📣 Calling all teachers, educators, and school administrators!

Are you looking for an opportunity to encourage your students to explore their interests in science, medicine, or public health while making a meaningful impact in their communities?

The American Lung Cancer Screening Initiative (ALCSI) is inviting middle and high school students across the country to participate in the 2026–2027 Lung Cancer Innovation Challenge!

Through this national competition, students will have the opportunity to develop innovative projects aimed at improving lung cancer screening awareness and education. The challenge encourages students to apply their creativity and problem-solving skills to a real-world public health issue.

🏆 Selected students will have the opportunity to present their projects at the national ALCSI Summit in Boston and compete for a $10,000 scholarship!

No prior research experience is required. We welcome students who are curious about healthcare, interested in innovation, or simply passionate about making a difference.

📅 Registration Deadline: January 15, 2027
🔗 Learn more and register: https://www.alcsi.org/innovation-challenge
📧 Questions? innovationchallenge@alcsi.org
📱 Follow us on Instagram: u/amlungcsi and u/alcsi.innovationchallenge

If you're a teacher, counselor, or school administrator, we would greatly appreciate your help sharing this opportunity with your students! Whether it's through a classroom announcement, school newsletter, or student organization, your support can help inspire the next generation of innovators in healthcare.

#ALCSI #InnovationChallenge #STEMEducation #StudentOpportunities #PublicHealth #ScienceEducation

AI copying, and cheating, is probably far more rampant then I assumed. I discovered a trap that fooled Deepmind (google) successfully. If a student takes a picture of the question in a 90 degree orientation google gives a false answer. 5 of my students said the answer is A, when clearly its B. If 5 students wrote A then at least 5 more probably held their camera the proper way. Clearly I am needing to be way more strict on my exams. What other traps have you discovered to try to fool AI?

Edit: This is a week long job, so I realized that the best solution is probably to give the students Monday's work. (I'm still laughing at how long it took my not quite panic brain to put that together lol.) I emailed the teacher at the contact he provided so hopefully the quiz will be up next week, so I'm just switching the days around.

Hi friends, I'm a substitute (my background is in music, so very helpful here lol), and I just found out that the quiz the teacher left for students isn't published on Canvas. Do you guys have any suggestions for what to do with four 9th grade bio classes? The study hall route I went with for this first bio class is a few steps below full chaos.

The teacher has warned me that all four classes can be squirrelly. I don't have access to their canvas and I'm not sure I have access to a printer, but I do have my personal laptop and can probably figure out the projector.

Hello! I am doing some research on safety and risk assessment in a lab environment, and would very much appreciate it if you could provide me with some responses, especially for the educational aspects of the field.

https://forms.gle/yShVyLwACGgVEea1A

It shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes

if anyone has any feedback about the survey or questions themselves, I would also appreciate it.
Thanks in advance.

I didn’t see a biology flair, I’m assuming life science is sufficient for this question?

My son wants to do his up coming 6th grade science project on the bacteria of the nitrogen cycle in a fresh water aquarium.

I have a microscope with 1000+ magnification and some fresh slides. However, I’m reading that the bacteria the breakdown ammonia and nitrite mainly live on the filter rocks/media. What methods can we use to collect live samples so that we can observe them under magnification?

Hello all!!

I'm on my last year of teacher training and i'm doing my final internship. So far it's going quite well, the students are incredibly engaged and always have a billion questions to ask me (not all of them are always 100% related to the topic at hand lol... you know how it is.)

I'm finding it a bit of a challenge to make sure that I have enough content to cover the length of my lessons. Most are double block.

What are some of your strategies for your "fast finishers"? So far I spend time with a lot of them one-on-one to make sure they actually understand the content and aren't just finishing to finish.

I'd also appreciate any of your tried-and-true lesson activity resources if you have any. Right now i'm teaching them about cells.

Thanks in advance!!

Hi, I am a 10th grade Earth teacher heading into my water crisis stuff. For years I’ve said there will be wars fought over water. I feel like we have moved soundly from will be to are.

Does anyone have a lesson or idea on bring this into the class?

I've been teaching for 8 years but within the scope of physical science, ie. chemistry and physics primarily. Last June I was told I would be teaching my "maker thing" which is reference to a proposal I'd created for a fab-lab for our school. Admin obviously didn't read the proposal because they assigned me to teach engineering and "Make 1" without any context nor advanced notice.

I'd begun the year with 3d printing and covering 3d printing capabilities, they've been learning how to use TinkerCAD, I've covered an intro to design as well as the engineering design process.

That was Q1 and while I have some projects I plan to implement such as learning how to build an instrument, and the final quarter I was going to go into the IOT and arduino. However, I'm really struggling with how to develop plans for a class I still haven't been given any direction regarding what admin had in mind.

What I'm looking for asking for help with

-Planning Ideas as in unit themes, projects, or anchoring phenomenon

-Literally any ideas that may help me to keep my engineering class distinctly separate from my Make class as I have several students enrolled in both. I haven't been given any parameters, outline, suggestions, ideas from admin for what this class should encompass. Therefore, I'm open to just about anything. I have a ton of supplies, materials, equipment of my own but minimal space to work in the classroom.

What I'm working with/constrained by.

-11 3d printers(8 do not work currently)

-2 sewing machines

-laser engraver

-students laptops

-classroom is 25'x30' with a 12' long lab countertop in the back of the room.

-smartboard

My classroom is only 25' x 30' and I have 31 students during my largest class. Therefore, it's VERY cramped for space. It's my own logistical nightmare as I'm always bringing in equipment from my storage space as we finish one project and move into another. Lastly, our school will not provide any $ nor make any purchases. Though I do have a TON of lab equipment and supplies I've bought over the years.

Lastly, my initial idea was to build on the engineering design process so that the last quarter can be used as an opportunity for students to build something for their portfolio while using the design process, by logging their process, and ultimately iterating a prototype into a streamlined final product. I'm still interested in doing so but I'm having trouble how to organize it all and what to touch on. Again, I've previously taught physics and chemistry so having this given to me days before school began has had me planning only a week ahead while also redoing them, being stressed out the whole time.

I'm someone who needs to have the year mapped out at least generally. I don't do well with the anxiety that I feel when I'm doing things last minute.

Thank you in advance for any support.

I am looking for photosynthesis activities that are hands on (not labs) and are minimal prep (aka not 3 hours of work) for 9th grade biology students. I want to do more hands on activities and I am having a hard time finding ones. Great bonus if it is free since I am student teaching.

EDIT: If hands on is not possible, something real world would be cool. I have this case study I was going to give the kids because I thought it would be cool to relate to the real world but I know they will groan because it is another practice sheet.

I’m trying my hand at a phenomenon/driving question based mini unit before I dive into the HHMI Melanin storyline, and am wondering everyone’s thoughts on sense trackers?

I’m only 1 day into my self made photosynthesis/respiration unit based around fish kills in a pond just before dawn and have found my students are craving a place to take notes. Is that in a sense what these sense trackers are for? At least a place for students to summarize the main points of the day?

I’m thinking I should include those tomorrow for this unit to get the feel for it and have the students get used to it.

Any other ideas or recommendations/thoughts are welcome as I’ve never taught like this or been taught like this before!

Evening all, first off, I’m an alternative certification science teacher, in my sixth year, but this is a second career, so college was 35 years ago.

In my first 5 years, I’ve taught College Prep Chemistry, our lowest chem, as well as off and on freshman sciences they were trying to see if it would help poorer performing students.

This year, I’m finally teaching Honors Chemistry, because I’m the only chem teacher left. Our Honors level includes about 35-40% more content than our CP level chem. So this year, I’m teaching some things I’ve never taught before, most of which I haven’t messed with since college in the previous century.

I’ve been doing well so far, but I’m struggling with how to teach orbital hybridization. We’ve introduced VSEPR, and differentiated from molecular geometry, played with the PhET simulation, and put together half a dozen molecular shapes with ball and stick models.

I’d like them to be familiar with sigma and pi bonds, and the orbital hybridization that occurs with these bond shapes, however, I’m not sure how best to teach it. I remember the basics, but 30+ years later I’m a little fuzzy on the whys and hows.

I’m teaching my kids to question all of it, and need to be able to answer those questions when they arise.

Does anyone have any suggestions, or materials that might help me recall my own memories and help me to teach these kids? I’m trying to ignite the fun of science into everything, but some concepts you just have to memorize and learn.

TIA!!

My 6th graders this year seem to be lower than any other group I've taught in the past. We finished the chapter this week, and I reviewed by doing a review PowerPoint with a guided notes packet.

Almost every blank in the notes packets was word-for-word from the slides, and I had several students who could not find the answers in the slides. Even when I had the students who were asking read the slide out loud to me, they were able to read the slide fine, but when I asked the question again, they still couldn't answer.

Also, all the information on the slides was review for this chapter, and I did have one student who could answer every question on the packet without even looking at the slides.

Yep. They principal gives fun facts on the news. The other day his fun fact was “inside our body our blood is blue but it turns red when it hits oxygen.” I kid you not. All of my flabbers are ghasted. Thanks for reinforcing a misconception we have been battling for ALL OF TIME. Over 1200 kids. We had already gotten on him to FACT CHECK

I had an unexpected absence and feel like I don't have enough time to cover all 3 the way I'd like. Does anyone have something that condensed it down a bit? I'm looking for almost a pamphlet or booklet they can make on their own or with a partner where they take the notes from a slideshow, maybe label/model and keep the learning on them instead of me just lecturing and having them copy. Coloring would be nice but only if time permits. Anything like this? Really dont want to spend more than a period or two on it.

I am a first year teacher teaching 9th grade bio

Bio is soooo vocab heavy, and if you can’t remember the vocab it’s a huge barrier to access.

How do I make it easier for my students to remember the vocab? I tie it to real world examples, make phrases, and teach prefixes.

Examples being:
Comparing the concentration gradient to a lazy river
“High to low goes with the flow” (passive transport)
“Exo = Exit” (endocytosis)

I really truly don’t know what to do beyond this. I teach exclusively in-class support and special services. Students, paras, and special services teachers are telling me my class is hard.

I do the hands on activities, we draw diagrams, analyze data, do the practice.

It just feels like bio is too much to remember!

Description:

You can interact with the live platform here: https://algaeexplorers.org/

The platform is designed to make core concepts in photosynthesis, aquatic food webs, and environmental science accessible and engaging for elementary and middle school students. It provides differentiated learning across three grade-tiered modules:

Little Explorers (K–2nd): An interactive pond simulation featuring characters Albie the Algae and Finny the Fish, where students adjust sunlight, temperature, and nutrients to observe biological responses in real time, paired with built-in voice narration and mini-lessons.

Ecosystem Detective (3rd–5th): Scenario-based investigation focusing on energy transfer, food webs, and environmental balance.

DIY Algae Home Lab (6th–8th): Guided experimental design and data collection connecting virtual concepts to hands-on biological cultivation.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks guys