The Biology Corner

Photo by: Rick TakmajianThe Biology Corner is a resource site for biology and science teachers.  It contains a variety of lessons, quizzes, labs, web quests, and information on science topics.   You can find lessons related to biology topics in the links  listed under “topics” on the sidebar.  Topics include:  Ecology, Genetics, Anatomy, Cells, Scientific Method, and Evolution.   I do not at this time have answer keys for the worksheets posted, as students use this site to access their own homework and assignments.

To see any class curriculum,  use the “classes” link on the top left.  These are pages that are organized as a sequence for the chapters covered in those particular courses:  AP Biology, Freshman Level Biology, Anatomy and Physiology, and an Introductory Physics class.    These  pages include powerpoint presentations, review guides, reading worksheets, crossword puzzles and any other specific resources I use for that chapter or unit.

You are free to use any of the worksheets and lessons for your own class, and you can even modify them for your needs.  Many of the worksheets are also available in word (.doc) format which is easier to edit for most people – check for the word icon for document downloads or print the pages as is.  Most are formatted for ease of printing.

Spotlight Lessons:  The End of the School Year

This time of year, students are taking finals, turning in books and generally getting ready for the end of the school year, or graduation.   These days  can be particularly trying when you have students who have completed all the course requirements and are not taking a final.  Here are some thing I do to end the year.

Gather Class Feedback  -  Collect an end of the year survey about your class.  Here’s a sample survey of the one I give to biology students.   I encourage students to give me honest feedback so that I can improve the class for next year.  The survey can also be printed if access to computers is limited.

Have informal conversations with students about the class and their school and what they would like changed.  Ask them to write down a few words of advice for incoming freshmen.

Have your students help clean the lab.  This year we found a bucket of specimens that didn’t get used, we pulled the specimens out and did a mini dissection before throwing them away.

Recent Posts

Photostream & Picasa Galleries

I also have been uploading pictures to Flickr to organize and keep science related images in one spot.  I’ve also got a fancy camera to hook onto a microscope, check out the Flickr Photostream to view those images.  Flickr is a great resource for organizing photos and allows me to store photos that other teachers might find useful, like the images of cheek cells and mitosis.  I also have science galleries located at Google’s Picasaweb.   

Social Media

You can follow biologycorner.com at  http://www.facebook.com/biologycorner,  or at  http://twitter.com/biologycorner
 or Google +1.   Generally, I use these sites to share tips and tricks for labs and concepts I teach in class, as well as things that didn’t work so well.  The focus for these discussions is usually lab set-ups, common core standards, and assessment strategies.



 

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