-Description: This strategy uses physical models or manipulatives to help students visualize and understand complex scientific structures.

-Application: Have students use clay, beads, or other materials to build a model of a cell labeling organelles and explaining their functions. For body systems students can create models of a joint or neuron to see how different components work together

-Description: Students act out different parts of a system or process, helping them embody and understand scientific concepts.

-Application: Assign each student a role as a cell organelle or body part. They then “act out” how each part functions, showing how cells or body systems work together. This strategy is especially effective for reinforcing how the nervous, muscular, and skeletal systems are interconnected.

Description: This involves labeling and annotating large diagrams with interactive elements so students can add details, definitions, and relationships between parts.

Application: For cells use a large diagram of a plant or animal cell and allow students to add labels and definitions. For body systems, provide diagrams of the nervous, skeletal, or muscular systems, and let students add labels highlight connections, or draw pathways to show how signals travel or muscles interact with bones.

-Description: Students think individually about a question, discuss it with a partner, and then share their ideas with the class, supported by visuals like diagrams or models.

Application: When discussing how the skeletal and muscular systems work together, ask students to think about specific movements (lifting an arm). Then they pair up to discuss which muscles and bones are involved, and finally they share with the class using a skeletal model to illustrate.

Description: In this activity, each student “becomes” an organelle, researching its functions and importance in the cell. During the "speed dating" rounds, students rotate and introduce their organelle to others, explaining its role.

Application: This activity can be used to help students remember the functions of each organelle and see how they work within the cell. For example, a student representing the mitochondria can explain energy production. This interactive approach reinforces their understanding of their roles.

Description: Gizmos are interactive simulations that allow students to explore cell structures and functions virtually. Students can zoom into different organelles and see the cell interactions in real time.

Application: the Cell Gizmo simulation to reinforce students’ understanding of cell organelles and how cells work. After discussing the structure of plant and animal cells, students can use the simulation to virtually “see” these organelles and their functions.

Application: The teacher will give them students post-it notes.  They will write any part of the activity that is unclear or confusing.  Students will turn the post-it notes into the teacher or on a class artifact.  This will allow students to reflect on their learning.  It also provides teachers with feedback on how to prepare reteaching or future lessons. 

Application:  On the board, the teacher will draw a horizontal line with arrows on the board.  Above the left arrow, the teacher will write I’m lost, in the middle of the line the teacher will write I’m starting to understand, and above the right arrow the teacher will write I can teach the class about this.  Students will write their name on a post it note.  They will place their post-it note on the learning continuum.  Based upon where students place their post-it note, the teacher can formally assess where students are at in the learning process of said skill. 

Application: Students can take a virtual field trip.  Virtual field trips are great tools for students to “travel” to places they do not have the opportunity to go to.   For example, they can tour a virtual coral reef to study biodiversity.  

Application: For interactive notebooks, students can create foldables for various sciences concepts like the skeletal and muscular systems, parts of cell, ecosystems, and more.

Application: In science classrooms, teachers can implement and students can use science stations to explore characteristics of living things with hands-on tasks.

Application: In the classroom, students can use their ipads or chromebooks to scan QR codes to complete scavenger hunts on science topics like the human body systems, plant and animal cells, ecosystems, and more.

Application: Some example games used in my classroom are Quizizz or Kahoot for a review of specific science concepts like digestive systems, cells, ecosystems, and more. 

Application: The teacher will ask students to write one thing they learned about science concepts like photosynthesis, parts of cells, ecosystems, and more.

Application: For this activity, pairs of students will teach each other various science concepts like the stages of mitosis, human systems, cells, and more.

Application: An example of a project-based learning project in a middle school science classroom is designing an ecosystem in a bottle and monitoring it over weeks.

Application: At the end of a lesson, students can create questions to quiz other students in the classroom.  For example: After learning about cells, have students pose review questions.

Application: Students can create posters illustrating specific concepts learned in science class.  For example: Showing the journey of food through the digestive system.

Application: An example of a debate in a middle school science classroom would be the ethical implications of genetic engineering.

Application: An example of an anchor chart in a middle school science classroom, students create an anchor chart of the levels of biological organization.

Application: During a science escape room, students can use clues about organelle functions to unlock boxes or progress through challenges.

Application: For an example of a comic strip completed in a science classroom, students can draw a comic about the journey of a red blood cell through the circulatory system.

Application: In a middle school science classroom, students can label and annotate diagrams of specific science concepts.  For example: plant and animal cells.

Application: Sculpt DNA molecules using clay or other materials.

Application: Write a story from the perspective of a single-celled organism.

Application: Create a terrarium and track the water cycle, plant growth, and decomposition.

Application: Discuss the impact of invasive species on ecosystems.

Application: Describe traits like habitat, cell type, and reproduction methods for students to guess a protist or bacteria.

Application: Study photosynthesis by first identifying inputs/outputs, then modeling chemical processes, and finally writing an explanation.

Application: Create a song about cell organelles or the circulatory system to reinforce learning.