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Jennifer McDonald
VCU
VA

My NSTA / Peers / Jennifer McDonald

Hi! I am a preservice teacher in my final year before becoming either a 10th grade biology teacher or 8th grade science teacher here in Richmond, Virginia. I am part of the Noyce scholarship program and plan on dedicating my career to serving in a high-needs district. I love science and I am passionate about improving public education. I am interested in expanding my knowledge of inquiry-based science and finding creative ways to incorporate technology into the classroom as well as low-budget resources. I have a Pinterest page dedicated to biology resources and you can browse it here: https://www.pinterest.com/masonjfmc/

Public Collections
Recent Public Collections by Jennifer

Careers in STEM

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Teaching Strategies & Pedagogy

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Forum Posts
Recent Posts by Jennifer

Fri, Aug 05, 2016 11:25 AM in Refinishing Lab Benches - HELP!

Hi everyone, Does anyone have experience recovering / refinishing lab benches? My classroom uses lab benches as desks and they are in horrible condition. For laminated plywood benches like mine, Flinn Scientific recommended that I use "Tile Clad" - a 2 part epoxy paint. Unfortunately, it runs over $100 per half gallon. Does anyone have experience with safe, cheaper options?

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Mon, Nov 02, 2015 4:09 PM in Photosynthesis / Cellular Respiration - Curriculum Topic Study

Hi all, I just thought I would save you all some time and post my CTS for photosynthesis and cellular respiration. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-iqj5ZL6ycccHAxazZZSnozaEE/view?usp=sharing

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Sun, Aug 30, 2015 4:00 PM in STEM project based learning activities

This is a neat site to introduce to students when talking about careers in the sciences. This site covers aerospace engineering to agricultural engineering. The information given is short and concise - perfect for browsing for ideas. I also like that they give real bios of people in these fields. Good find!

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Reviews
Recent Reviews by Jennifer

Teaching Photosynthesis

Mon, Oct 05, 2015 5:45 PM
Concise, low-tech activity

This is a nice and simple exercise that students can work collaboratively to complete, and it's low-tech and low-budget, which I like. It doesn't have all the elements of inquiry but it's much better than the traditional lecture. This is definitely a great supporting activity for a lesson on photosynthesis.

Injecting Inquiry Into Photosynthesis Investigations

Mon, Oct 05, 2015 2:43 PM
Inquiry at its finest

This article documents one teacher's transformation of a cookbook photosynthesis lab into true inquiry. The products of this lab were versatile, all on topic, and driven by student interests (her "question walk" helped students to "self-sort" themselves into inquiry groups based on their own interests). I'm not sure whether I'll use this lab or not - I am still very new to teaching and it seems like a lot of things would need to go right for this lab (which takes 3 class periods or more) to work. The teacher would need to be thoroughly comfortable with photosynthesis, respiration and experimental design. If it can be pulled off however, the results could be fantastic.

First Day of School

Mon, Sep 28, 2015 1:08 PM
Jump right into science

This short (1 page) read encourages teachers to take a different approach on the first day. Instead of going over expectations and rules, this teacher immediately got students engaged with a physical science demo and a questions/answers game. Good idea! I'm still skeptical though - going over rules and expectations is still important...right?

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