One comment I frequently hear from biology teachers is "My students keep mixing up mitosis and meiosis." I had this problem for many years (the first 5 years of teaching to be exact). During my cells unit I would teach both mitosis and meiosis. I would begin by teaching them both separately, and then had worksheets and activities that compared the two. But when I would give the unit test, it was clear the students still confused the two. I needed to do something differently. 

After teaching middle school for 5 years, I switched to a high school near my house. When we got to the cells unit one of my colleagues suggested only teaching mitosis, and waiting to teach meiosis until we got to the genetics unit. Light bulbs kept going off in my head. The more I thought about it, the more sense it made. 

So I tried it. At the end of my cells unit (after teaching organelles, membranes, and cellular energy) I would teach mitosis. When I would test them just on mitosis they would score well, because they didn't have both processes in their head to get confused. Then, after Christmas break when we got to genetics, I would teach meiosis. It made so much sense because:

• ​Teaching what gametes are is a great way to introduce genetics.
• Students will better understand Mendel's laws of segregation and independent assortment when you pair it with meiosis. 
• Teaching crossing over with genetics helps students understand alleles and why they look similar to their siblings, but not identical. 
• Students will better understand chromosomal mutations (such as Downs syndrome) when you pair it with meiosis. 

By the time I quizzed the students on meiosis they were experts on cell division. If your school gives you some freedom with the order of your curriculum, try teaching it this way! You won't regret it.  

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BONUS! If you want a fun way to make sure students understand the differences between mitosis and meiosis, try this FREE bingo game in my TpT store! Bingo is a great way to review scientific vocabulary. In this game you will call out the definitions and students will cover up the words on their bingo cards. You can download this product free in my TpT store HERE. Enjoy!

This blog post is all about why I think Cornell notes are beneficial for students, and tips on how to make them easier for teachers. If you don't want to read my background story on how I came to love them and you just want the nitty-gritty, skip to the bottom of the post :) 
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My first year teaching was at an AVID demonstration school. If you are familiar with the AVID program, they require students to use Cornell notes during class. I was fresh out of college and had never heard of them before.  I was really excited to use interactive notebooks and to be honest I wasn't thrilled with having a set note-taking format I had to use. It felt like I spent the first month of school telling students what to write on the left side of their notes, and what to write on the right side. Getting them to write summaries was like pulling teeth. BUT, after a couple of months things got easier, and students got better at knowing what to write. Eventually students enjoyed having structure instead of messy note pages. I tried my best to make sure my powerpoint slides had clear questions and bolded vocabulary so students knew exactly what to write and what was important. I initially tried to get students to write the summary for homework, but I soon realized they just weren't going to do it. Enter plan B. Instead I would go back the next day and have them review their notes and write the summary for bellwork. It was a great way to refresh their memories on what they learned the previous day. Then I would call on 2 or 3 students to read their summaries out loud, which increased the stakes for writing in complete sentences and explaining things in their own words, not just regurgitating vocabulary words and definitions. Often times students would even call each other out, and say things like "You forgot to answer the essential question!" By the end of the school year my little 6th graders were champs at taking notes. 

Fast forward 10 years and I now teach a class of seniors who are taking college biology through duel enrollment. One of the entrance requirements to this duel enrollment course is for students to have been in AVID all 4 years of high school. It has been amazing to see them take notes without asking, and not just during standard lectures. We have had multiple guest speakers visit our classroom, and students automatically set up a notes page, write down notes and questions they have throughout the presentation, and summarize what the speaker taught them. All without groaning. THAT, my teacher friends, is amazing to see.

So in summary, here are a few things to take away...
Why Cornell notes are good for students:

• Cornell notes give students structure. Organization is key to success!
• Cornell notes allow for student summary and reflection. These are also great ways to formatively assess what they learned and identify misconceptions from the lesson.
• I've heard arguments that when students get to college, they won't take written notes anymore, and will just use their laptops. I have 2 counter arguments: First, typing is not a skill that most schools teach anymore (unfortunately). My students are excellent at texting, but horrible at typing. I've even seen kids type essays on their cell phone, because it is faster for them than typing on a standard keyboard. So when these students get to college, they might find hand writing notes to be more efficient than typing. Second, I feel that written notes are much better for visual learners than typed notes. When I write notes by hand and add diagrams, during tests I can visually see where the answer to the question is on my notes page. Typed notes aren't nearly as effective in that manner.  

Tips on how to make them easier to use:

• Have a ton of copies of Cornell notes pages ready to go. It will save a bunch of time when students don't have to set up their own. You wouldn't think drawing a few lines would take much time, but your OCD kids will whip out their rulers and take 5 minutes. 
• During lectures, give students questions at the top of your slides. Don't make them guess what they are learning about. 
• Highlight or bold important vocabulary or points for them. We all know that if students wrote down every.single.word on the slide, notes would take 3 hours. Emphasize to them what is important. 
• Give students opportunities to refer back to their notes throughout the unit. Notes should not just be one time use. (You can check out my blog post on why I let my students use notes on tests HERE). Make your students refer back to their notes for bellwork. Ask them to write their summaries. Have them go back and highlight vocabulary or add diagrams. Have them add questions about things they still don't understand. Ask them to link new concepts to prior learning that took place (this is huge in science!)

If you haven't tried Cornell notes before, I would urge you to try them for one school year. Don't just try it for a few weeks and give up, because it is a process that takes time. I know that once students get the hang of them, their ability to receive and retain new information will increase. I've seen it happen!  

When I moved up from teaching middle school to high school and was looking at my new curriculum I saw the term "keystone species" and scratched my head. It was a term I had never heard before and didn't remember learning in college. After learning about the terms keystone species and trophic cascades I fell in love with ecology a little more (if that is possible). These topics are so fascinating to me and I love teaching them to my students.

If you aren't familiar with the term (like I was) then here is the gist: A keystone species is a species that has an unusually large effect on it's ecosystem. Other species in the ecosystem rely on them to keep everything in balance. When the keystone population is disrupted, trophic cascades can occur. A trophic cascade occurs when predators limit the density and/or behavior of their prey and thereby enhance the survival of the next lower trophic level. I explain to my students that it is like a domino effect- once one part of the food web gets disrupted, everyone else will be effected in some way as well.
I have created and found some really good resources that you can use to introduce or reinforce these concepts:

The presentation I use in my classroom is available for download in my TpT store. I use this after I have already covered food chains and webs. This includes a 16 slide presentation (in both powerpoint or SMART notebook) and 3 writing prompts to accompany the lesson. You can download the lesson HERE.

HHMI Biointeractive's website has some KILLER biology resources. (Side note: If you haven't checked out their evolution resources, please do it now! You won't regret it!) They have a great video on keystone species and trophic cascades that is 19 minutes long. You can find the video HERE and there is a student worksheet that can be downloaded HERE.

Want to include some literacy in your unit? Biology corner has a reading article with questions on keystone species. You can find it HERE. It would be a great homework assignment or sub plan if you are in a pinch.

Another great video for this topic is called "How Wolves Change Rivers." It can be found on Youtube HERE. The video is about the re-introduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park, and the impact they made on every other species in the ecosystem. It also takes it a step further and talks about how abiotic factors (such as the rivers) were affected as well. This video is only 4 minutes long, but is full of information so I usually show it once, have a class discussion, and then show it a second time to make sure they understand everything.

This is a fun topic to teach, so don't skip it when you are teaching ecology! It brings up great student discussions!

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