The Science Teacher's Activity-A-Day, Grades 5-10
Authors: Pam Walker and Elaine Wood
Length: 288 pages
Intent/Focus: A hands-on and fun-filled resource for teaching science to middle and high school students
What You Will Learn: This book is a fun resource for your science class, designed to help you grab your students’ attention, capture their imagination and introduce them to compelling science lessons
Why We Recommend It: We’re always on the lookout for high-quality teacher resources, especially those that focus on experiential (hands-on) learning. This book makes the grade!
Summary:
Do you teach science to 5th-10th grade students? If so, we think you’ll find this book to be a terrific resource.
In this book you will find:
- 180 “hook” or “sponge” activities to capture students’ attention and introduce your lessons
- Topics correlated to the National Science Education Standards
- Three units: Physical Science, Life Science, and Earth and Space Science
Research shows that students are more attentive at the start of a lesson. Use the activities described in this book as “warm-up lessons” to capture your students’ imagination and help them link familiar concepts to a new topic. The Science Teacher's Activity-a-Day will also help you reveal knowledge gaps, while you get your class off to a dynamic start.
The 180 activities are designed to be fun and engaging. Most of them take only 5-10 minutes to complete; a few are longer. All can be accomplished with inexpensive, easily accessible materials that students recognize, such as string, clay, scissors and plastic bottles.
Each activity includes:
- A concise explanation of the focus concept
- A materials list
- Teacher instructions / procedure guide
- Student follow-up questions
Feedback from Readers
Comments from readers on Amazon provide further tips for using this book effectively:
“This book is stuffed with short activities that would work great as mini-labs (or full class labs, depending on your student's abilities).”
“Not quite grade 10 but worked for my 9th graders and would be most perfect for middle school.” (Another teacher commented that the activities might be too advanced for 5th and 6th grades.)
“I use it to spark my students’ curiosity before a unit of study starts. I don't give them any information; they have to tell me what they think is happening in the experiment. It's been very positive – now they want to know about exothermic and endothermic reactions, instead of me trying to 'get' them to learn.”
“The labs are simple enough for ESL students or good supplements for advanced material.”
“For the price I paid, I think this is an absolute bargain. Most educational books give me one lousy activity for $50.”
About the Authors
Pam Walker and Elaine Wood each have more than twenty years of science teaching experience. They are the authors of dozens of books for middle and high school science teachers and students, including Crime Scene Investigations and Hands-On General Science Activities with Real-Life Applications.
Related Article: The Benefits of Experiential Learning
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