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Ricki Luster

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Recent Posts by Ricki

Tue, Nov 13, 2012 4:29 PM in Teaching Genetics/Heredity to Students with Special Needsw

For heredity and genetics, I got a wonderful idea from a high school teacher. We do a Build A Baby Coin Toss Activity. Heads = Dominant/Tails = Recessive. Students are given a trait, and then they toss a coin to see if it is dominant or recessive. When finished with all of the traits, they need to draw (build) what their baby will look like. This has helped with my students' understanding of ...

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Sat, Oct 27, 2012 6:49 PM in connecting Science to Halloween

Each year we allow our students to make "blood". We use corn syrup, mini marshmellows, red hot candies,and red food coloring. Not only is this a fun science experiment, it is also "spooktacular" fun. It connects to our math curriculum as well. You should try it.

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Fri, Oct 19, 2012 5:46 PM in Beginning of the Year Ideas and Activities

Yes, building a relationship with your students should always come first. This year, I tried something new to get my students more interested in both science and social studies. It is so simple but it is working. I told them that the more involved they are in the lesson (raising hands, asking questions, reading aloud, etc. the more likely to do better). At first some of my students started thi...

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Reviews
Recent Reviews by Ricki

Reproduction and Heredity

Thu, Nov 08, 2012 8:24 PM
Reproduction and Heredity

The Reproduction and Heredity SciGuide was a great assistance to me. Although I have been teaching for many years, this year thanks to the SciGuide I went a little further into my lessons/discussions on reproduction and traits. My students got a greater understanding of the reason why reproduction is important in order for a species to continue. The theme Every Organism Requires a Set of Instructions for Specific Traits, went right along with my "Baby Building" lesson. From this SciGuide I was able to see lesson plan ideas and actual student samples. These resources are very helpful, learning from each other is one of the things that keep us getting stronger as educators. I strongly recommend this SciGuide to anyone who teaches Reproduction and Heredity.

Energy

Sun, Apr 22, 2012 6:10 PM
Energy Sci-Guide

Being a fifth grade teacher, I felt that the Energy Sci-Guide was of great assistance to me. There was very good information on Changes in Energy/energy transfer, I was able to integrate many of the suggestions into my teaching. The websites and Links were useful to me. Having good resourses is very helpful to us educators. The lesson plan ideas were very interesting, especially the Popcorn Leson Plan. I really learned a lot from this Energy Sci-Guide and appreciate having the opportunity to use it.

Solar System

Fri, Nov 04, 2011 8:54 PM
Solar System

I have nothing but praise for the 'Solar System Sci Guide. Being new to NSTA, I Literally went through each part of the guide and used what I knew would work with my students. The lesson plans were helpful in aligning with what I was already doing, but the flash sims were a bonus. I really like the way the guide is broken into Sections, this made it easy to follow. "Earth in Space" was wonderful because my students read "Seeing Earth From Space" and they were able to make Text-to-Text Connections instantly. There is so much for us educators to use and explore thanks to the NSTA Learning Center. Thank you for all of your awesome ideas and information. I look forward to use what I have learned for many years to come.

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