Category: Help for Teachers

The Market of Biology Teachers, Should I Study this Specialty?

If you’ve always wanted to become a science teacher, studying science in college is one of the most rewarding experiences. Science and Biology tutors play an important role in developing leaders in the fields of science and technology by fueling students’ curiosity and encouraging them to explore a wide range of interesting topics. Science teachers can get relevant certifications that will allow them to teach in elementary school, high school, and institutions of higher learning.

At higher learning levels, classes usually focus on specific subjects such as earth science, biology, physics, chemistry, animal science, and earth science. Teaching science effectively requires practical experiments and investigations to help students learn various scientific concepts. You can teach using field trips, multimedia materials, and other non-conventional teaching methods. A teacher must implement the best curricula and foster a learning environment that encourages learner participation.

Teaching Stages

Science education normally starts with an intro to basic concepts. Elementary tutors can help students grasp concepts on grading college papers quickly and easily by instilling an appreciation for teacher comments for students’ writing and student contract for grades and creating practical learning opportunities where students use their five senses to observe, analyze and discover. Middle school is an important time for nurturing learners’ interests. Therefore, science teachers need to nurture the interest of learners. Science teachers should read argumentative essays on minimum wage to get well compensated and create an engaging learning environment where learners are free to explore. Free essays examples and earth science are important classroom topics at this learning level since students are introduced to the lab setting during both individual and group experiences.

Tutors in higher learning institutions use instructional and investigational teaching methods to introduce complex scientific concepts in class including the usage of scientific labs. A science lab is an ideal place to investigate topics in biology, chemistry, and physics. Students need to understand lab safety rules and how to use equipment to grasp new concepts. Teachers should use lesson plans to help students understand complex systems, come up with new ideas, and solve problems with scientific methods. Here is a simple guide that will help you understand how to become a science teacher and what to expect in your career.

The job description of a science teacher

Science teachers are an important part of Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, and Computer Science. These disciplines are usually grouped in the education sector. Over the years, a lot of emphases has been placed on teaching these subjects because they play an important role in developing leaders in our modern world.

A science teacher guides to help a student explore and understand key concepts in science such as reading research essays examples, gathering evidence to support ideas and solving problems. Science teachers are responsible for coming up with lesson plans, presenting demonstrations, and giving assignments. They identify learners who are struggling to grasp various concepts and help them achieve their goals. They also need to communicate with the school administration and parents regularly about students’ progress.

Job requirements and tasks

Science teachers are required to prepare lesson plans based on school policies and grade levels. This includes preparing outlines, class assignments, homework, special projects, and tests. Tutors need to maintain student records on grades, class attendance, and conduct according to school and state policies. They also need to evaluate student performance regularly.

You need to have excellent verbal and written skills to communicate with students, school admin, and parents. You have to be detail-oriented, have good instructional skills, and solve problems effectively. You should also be actively involved in extracurricular activities such as athletics, football, and school clubs. Having a bachelor’s or master’s degree in science and a tutoring certificate is essential if you want to teach in public schools. To teach in higher learning institutions, you need to have a doctoral degree.

Becoming a science teacher

To become a science tutor in a public learning institution, you need to have a teaching license or certificate from your country or state together with an endorsement to teach this subject. Tutors in middle and high school usually major in the subjects they want to teach such as chemistry or biology. On the other hand, teachers at the elementary level teach a wide range of subjects. For private schools, you might not require a certification since the qualifications vary. To become a secondary school teacher in a public school, you need to:

* Have a degree in the subject you want to teach and complete all the required preparations
* Complete your teaching internship in the grade level you want to teach
* Take the required tests to get state approval
* Apply for a teaching license
* Apply for teaching jobs being advertised to science teachers

If you already have a college degree but lack other requirements, don’t fret. Getting certifications from your state is easy as long as you follow the rules.

Salary and outlook of the job

The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that science teachers at the elementary level earn an average salary of $57,980 while middle and high school teachers earn $58,600 and $60,320 respectively.

A 3 to 4 percent job growth is expected for all the groups. Science teachers who have a master’s degree earn an average salary of $82,550. The job growth prospects are at 11 percent. There are a lot of career advancement opportunities for science teachers who focus on developing and improving their skills regularly.

Getting a teaching job

To land your dream job, you’ll need to write and submit a professional resume that lists your education, job history, teaching experience, and accomplishments. Having affiliations with professional organizations that focus on science education can increase your chances of landing the job.

Start your job search by visiting school websites and other places that are dedicated to posting teaching jobs exclusively. Ensure that you have all the credentials to avoid wasting time and energy.

Conclusion

Trained science teachers have a lot of amazing job opportunities in the market. To increase your chances of landing a job and getting promotions, you need to develop and improve your skills regularly and network frequently. Getting the facts right and using the right procedures will help you achieve your
career goals quickly.

Building A Secure Virtual Biology Classroom With VPN

Virtual Biology Classroom VPN Safety
Building a virtual Biology classroom safely using a VPN

Everyone will unhesitatingly agree that providing strong encryption while surfing the Internet is a primary concern for every user. We are always afraid of our data privacy when connecting to Wi-Fi in a public place or transmitting meaningful materials. The list of various ways to implement this includes using a VPN that has long been proven effective.

However, in addition to the need to provide internet security for your data, there are several areas where an online virtual private network connection plays a major role. Among them is secure teaching, requiring a suitable platform and taking into account various points to ensure the comfort of students and tutors.

Why Is It An Essential Tool For Online Learning

Nowadays, more and more educational institutions pay tribute to distance learning, tirelessly working on improving various components of the latter. The recent rise in popularity of online studying is due to the prolonged outbreak caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nonetheless, it is necessary to consider various aspects to ensure private browsing for remote learning. Installing a network extension for Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Opera, and any other browser will help build a virtual Biology classroom safely and with many additional benefits.

Internet security is above all

Although online learning keeps up to date, scammers and various enemies of each user have expanded the range of their atrocities without missing the opportunity to try their strength in this area. Based on this, even at home, your devices can be subjected to various attacks by scammers. For this reason, your first task is setting up a browser network to get rid of any worries about personal data.

The latter will help protect sensitive content transmissions, Zoom meetings, and any other part of distance learning. In this context, it is necessary to emphasize another advantage of using this privacy tool since VeePN and other services will help you bypass various network restrictions. Check out the specifics of different providers to find the best one for building a virtual classroom.

Multiple possibilities for you

An extension for Firefox will be useful for every student, helping to overcome limitations and gain access to many other features. You will be able to avoid several dangers and difficulties, including plagiarism, one of the most serious violations of academic integrity.

Install a virtual private network add on and open many resources that limit the ability to familiarize and use. Thanks to a strong protection, you will be able to get to them, scoop information for academic papers and get the highest grades.

Reliable and legal privacy tool

As long as your activities in cyberspace do not violate any law, using one of these is a legal solution to protect your data. Permission to use this is due to the purpose of a virtual private network aimed at preventing any actions similar to criminal and terrorist offenses.

However, the latter is only effective if your educational institution does not prohibit this way of encrypting traffic. It should also be taken into account that several countries consider installing an add on and other tools as an illegal activity for which the student will be punished.

All-around classroom protection

Students use different devices to attend a virtual classroom, often connecting to public Wi-Fi at a library or other public place. It determines their need for protection and limits to track traffic for intruders. However, there are several reasons to start looking into Firefox settings and other ways to secure your identity. A virtual private network will be the best choice to provide secure teaching anytime and anywhere.

Encrypting your network activity is the primary benefit of a browser network, divided into many aspects related to distance learning. It is necessary to carefully understand all the details of building a secure biology classroom with one of these private networks to get everything it can offer.

A Few Recommendations

Although there is a long list of benefits of installing an extension for Firefox or a router, it is necessary to be attentive to details and keep in mind several pitfalls. Once you understand all the nuances and risks, you can find the best way to use one of these for distance learning. Among the specific tips regarding this are:

  • familiarization with Firefox VPN settings highlighting the most significant points to remember
  • backing up network files and data will not be superfluous
  • downloading content from illegal resources would not be a good idea
  • do not neglect the security of the school email account
  • be aware while surfing the Internet and so on.

A good source of information based on which you decide which VPN servers are best for secure teaching will be other users’ experience. Take the time to familiarize yourself with the reviews presented in the public domain.

Final Thoughts

All of the above aspects indicate that using a virtual private network in distance learning is worth it. It can not only provide private browsing but also open up many significant features aimed at improving the student’s academic performance. However, the latter requires learning about different subtleties to avoid difficulties or know how to act when faced with them.

The choice of private extension for Firefox and other browsers is not the last factor in this list. Therefore, it is significant to pay attention to the consideration of the specifics of each. Remember that although no tool is perfect, understanding the modus operandi and possible complications will make the use as efficient as possible.

Crime Scene Investigation

Crime Scene Investigation

 

Scenario: 

The Case of the Illegal Dumpsite

John Smith had worked for the same company in the shipping and receiving department for 15 years.  John was proud of his attendance record, and even though he wasn’t always giving his job 100%, he believed he was doing a good job.  Everyone goofs off at work part of the time, don’t they?

One morning when John arrived at work, he stopped at the bulletin board where new job listings were posted.  One of the postings was for a supervisor position in a department in which he had always wanted to work.  The pay was a nice increase too, and with the extra money, he could have his truck with the new tires and rims customized.  That night John filled out the necessary papers for the job and hurriedly turned them in the next day.

Weeks later, he and all the other employees that had applied, were called in for an interview.  John just knew that he would land the job.  However, when the person to fill the position was announced a few weeks later, another employee that had worked less time than John got the job.  John was furious at being overlooked!  That night when John clocked out and was getting into his car in the parking lot, he said, “I’ll get even with them for this.”

Tony Harris loved the outdoors and he loved photography, so many years ago when he relocated his family to a wetland area near a major river, he put his two “loves” together and started doing outdoor photography.  Some of Tony’s photographs had even been published in several naturalist journals.  Tony was very familiar with the wetland area and the wildlife because he spent most of his free time photographing there.

Tony had set out very early on a cool, crisp morning to spend the weekend camping and taking pictures at his favorite wetland area.  Tony was excited about his trip and the great pictures he expected to get so when he came across the cove with its terrible stench, Tony was unprepared for what he found.  In a tree-surrounded cove of the river, Tony found several dead waterfowl and turtles that had washed ashore.  When he examined them, there weren’t any markings to show injuries, and the animals appeared to have been healthy when they died.  Tony took several pictures of the area and the dead animals and decided to call the Game and Fish Commission when he returned home.

A new hunting season had opened and with it came lots of calls about poaching problems and hunting accidents.  Chelsea Brown had worked for the Game and Fish for several years since her graduation from college.  She had been raised to love animals and the environment so this job was great for her.  Today she was spending time in the office to catch up on some reports and to answer the hotline.  She was in a very relaxed mood when the phone hotline rang, and she took a call from a Mr. Tony Harris.  She remembered Mr. Harris from an awards banquet when the Game and Fish Commission gave Tony an award for some of his outstanding waterfowl photographs that they had published in their G & F magazine.

Tony reported the incident with the dead waterfowl and turtles he had witnessed in the cove and said he would send the photographs of the area and the dead animals to the Game and Fish.  Chelsea thanked Mr. Harris and told him she would make a report.  The call didn’t seem to be too serious to Chelsea at the time.  However, when Chelsea went to the G & F logbook to register the incident, she found numerous other reports called in from other hunters and campers stating that they had noticed a lot of unexplained deaths in the waterfowl and turtle populations in this area of the wetlands.  This couldn’t be ignored.  Chelsea said, “Guess we better get some people out there to check on this.”

When the Game and Fish officers traveled to the wetlands, they found more than just dead wildlife.  The scene they discovered might be the cause of the reported deaths of wildlife in this aquatic habitat.  Near the area of several of the reported hotline sightings, the officers found a large amount of industrial waste that had been dumped.  The waste included large piles of discarded plastics, metals, and wood.  A first inspection of the wastes didn’t give the officers a clue where the trash came from or who had left it there.  However, there were several deep tire tracks and shoe prints from a man’s athletic shoe in places where the ground had been extremely wet at one time.  Like many areas of the wetlands with clay-based soils, when the water had receded from this area, the tracks and the ground dried hard like cement.

There was a possibility that the waste could have a negative effect on the environment and the animals in the area.  The EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, would have to be called to help identify the unknown plastics, metals, etc. and to determine if they were or were not hazardous.  The officers closed off the area and the investigation began!

STUDENT ROLE

As a student, you will be a scientist on the team that the EPA sent to the wetland area to study the dump site and its effect.  You will work along with the people from the Game and Fish to solve three problems —

1.      What type of plastics and metal are dumped at the site?

2.    Could any of the plastics or metals cause death like the waterfowl and turtles?

3.    Who is responsible for the illegal dumping and subsequent clean-up and damages?

EXTENSION:

Devise a plan for a safe method of disposal for the trash found at the dump site? and an estimated cost for removal and damages.

Evidence:

Plastics, metals, tire tracks, shoe prints

Teacher Preparation:

 

ACTIVITY # 1 – Identifying Plastics

Handout – Industrial Park

References:

Plastic Recycling Codes

Plastic Identification Tests

Plastics Tests

Types of Plastics PowerPoint

Toxic Plastics — Fact or Myth?  PowerPoint

ACTIVITY # 2 – Identifying Metals

References:

Metals Color test

Metal Identification

Metal Properties 

ACTIVITY # 3 – Shoe Print & Tire Tread Patterns

Shoe Size versus Height Chart 

Sneaker Patterns 

Tire Treads

If the Shoe Fits  PowerPoint

Handout – Shoe Imprint from Dumpsite

Handout – Tire Tread Pattern from Dumpsite

Lab Investigations:

ACTIVITY #1 – Plastics Identification

ACTIVITY #2 – Metals Identification

ACTIVITY #3 – Shoe Pattern & Tire Track Identification

 

All Materials © Cmassengale

 

Cry of the Kalahari

Welcome to the Owens Foundation Home Page!
Copyright Owens Foundation

Introduction

American zoologists Mark and Delia Owens work as conservationists . Delia Owens, Ph.D., B.S., and Mark Owens M.Ed., B.S., have conducted research and conservation projects on endangered species in Africa for 23 years. They met in the early 70s as graduate students at the University of Georgia, and soon discovered that they shared the dream of saving part of Africa’s vanishing wilderness. Shortly after they married, they auctioned everything they owned, and with $6,000, one-way tickets and back-packs, they headed to “the Dark Continent.” Beginning in 1974, Delia and Mark worked for seven years in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve of Botswana studying brown hyenas and black maned lions where they made landmark discoveries regarding both species. For the first seven years they lived in tents in Botswana’s Central Kalahari Desert. There they studied black-maned lions and elusive brown hyenas in an area so remote that the animals had never before seen humans. Cry of the Kalahari, their best-selling book, is a gripping and vivid account of their research and adventures.

From 1985 through 1997 the Owenses worked to rehabilitate a 5,000 square mile area in north Zambia by eliminating elephant and meat poaching for the benefit of the people and the wildlife living there. From 1986 to 1997 the Owenses developed the North Luangwa Conservation Project (NLCP) in Zambia, a multidimensional approach to wildlife conservation and resource development. When Mark and Delia arrived in North Luangwa, more than 100,000 elephants and several thousand black rhinos had already been slaughtered by poachers in the Luangwa Valley; each year 1,000 elephants were still being killed in the “North Park” alone. By 1997, elephant poaching was controlled in North Luangwa. The Eye of the Elephant, the second book by Mark and Delia, published in 1992 by Houghton Mifflin, details their efforts to reclaim the North Luangwa wilderness from commercial ivory and meat poachers.

In 1997, Delia and Mark returned to the US and began assisting grizzly bear conservation in North Idaho, which is one of the five remnant grizzly bear populations in the lower 48 states. Today, Delia and Mark continue their support for the people and wildlife of Zambia as well as working for grizzly bear conservation in the northwestern US.

Project

Read Cry of the Kalahari by Mark and Delia Owens and view the two National Geographic videos, Eternal Enemies and Lions of the African Night. You will take three tests over the book and then write a paper on the book and videos.

Tests

Cry Quiz #1 – Read pages 1-118                           ____________________
Cry Quiz #2 – Read pages119-214                        ____________________
Cry Quiz #3 – Read 214 to the end of the book     ____________________

Format of the Paper

I.      Biography of Mark and Delia Owens
II.    Republic of Botswana
III.   Lion Prides
IV.    Brown Hyena Packs
V.     Ungulates of the Kalahari
VI.    Interactions of Predators and Prey
VII.  Fencing and Disease Control
VIII. Bibliography (all 3 sources – book and 2 videos)
IX.    Appendix (Must include 2 drawings from book – Map of Africa showing Kalahari location and Map of Deception Valley)

* The paper should be 6 – 8 pages typed (9-10 pages handwritten) NOT counting the bibliography or appendix.

* You must use font size 12, Times New Roman, Double spaced, 1″ margins.

* Include a cover sheet with the title, and your name and period.

Due ___________            Counts as a Unit Test Grade (200 points)


Delia and Mark Owens near Marula Puku Research camp in North Luangwa National Park of Zambia.
Copyright Owens Foundation

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