The Biology Teacher's Survival Guide

by Michael F. Fleming

Overview

This unique resource is packed with novel and innovative ideas and activities you can put to use immediately to enliven and enrich your teaching of biology, streamline your classroom management, and free up your time to accomplish the many other tasks teachers constantly face. For easy use, materials are printed in a big 8 x 11 lay-flat binding that opens flat for photo-copying of evaluation forms and student activity sheets, and are organized into five distinct sections: 1. Innovative Classroom Techniques for the Teacher presents technique to help you stimulate active students participation in the learning process, including an alternative to written exams ways to increase student responses to questions and discussion topics a student study clinic mini-course extra credit projects a way to involve students in correcting their own tests and more. 2. Success-Directed Learning in the Classroom shows how you can easily make your students accountable for their own learning and eliminate your role of villain in the grading process. 3. General Classroom Management provides solutions to a variety of management issues, such as laboratory safety, the student opposed to dissection, student lateness to class, and the chronic discipline problem, as well as innovative ways to handle such topics as keeping current in subject-matter content, parent-teacher conferences, preventing burnout, and more. 4. An Inquiry Approach to Teaching details a very effective approach that allows the students to participate as real scientist in a classroom atmosphere of inquiry learn as opposed to lab manual cookbook learning. 5. Sponge Activities gives you 100 reproducible activities you can use at the beginning of, during, or at the end of class periods. These are presented in a variety of formats and cover a wide range of biology topics, including the cell classification .. plants animals protists the microphone systems of the body anatomy physiology genetics and health. And to help you quickly locate appropriate worksheets in Section 5, all 100 worksheets in the section are listed in alphabetical order in the Contents, from Algae (Worksheets 5-1) through Vitamins and Minerals (Worksheets 5-100). For the beginning teacher new to the classroom situation as well as the more wxperienced teacher who may want a new lease on teaching, Biology Teachers Survival Guide is designed ot bring fun, enjoyment, and profit to the teacher-student rapport that is called teaching.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781490757698
Publisher:	Trafford Publishing
Publication date:	04/01/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	366
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Michael F. Fleming Ed.D., has taught biology, anatomy, and physiology, microbiology, and behavioral science in the Council Rock School System of Newtown, Bucks Country, Pennsylvania, for over 32 years. Dr. Fleming has presented papers at convention of the National Association of Biology Teachers and has published articles in the American Biology Teacher and Focus, Her is the author of Life Science Labs Kit (1985) and Science Teacher’s Instant Labs Kit (191), also published by The Center for Applied Research in Education.

Table of Contents

SECTION 1: INNOVATIVE CLASSROOM TECHNIQUES FOR THE TEACHER.
The message square activity.
The Pic-a-Tag techniques.
Music, food, and beverage in the classroom.
VOEs (Vocabulary Oral Exams).
Ics (Instant Corrections of Tests).
The edible model.
Guidelines for preparing and presenting an edible model.
Voting for the edible model of the year.
Video tape and 35mm slide activities.
Student setting career goals.
Selecting a career goal.
Student career choices.
The biology classroom career resource center.
The biology classroom reading center: getting the student to read more.
The student book center committee.
The student book review.
The student book examination.
The steps to an A game.
The fully assembled game board.
The top and bottom of the game board.
The sides, boxes and dowels for the game board.
The study clinic minicourse.
Initial problem diagnosis and remedy.
Developing your own course handbook for students.
Student handbook table of contents for a course in human anatomy and physiology.
Extra credit: the disease of the week.
Extra credit: the occupation presentation.
Proposal for teaching the class for a period.
Teacher-to-parent forms.
An example of an inspirational message that could be part of the course handbook for students.
Activities in creativity.
A soap carving creativity contest.
Form for judging the entries in the creativity contest.
A toothpick construction creativity contest.
Creative drawing contest entry #1.
Creative drawing contest entry #2.
Creative drawing contest entry #3.
The classroom invent-a-fair: a science fair alternative.
Theclassroom invent-a-fair: an introduction and participation form.
Official student entry form to be used by the judges.
A sample format for judging student prototypes.
Organizing daily lessons materials: The manila folder approach.
Format the cover of each manila folder.
The student cumulative folder.
Raising the course final exam on tests given during the year.
Making research papers interesting.
An audio-visual approach.
Evaluation sheet for audio-visual presentations.
The anatomy awards program.
An introduction to the anatomy awards program.
The anatomy award costume construction guide.
Release from class form for participating in the anatomy award program.
Forms for assigning food to be brought in for the program.
Anatomy awards certificate of participation.
Nameplates for the judges.
Sample classroom program for the anatomy awards.
Lesson planning.
Lesson plan overview for a unit of material.
Sample lesson plan overview for a unit of material.
A format for daily lesson plans.
A sample format for daily lesson plans.
Student note taking and organization of material.
Note organization exercise #1.
One example of logically organized notes.
Note organization #2.
One example of logically organized notes.
Developing effective listening skills in students.
Listening techniques notes to be given to students.
Student format sheet for note taking.
Teacher format for map drawing listening exercise.
Student format for map drawing listening exercise.
Completed sample for map drawing listening exercise.
Teacher format for geometric drawing listening exercise.
Student format for geometric drawing listening exercise.
Completed sample for geometric drawing listening exercise.
Behavioral objectives.
SECTION 2: SUCCESS-DIRECTED-LEARNING IN THE CLASSROOM.
The need for accountability in the classroom teaching-learning interface.
The result of accountability in the classroom teaching-learning interface.
Initiating a success-directed-learning (SDL) program of accountability in the classroom.
The student's introduction to success-directed-learning.
A parent's introduction to SDL.
SDL (Success-Directed-Learning): a student's introduction.
An SDL Guide for studying.
SDL testing.
SDL course achievement and grade average log.
The SDL Thursday after school study technique sessions.
SECTION 3: GENERAL CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES.
Dealing with the student who does not want to dissect.
The teaching of evolution and/or creationism.
Letter format for inviting guest and notifying parents.
Information data table for notes on creationism.
Information data table for notes on evolutionism.
Safety in the laboratory.
Classroom laboratory safety preparedness.
Preventing teacher burnout.
Handling the parent/guardian conference.
Teacher to parent letters of communication.
Handling the chronic discipline problem: the student contract.
The student contract.
Handling student lateness to class.
Handling student request to the nurse, restroom, telephone, and so on.
Keeping current in subject matter content.
Parent's night and ideal teacher-parent rapport.
Seating arrangements for the students.
Self-evaluation techniques.
Teacher-male evaluation instrument.
Hypothetical evaluation summary.
An evaluation instrument for the inquiry instructional mode.
Hypothetical evaluation data.
Keeping inventory of major laboratory equipment and general supplies.
An innovatory of major laboratory equipment.
An inventory of general supplies.
Major laboratory equipment and general supplies needed for next year.
SECTION 4: AN INQUIRY APPROACH TO EXPERIENCING THE SPIRIT AND NATURE OF SCIENCE.
A list of the major laboratory materials required for teaching the S-A-S units.
A list of very important safety caution concerns for the S-A-S units.
An introduction-the S-A-S approach to teaching science.
A sample unit using the S-A-S approach.
The molasses-yeast problem.
The laboratory log format for laboratory investigations.
The laboratory log format for the classroom seminar.
An example of some initial experimental procedures that students might design to investigate the two variables associated with the yeast-molasses problem.
A second S-A-S unit.
An example of an experimental procedure to study the effects of two plant foods upon the growth of bean plants.
An example of a data table for recording data collected from a study of the effects of two plant foods on the growth of bean plants.
A third S-A-S unit.
Examples of experimental procedures investigating carbon dioxide production.
The calculation of the variance.
A final S-A-S unit.
Examples of experimental procedures and data tables used in investigating the relative amounts of Vitamin C in fruit juices, fruits, and Vitamin C tablets.
SECTION 5: SPONGE ACTIVITIES.
Algae.
Amphibians.
Animal development.
Animal groups.
Animal phyla.
Animal phyla members
Biology, Facts of.
Biology, General.
Biomes.
Body movements and positions.
Bone of the body.
Brain and brain stem functions.
Brain, brain stem, and spinal cord.
Bryophytes.
Cell parts and functions.
Cell structure.
Chemistry, basic.
Circulatory system.
Classification of monerans, protists, and fungi.
Classification.
Cranial nerves.
Digestion.
Digestive system, organs of.
DNA, structure of.
Directional terms used in association with the body.
Diseases.
Disease-causing organisms, terms associated with.
Ear.
Endorcrine gland hormones.
Endocrine gland hormones, functions of.
Endocrine glands, location of.
Environmental adaptation.
Environment and pollution.
Enzymes.
Experimentation.
Eye, structure of.
Eye, structure and function.
Fields of biology.
Fish.
Fish, anatomy of.
Flower, structure of a typical.
Food chain, the.
Frog, anatomy of.
Genetics.
Genetics, diseases and diagnosis.
Heart, human.
Immune system.
Laboratory equipment.
Leaf, internal structures and functions.
Leaf structure.
Leaf types and arrangements, deciduous.
Medical science terms.
Meiosis in humans.
Mitosis.
Muscle group and actions.
Muscles of the body.
Nervous system.
Nutrition.
Phobias.
Photosynthesis.
Plant growth responses.
Plants, the higher.
Protozoans.
Respiratory system.
Respiration, cellular.
Reproduction, modes of.
Reproductive system, female.
Reproductive system, male.
Senses, body.
Skin, the.
Stems, plant.
Systems of the body.
Teeth.
Terms, general biology.
Tissues, animal.
Tracheophytes.
Transport modes, cellular.
Urinary system, the.
Vitamins and minerals.
Answers to the sponge activities.