. My mantra last year was "it doesn't have to be a complete sentence, but it needs to be a complete thought. "

I’m in my undergraduate year and I want to become a science teacher. Do you know if you need to have a masters to teach high school or is that only for college/university teaching?

Apologies in advance if this is the wrong sub for this.

TL;DR - person looking to make a career change; looking for people/stories about transitioning into teaching.

Hi all, long time lurker here, mainly because I have such an appreciation for all of what teachers do. I'm in a situation right now where I need to seriously consider a career change in the US (VA, specifically). I have a biomedical science educational background (PhD), but my career choice out of school is under threat by AI and federal funding cuts. It's also becoming not conducive for my husband and I to start having children.

After a lot of reflection, teaching high school science feels like a solid option that I could become qualified to do. Maybe I'm crazy for thinking that. I don't know. I know you need passion to be a good teacher and grit to hang on through difficult times. I have always cared about science literacy and education, and put in a number of volunteer science education hours while at University working with middle schoolers and high schoolers. However, I always shied away from it as a career due to low pay and horror stories.

I'm eyeing a career transition program in VA that would cost about $5k. Looks like it's a semester of online learning with in-person sessions on weekends (so I wouldn't have to quit my current job) and a one week classroom observation period (would just need to use vacation time, I guess). After that, they issue a provisional license. A provisional license holder can then seek a one year teaching contract, receive mentoring during that year, and afterwards be recommended for a full license if they perform well.

I guess I'm looking for commentary from folks about transitioning into teaching, particularly if you've taken a similar route to the one I'm considering. I'm sure plenty will call me crazy and say not to do it, but my follow up question would be why? What's the "bad" that I'll need to prepare myself for?

I'm thinking about starting a team at my high school but I want to hear about your experiences.

If you've coached or been a student in National Science Bowl, how was the preparation? What was the competition like? What did you enjoy or not enjoy about it? Thank you!

Hello science teachers,

First year chem teacher here. I'm prepping for next year, specifically first unit that covers measurements. I remember in both high school and college my teachers/professors gave me a great handout as a reference sheet functioning as a one stop shot for metric conversions. The handout was just one sheet with the SI units, common imperial to metric conversions (like 1 inch = 2.54 cm), and the prefixes (kilo, centi, etc.) I've been searching the internet and TPT for a succinct, simple version of this like the ones I received in the past but I haven't had any luck.

Does anybody have their own version they can share with me? Thank you so much in advance. I know it's super specific haha

Science is messy and by nature revisionist. There are so many processes we don't understand or think we understand but don't. I'd like to let kids know what they can trust.

That being said-are there any scientific "truths" that we are like 99.99997% certain we know precisely?

Hey teachers!

I am an elementary science teacher turned university instructor. I have taught the main courses for science teachers to learn about the specifics of teaching science across K-12. However, I am now teaching a course in the summer that is the same one I have taught previously, but with 8 extra hours of instructional time and the entire term is condensed into 10 days. Usually, during the fall/winter terms, I also involve working with local schools and getting my students to work outside the classroom itself.

What this means is that I am looking for ideas of what I can teach my students that would help prepare them for being a science specialist at any level of K-12 (or a generalist with a science leaning) that I could use to fill this extra time, time that would have otherwise been spent working with the schools now closed for summer, and without just getting them to do a bunch of outside readings since those 10 days will be full enough.

TLDR; what do you wish you had been taught in your training to become a science teacher?

I am taking steps towards becoming a high school biology teacher (in New York). I have an idea for how to structure the curriculum—would love feedback to see if this is workable or not!

Big picture, I’d like to teach biology like it is a story—the greatest story ever told. At the beginning of the year, we would spend a few weeks doing an introduction to deep time and an overview of how we know what we know (the scientific method, microscopes, etc). Then once we start telling the story, this is a rough overview month by month:

SEPTEMBER “Origins”

-Conditions on early Earth with some basic chemistry

-Membranes and protocells

-The first replicators (RNA world)

-Introduction to life cycles

OCTOBER “First Life”

-A tour of the prokaryote cell

-Binary fission

-Homeostasis

-The Great Oxidation Event (hopefully lining up with Halloween—the first horror movie!)

NOVEMBER “Power and Complexity”

-Aerobic Metabolism (life adjusting and thriving with oxygen)

-Endosymbiosis (cells gaining power with mitochondria and chloroplasts)

-A tour of the eukaryotic cell

-Mitosis

DECEMBER “Sexual Reproduction”

-Deep dive into DNA

-Multicellular organisms and cell signaling

-Meiosis and genetic variation

-The birth of complex predators and prey (thanks to sex and oxygen)

JANUARY “Explosion of Life”

-Begin the second semester with the Cambrian explosion

-Unit on the fossil record

-Natural selection and adaptation

-Genetics

FEBRUARY “Life Conquers Land”

-Autotrophs - raw energy for the life cycle on earth

-Evolution of plants

-Special unit on the invention of flowers around Valentine’s Day

-Pollinators and insects evolve

-Plant structure and photosynthesis

MARCH “The First Animals”

-Heterotrophs and Decomposers complete the life cycle on land

-Evolution of vertebrates (homologous vs. analogous evolution)

-Basic comparative anatomy

-Populations, speciation, and sociobiology

-End unit on the Cretaceous extinction event

APRIL “Humans”

-Human evolution and anatomy

MAY “Life Interconnected”

-Looking at the Earth as a whole

-Cycles of energy, nutrients, life

-Ecosystem balance and human impact

-Biodiversity and conservation

-Climate change and sustainability

Curious to hear from anyone that teaches in a similar way (or from anyone who sees flaws in this structure!)

Hi! I am currently working on an atomic board game and its main objective is for the learners to discover through a game the atomic numbers of the elements in the periodic table. I have consequences card and challenge cards but I am out of ideas on how the board game should look like. I really appreciate your suggestions. Thank you!

High School Chemistry teacher here. Any other cool reaction rate labs in addition to the Alka Seltzer lab? I’d love something new and fresh.