Biology on the IWB: 10 Quick Ideas

Here are some quick ideas for using an IWB for Biology teaching.

1. Sequence the stages in Mitosis or Meiosis using images or statements

2. Drag and Drop animals and arrows to create Food Chains and Webs

3. Label diagrams of the various body systems using images captured from the Internet or from the gallery.

4. Investigate genetic crossing using drag and drop punnet squares. In Smart you could use the Infinite Cloner on the B and b, or just stack several letters on top of each other so when you drag one down, the rest remain.

5. Use the camera to capture pictures from the internet to illustrate a lesson on the dangers of alcohol and smoking. Or use the Inside Body powerpoint presentations from the ASE site as a source of images.

6. Sort foods into 'healthy' and 'unhealthy' foods, then use as basis for a discussion about whether there is actually any such thing as an unhealthy food.

7. Simulate how to use a quadrat before going out into the field using random dots and a square annotation, or the square spotlight tool.

8. Combine the IWB with a digital microscope to demonstrate and label slides as a whole class.

9. Keyword Plenary – pupils choose keywords from a selection, drag them into the middle of the screen and use them to explain one thing they’ve learned from the lesson.

10. Use a visualiser (Document camera) when carrying out dissections of the heart or flowers to make it easier for the whole class to see what is going on. Use the camera tool to capture images during the various stages of the dissection and add labels to the images. A cheaper alternative would be to use a webcam clamped to a retort stand

A quick starter idea - Countdown Clock

Here's a quick idea for a lesson starter/plenary. The idea is to give the students 5 quickfire questions and a set, short, time limit to answer each one.

The way you can do this will be slightly different whether you have a Smartboard or an ActivBoard

Promethean Version

1. On page 1 write/type your first question.
2. Put another question on page 2, 3, 4 etc
3. Go back to page 1
4. Click on the Clock icon from the ActivStudio toolbar. Select Count Ddown from the list.
5. Set the time you want each question to be shown. In the example below I have chosen 30 seconds.
6. You can set a sound to play at the end of each time limit. Click on the drop down arrow to choose a different sound.
7. In the second drop down, choose "Turn to next page".
8. Make sure the Repeat box is checked. This will make the clock work on every slide rather than just the first one.
9. Then click OK

What will happen is that the first question will be displayed and the clock will start counting down. When it reaches zero, the sound will play and ActivStudio will immediately turn to the second question. This will repeat for all the questions you have written.

SmartBoard version

Smart Notebook does have a countdown timer, but it does not turn the pages automatically.

You can find the timer in the gallery in several places. Check under - Essentials for Educators - Mathematics - General Resources - Tools. Drag the timer from the gallery onto your 5 question pages.

Set each clock to Count Down and set the time to 30 seconds.

Once the clock has counted down, move to the next page. You will have to do this manually.

Quick Tips

Smart Quick Tip #1 - If you use the Timer a lot, it is well worth dragging it into your My Content area of the gallery so you can find it quicker.

Smart Quick Tip #2 - You can search the gallery by keyword. So a quick way to find the timer would be to type the word Timer into the search box at the top of the gallery. All the items that have a keyword of Timer will be returned in the search.

General Tip #1 - If you want to set up the questions during a lesson and you do not want the students to see them before you are ready, You can use the Blank or the Freeze button on the remote control to hide what you are doing until you are ready.

Promethean software version 3

I do a lot of training in schools using Promethean Activ Boards, and in nearly every case they are still using ActivPrimary 2 or ActivStudio 2. Most of these schools haven't been made aware that version 3 is available - and has been for nearly a year.

Version 3 has some new features and tweaks that make it work a little better than v2.

If you already own version 2 - you can upgrade to version 3 for free. All you need to have is your Serial number, which you can find inside the box that the Activ software came in. You can also find the serial number in the Help > About menu inside the software.

There are two different pages to go to, depending on whether you are in the UK or the US.

UK users should go here.

US users should go here.

You can enter your details at the bottom of the page, and will then be sent a link to download version 3. If this does not work, or the thought of a 600MB download is too much, you can order a CD for a small fee. On the page you will find a link to a pdf file that explains the new features of version 3.

For teachers who want to be able to check out Promethean resources on their computers, but dont want to install the full version of ActivStudio/Primary - there is a Flipchart viewer that you can download. You can get it here

The viewer is also good if you want students to be able to take home copies of the lessons you have produced on your classroom IWB. As an alternative, you can also direct them towards ActivStudio Student Edition. This is freely available for use by any student of a school or institution that owns licensed copies of Promethean Activstudio. Every one of your students may install this software to create their own flipchart presentations or open their teachers’ flipcharts.

Art Attack

The other day James, over at Teachers Love Smart Boards, linked to a great online drawing package called Imagination Cubed. Basically its a drawing program that runs in your browser. This is great as it can be used on any brand of IWB irrespective of the software you use on your board.

I'm a scientist, not an artist but I've always enjoyed using art packages on the IWB. I used to play with packages like Painter and Photoshop. Drawing with a mouse, or even a graphics tablet, is a real pain and it is so much easier to be able to paint with my fingers! After all an IWB is only really a HUGE graphics tablet!

A quick trawl around the web led me to a few other interesting drawing packages. There are a lot of them out there covering a range of painting styles. And the best thing is they are free! I love Photoshop but it is rather pricey!

A really nice one is Brushter, which is an abstract painting package. You can choose from a wide range of brush styles and different paint effects. Autocolour chooses a different colour paint each time, which should sound annoying but actually can give a nice abstract effect. You can even click an Auto button and have Brushter generate an abstract image on its own while you watch! Here's a little something I knocked up:

Another one I quite liked is ArtPad. It's much simpler than Brushter and only gives one style of paintbrush. You can choose colours, size and opacity though. Like Imagination cubed you can replay your painting from start to finish.

Finally, there is the much simpler online Colouring-in pages at TheKidszPage.com. You can choose from a range of different line drawings to then colour in. Again this is not as powerful as the Brushter one, but foundation pupils will love colouring in the pictures with their fingers!