Planting Seeds in EcoColumns, Taking Soil Data and Setting Up Data Charts
On the second day of building ecocolumns, students add seeds and begin taking data. (This can be the second hour of a block period). Before they do this, however, they …
Author: Kristi Schertz
Cutting and Filling Ecocolumns
Students thoroughly enjoy building ecocolumns. Building usually takes 2 full periods (45-55 min) or one block period. The example here is of an an ecocolumn with three chambers, a terrestrial …
Ecocolumns / lab / Supplies
Buying Supplies for Ecocolumns
Students thoroughly enjoy building ecocolumns. The supplies here are for an ecocolumn with three chambers: A terrestrial chamber on the top with soil, plants and invertebrates, a filter chamber with …
Communicating “Why I flipped” to Students and Parents (or Admins)
I believe explaining WHY I do something in class is important for students. While they don’t get to decide or vote on the way my class is run, explaining the …
APES Exam and Bloom’s Taxonomy/Depth of Knowledge
I’ve always told people that the AP® Exam has a lot of higher order thinking questions, but never took to the time to actually count how many were in a …
Using and Teaching FRQs in Science
Students in an AP® Environmental Science class need to know how to write Free Response Questions (FRQs). These are short answer questions, not essays, and have special strategies that are …
FRQs and Peer Grading
Peer Grading FRQS Peer grading free response questions is a great way to 1. Teach kids how the questions are graded by the national readers and how picky and precise …
10 Tips for Teaching Large AP® Classes in High School
Teaching large classes can be daunting in any subject, but especially in a college-level AP® class. Ten years ago, when I started AP® Environmental Science at my school, I advertised …
To AP® or Not to AP®…What does the Research Say?
What does the research really say about taking an AP® class? Over the years, I’ve heard a lot of “rumors”, “here-say”, “anecdotal info”, &”verbal discussion” of the benefits of AP® …
15 Things a new AP teacher should know
Being a new AP® teacher is exciting and daunting! It will be a tough year to not only learn the material yourself, but also teach it to your kids. Hang …
Research About Flipping the Classroom
I recently led a couple of workshops about Flipped Classrooms for a technology institute. (Discalimer: I’ve only fully flipped for about a year. I’ve done a partial flip for several …
Building EcoColumns Part 5 Making the Aquatic Chamber
This video describes how to build the Aquatic Chamber. Remember, DO NOT build this chamber until 2 weeks of flushing/draining the column have passed.
Why and How I Flipped this Year
Why I decided to Flip I decided to do a full flip in 2016/2017 out of self-preservation. My sections of AP® grew from 3 to 4 to 5 per day …
Sticky Note Methodology
I developed this method over a decade ago and it one of the main things that students report back as being so helpful in prepping them for the AP® Exam …