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

Google Sky

Previously only available via Google Earth, which you had to download and run locally, Google have now made Google Sky available online to access anywhere with an internet connection.

Now you can browse the night sky and zoom in on any interesting galaxies or star clusters that you like.

Google Sky via kwout

If you haven't tried them, also check out Google Mars and Google Moon for surface maps based on information from various Moon and Mars missions.

Remember you can use the camera function in your interactive whiteboard software to make any screengrabs from any part of the map and bring it into your IWB software to annotate over the top. You can also put these images into your resource library/gallery for later use.

Yenka Science and Maths Resources

Yenka is a new resource from the people who produced Crocodile Clips. It's based on their Absorb range of online teaching materials that originally were released alongside Crocodile Physics and Chemistry.

The whole library is going to be a subscription service, but on release they have produced 700 resources which can be used free-of charge.

These resources cover aspects of science and maths and should work very well on an interactive whiteboard. Well worth a visit.

Yenka via kwout

Equation Balancer

I've produced a new Smart Notebook file to help with balancing equations.

The atoms at the top have been infinitely cloned so you can drag down as many as you require to show how many atoms there are on both sides of the equation. The arrow and plus sign can also be cloned.

You can download the file from the Think Bank website here. Look in the chemistry section.

I'll make versions for other boards soon. I did try making a Lynx version to test the software, but it kept crashing every 2 minutes so I gave up in frustration.

Heart Animation

As a former Biology teacher I am always interested in nice animations that can be used to demonstrate biological processes.

Thanks to Science Video Resources for posting this article about a nice heart animation. You can see the animation here.

Looking at the site that hosted this animation, I tracked back to the main teaching resources page. It's worth taking a look at that too since there are links to some other interesting Biology animations and movies such as Mitosis and meiosis.

On a related note, Science Video Resources also posted another link to a resource that shows circulation in different vertebrates, that is also quite interesting.

Mercury Messenger

After travelling through space for 2 and a half years, the NASA Messenger probe has now arrived around the planet Mercury and is starting to send back images of the planets surface. The NASA Messenger website looks like the place to be to see these pictures as they are processed.

The site also contains many animations and movies of Mercury that would be great to use in a Science lesson on your Interactive Whiteboard.

For Students via kwout

The Elements Song

Well, if I am going to be posting a blog about Interactive Whiteboards I had better post one of my favourite resources ever.

I show this resource whenever I do a Science IWB training day to teachers. I never get sick of it.

It uses the Tom Lehrer ''Periodic Table'' tune, but has a very cool flash animation too. It's always great to start the session with a song....

To view the Elements Song, click here.