Teaching variables in science

I hope this is one of the first posts you landed on in your search for how to teach variables to middle schoolers. Seriously. I really do. If you’ve been following me for more than a minute, you’ll remember I walked into an empty classroom my first year teaching. No resources, supplies, or curriculum. When I started teaching scientific inquiry, I stopped pretty quickly! I was overwhelmed. None of what I Googled made any sense! Research… and more research Teaching scientific inquiry is…

Let’s teach about the reflection and refraction of light for 5th grade. Even though this can be a confusing topic, your students will reach mastery in no time with these interactive activities for reflection and refraction, as well as absorption. What are reflection and refraction? I’ll be honest; before I started teaching 5th grade, the ... Read more

It's so important that you are teaching about variables when you teach the scientific method. This post gives you ideas to help your students get started!

Read short scenarios about scientific experiments. Student identify which variable was manipulated, the independent variable. Then identify what the responding variable in the story is.

As a middle school science teacher, I always love teaching the scientific method to my students. There are so many routes you can take wit...

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Let’s teach about the reflection and refraction of light for 5th grade. Even though this can be a confusing topic, your students will reach mastery in no time with these interactive activities for reflection and refraction, as well as absorption. What are reflection and refraction? I’ll be honest; before I started teaching 5th grade, the ... Read more

Scientific Variable Anchor Chart

The key to engaging science instruction is engaging our students in the science process. A few labs into the school year I always find myself planning a lesson about the science process and scientific variables. I find myself asking “How did they mess up that graph after I explained it 3 times?” “Why didn’t they […]