Anatomy Gingerbread Men

When looking for a post-midterm activity for my students, I stumbled across an amazing blog with posts entitled Science Cookie Roundup.  She has collected many beautiful cookies with science themes, and I thought I would try my hand at this with my students.  We have one day between completing our exams and a two week holiday break, so this really fit the bill.

My cookies: skeletal, circulatory, and digestive systems

I purchased frozen gingerbread cookies from GFS, along with a tub of white icing, piping bags, and Wilton food colors I had from home baking projects.  I showed students a few example pictures I found online, and they had a blast.



My favorite part of this activity is that it's holiday related without being religious.  At school I need to be sensitive to the fact that  many of my students do not celebrate Christmas, but everyone can have fun decorating a cookie.


The students really enjoyed making their cookies, and were so excited to have me take pictures of their work.  Here are a few of their creations.

ok, so they're not all science...

beautiful detail on her holly and string of lights

little pink heart to accent her skeleton

This one broke his arm, so it's bleeding.

this skeleton is wearing a Santa suit.

Mr. and Mrs. Claus

Tarzan and Jane.  My student says this counts as science because Jane went to study the gorillas...

Two skeletons made by friends sitting next to one another, so they placed them holding hands.

nice contrast with the green and white

Molecular Workbench

One of my favorite Chemistry resources is Molecular Workbench.  This site, run by the Concord Consortium, offers online simulations for chemical concepts that can be very difficult for students to grasp with only paper and pencil.  My students are currently working on the Strong Chemical Bonds 2-day activity, although I've used their Intermolecular Forces module as well, with great success.  Both of these are a part of the SAM "Science of Atoms and Molecules" project.  Their website describes SAM as...

The Science of Atoms and Molecules project offers 24 research-based, field-tested activities for physics, chemistry, and biology. We provide these all freely to teachers and students online. Through the SAM activities' interactive models and simulations, we involve students in active learning. Teachers can register online to receive Teacher Guides for each activity and to gain access reporting functions to track student progress.

One feature I haven't investigated yet, is the ability to modify and make the simulations personalized.  It's on my to-do list for sure, as I'm sure the features are excellent, just like the rest of the site.

Even without personalization, I've found their simulations to be very useful.

http://mw2.concord.org/public/part2/bondtype/customDipoleMini.html

Today my students are using electronegativity values to determine if bonds between atoms are covalent, polar covalent, or ionic.  Most students have the idea that only two types of bonds exist when they enter my classroom, and this allows them to see the continuum of bond types, as well as discussing why these types of bonding occur.  With only a verbal description, very few of my students can grasp this concept, but this allows them to manipulate the bonds themselves, and provides a much deeper understanding.

If you haven't checked out what Molecular Workbench has to offer - you should!

Halloween Bone Comparison

Because of the season, October is the perfect time to study the skeleton.   Several years ago, I attended a session at the NSTA conference that suggested using cheap bones from the Halloween store for a forensic activity.  I decided to use them, but in a different way.  I purchased these bones from a catalog, because it wasn’t fall.  The entire Bag O Bones ran me around $20.00. 

 My students are instructed to choose a Halloween bone and identify the quality of its anatomical features.  Students work in a small group for this, and present their findings in a short informal presentation at the end of class.  They give the bone a grade and justify why they graded it in this way.

 If you'd like to download the instructions and worksheet for this activity - click here.

Students in the past have really liked this lesson, and were very engaged in the detail of their specimen.  It ties in the bone markings we learned the day before and is a nice precursor to working with the real disarticulated skeleton in class next week.  This also meets the goal of having students justify and share their work with others.

Another class success.