Resource Round-Up: Lab Safety, STEM Challenges, and More!

Melissa Fredericks

It’s a STEM resource gold mine! This round-up includes resources on lab safety, the digestive system, states of matter, and more. You’ll also find activities for writing scientific arguments, STEM challenges, and guided notes. And don’t miss tips and tools for boosting student brainpower and practicing mindfulness in the classroom. Best of all, half of these resources are free!

Lab Safety Handout by The Amoeba Sisters- Free Student Handout by Amoeba Sisters LLC	It’s FREE! “This handout connects science safety concepts with memorable cartoons as displayed in our free Amoeba Sisters General Lab Safety video. This handout is not only great to assess student understanding of lab safety but also provides a way for students to identify the functions and location of safety equipment in their classroom.”
Amoeba Sisters Unlectured Series- MITOSIS by Amoeba Sisters LLC	“Our Unlectured Series is our new project designed to offer an alternative to traditional lecture and notes, promote questioning, student discussion, and student creation in the classroom. Instead of PowerPoint slides full of information, all of the slides consist of memorable science cartoons and questions to engage the class in discussion.”
Claim, Evidence, Reasoning – Writing Scientific Arguments by Sarah’s STEM stuff	It’s FREE! “This resource provides structure to help students write strong scientific arguments with Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning.”
Escape Room – Crime Scene Investigation by Sarah’s STEM stuff	“This is a fun activity using science to solve a crime in an escape room format.”
Flipped Classroom: Learn how to flip your class in four easy steps by Adventures in ISTEM	It’s FREE! “The flipped classroom is a great way to differentiate your class and meet the needs of students. Students can learn the basic information at home, going at their pace, and then they can practice what they learned in the classroom with the help of the teacher and other students.”
States of Matter, Gas Laws, and Thermal Energy 5E Lesson Paperless by Adventures in ISTEM	“With warm-ups, checks for understandings, closings, language support, and differentiated levels of thinking, this unit has everything you need to teach states of matter and thermal energy. Plus you can choose to go completely paperless or go with paper depending on your classroom’s needs.”
Spy Dossier – Intermediate and Junior Creative Writing by Academic Attridge	It’s FREE! “This bundle of eight STEM challenges allows students to engage with the science curriculum in an active and hands-on way. Each challenge is fully explained and comes with student worksheets, a rubric, teacher notes, and a timeline so that implementing great science learning in the classroom is easy.”
Intermediate STEM Challenge Bundle by Academic Attridge	“This bundle of eight STEM challenges allows students to engage with the science curriculum in an active and hands-on way. Each challenge is fully explained and comes with student worksheets, a rubric, teacher notes and a timeline so that implementing great science learning in the classroom is easy.”
DNA Profiling Guided Notes page by Andrea Taktak	It’s FREE! “Guided notes help students focus on the key information being presented and help them to follow along. What makes many of my notes even better is the opportunity for some short practice of new information. These notes accompany a Powerpoint Presentation on DNA Profiling (aka DNA Fingerprinting), which I use in Forensic Science and Biology classes.”
Group Activity on The Digestive System by Andrea Taktak	“This is my newest Process-Oriented Group Inquiry-based Lesson on the Digestive System. I have created similar successful activities for Anatomy classes which are fabulous in introducing new material to students, allowing them to build a foundation that you can then layer upon. Students are engaged and there is an increase in the retention of content!”
10 Secret Tips to Teacher Brainpower by Ellen Weber – Brain based tasks for growth mindset	It’s FREE! “Use all free tips listed, regardless of your lesson topics, as refreshing tools to help boost your students’ brainpower, and develop the skills necessary to solve course-related problems beyond class.”
100 Bell Ringers for Mindfulness in Every Class – Grade 6 – 12+ by Ellen Weber – Brain based tasks for growth mindset	“Interactive binder brings mindfulness into action daily in interactive original texts about your awesome brain and its application to real-life problems. The resource comes with tools to apply lesson content in ways that develop mindful habits. Students’ journal takeaways from daily lesson ideas will highlight unique intelligence. Students are guided to reflect on a video that connects their capabilities to your lesson insights. Student-created posters will teach lesson topics to younger learners, and teams will display innovative bulletin boards to capture and implement lesson insights.”