The starters typically take 5 minutes or less to complete and provide students with a focused activity to start class. I also like to use the starters to review material we have covered in class. It helps me gauge what they have remembered from previous lessons or lets me know that additional lessons are needed. Feel free to use the starters as they are provided or adapt them to fit your units of study.
I'll start by adding my warm-ups from my Chemistry unit and then will add other topics over the next few months - genetics, ecology, animals, physics, general science, and scientists. Warm-ups for my CSI class are available on the Forensic Science webpage.
I provide students with a Science Starters answer sheet that has room for three weeks worth of answers. The answer sheets are collected every Friday to be graded and then I return them on Monday for the new week.
NOTE: The Daily Science Trivia and Trivia To Go areas will still be available for those of you who are interested in a quick class starter.
Chemistry Starters
NOTE: I don't use these in order or as sets, but rather mix them up throughout the unit. For example, I will use Element Challenge starters for two days of the week, one Elemental Pun for another day, and pick others to fill in the last two days of the week. I use an answer sheet to help me keep track of the starters I have used. You may want to create your own starters to review material you have presented in class.
Element Challenge - How well do your students know their element symbols? I use these warm-ups as challenges during the first few weeks of my chemistry unit and the kids learn them very quickly - without me "requiring" them to learn common ones we use in our class activities! The first five presentations provides the name of the element and the students have to come up with the symbol, while the last five are a bit harder requiring the students to provide the name for each symbol.
Name That Element - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Elemental Puns - These are "punny" challenges where I give the kids a clue about an element and they use a periodic table to find names that match each clue.
Elemental Puns - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Atomic Math - These starters provide a good review of the basics of atomic number, mass, and subatomic particles.
Common Compounds - I use these starters to help the students learn to identify the chemical formulas for common compounds, such as water, salt, and others they may know.
Common Compounds - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Compound Challenge - These starters are used to give the students practice in counting the number of atoms in a compound and reinforce how coefficients and subscripts are used in a formula.
Compound Challenge - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Periodic Table Basics - I use these starters to review the element families and relationships in the periodic table.
Come back soon ... More starters will be added in the next few months!