I strongly believe that it is important for students to learn how to research and find reliable information for themselves. I also believe that writing is an essential skill in science. However, I do not believe that all research needs to be turned into a major writing assignment. Which is why I use fact sheets for certain research. They look up very specific things and turn it into a quick 1-page fact sheet. It does not take long for them to do, but they are involved directly in the learning and focusing on reliable sources
Adaptations Fact Sheet
For example, you could create a whole lesson on adaptations. Explain what adaptations are, give them some examples, task cards, maybe even have them watch a video. There are lots of things you could come up with, but in all of these, the examples are coming from the teacher. Yeah, you could have them think-pair-share or something like that, but you could also put a bit more on them to really understand. I use an Adaptations Fact Sheet. Students choose an organism, research it, and make a fact sheet. This can be done in one class period! Here is my file that I use:
I know we never seem to have enough time and it is hard to let go of some of your time to give the students enough time to do something like this. However, research and finding reliable sources is an essential skill we need to help our students learn. If you have a class of really slow workers, pair them up and have them split up the research. You could also just modify the research and the only look up one adaptation.
If you don’t have access to laptops/tablets/computer lab, this can be created on their phone. I have had students that used Canva on their phone. It is easy to use and looks very professional. I haven’t use PicMonkey on a phone, but it is another tool they can use. Having them use something like Canva is going beyond what most students are asked to do. I have rarely had students that didn’t get a little excited when they found out it wasn’t just another word document. Both of these do require you to sign up to use, but it is just an option, not a requirement. I do not assign the research or the fact sheet for homework; if you decide to, keep in mind some students cannot use the internet at home. An option would be to have some printed information they could take home.
Print the fact sheets and hang them up. Here are some ideas of what else you could do with these:
- Have students walk around and come up with 3 new things they learned.
- Have students create a Flipgrid over their organism (you can use Flipgrid to generate QR codes to add to the fact sheet!)
- Give students sticky notes and have them add another adaptation they can think of to the fact sheets
- Have students vote of the coolest/craziest/weirdest/scariest adaptation
- Use them as a quick review just before the test 🙂
None of these would be time-consuming and for the most part are low prep (minus the printing part) for you, but it is increasing student engagement with the content and each other.
Career Fact Sheet
At the end of the year, I also like to do a Biology Career Fact Sheet. It can easily be changed up for any field. I stick to Biology so they see all the things that involve Biology. This is also an idea for the beginning of the year to help with the “when will I ever use this” questions. I do think it is important for students to have a realistic view of career requirements. I’m sure I’m not the only one with students that are convinced they will be doctors, but they hate science and math.
For both of the fact sheets, I have included rubrics and sign-up sheets. For the careers, I’m less of a stickler about the number of students that sign up for a career. I don’t want them to not research a career that might interest them just because someone else is also interested.
What are some other ways you could use fact sheets in your classroom?
