Engaging lesson ideas for busy biology and health teachers.

If you teach health or life science to middle schoolers, then this is a lesson you may want to do with your students when you are in your teaching the genetics behind how one is born a male or a female. This activity is great for your visual learning kiddos. It uses repetition and pictures to help students see just how it is that the father’s chromosomes determine a child is born a girl or a boy. Everything you need for this lesson can be found here: If you talk to middle s

A week before Thanksgiving a couple years ago, I had the misfortune of stepping barefoot on a big piece of broken glass on kitchen floor. The glass was a leftover piece of an olive oil bottle that fell and broke in the kitchen and was unfortunately overlooked in the cleanup process. It was at that moment that I appreciated my mom’s advice to always wear slippers in the house (which now I do). Being a science teacher, I immediately recalled the sensitivity of the foot in relat

If you've never done a DNA extraction lab, then this one is an absolute MUST try! DNA, DNA, DNA. D-N-A, the famous DNA. What is a science class without a DNA extraction experiment? You’ll be surprised how many students have never done this in their science classes. I love this experiment using strawberries, best. There are other foods that can be used to extract DNA from, like bananas, I just prefer using strawberries. Strawberries are octoploids, meaning they have 8 copies

I highly recommend this lab. It is a great way for students to make the connection between enzymes and their role in digestion. Students will also explore the impact temperature can have on enzymes. The action of an enzyme will be tested in this lab using three different pineapple samples and gelatin. I cannot stress enough how important it is to include labs/experiments for each unit in science. Students get the opportunity to apply science concepts learned in class to a han

Hershey Kisses and a Lesson! Yes, chocolate and learning... all you have to say is the word Hershey's to your class, and you will have captured most of your students’ attention and have them in “eyes on you” mode in an instant. I have already shared with you the DNA candy models lesson in a previous post. Here is another candy inspired lesson I want to share with you. In this whole class participation game, kids will learn about an important health topic-preventing the trans

Hands on learning is the way to go in a science classroom-this has always been my saying. I cannot emphasize this enough-I think every science and health unit should have at least one hands on activity a week. When it comes time to studying the human respiratory system-making plastic bottle lung models is something you may want to consider adding to your lesson plans. It is an easy activity that can be completed in a class period’s worth of time. I think it is especially a

Yes, as most of us educators know, most students jump for joy when they hear candy is involved in their lessons. I want to share with you this DNA activity that is always a HIT in my classroom. This is one that, surprisingly, many life science teachers I talked to, said they did not know about. After I tried it with my classes, I made it a must-include-lesson in my DNA unit every year. One, because students enjoyed it, and second, because students learned what I wanted them