Don Galbraith AwardCURRICULUM IDEA: Student-Created Bulletin Boards

Candidate Name: VICTORIA ICETON

Grades and Strands: Grade 7: Pure Substances & Mixtures Grade 9: Essential (SNC1L): Chemistry –

Properties of Common Materials Grade 8: Cells Grade 9: Essential (SNC1L): Biology –

Staying Alive

Description: Bulletin boards, like anchor charts, may provide an efficient and useful tool for students to quickly refer to important concepts in the classroom. By providing students with a basic outline, small groups of students may work together to create the different segments or components of a bulletin board. Bulletin board pieces may be pre-made so that students simply assemble each component. This approach may be used throughout many grades and secondary courses; however, the ones outlined below are specific to the grades (and corresponding strands) outlined above.

Equipment Needed: Bulletin Board

Pure Substances & Mixtures o Circles in four different colours

(approximately 15 cm in diameter) to represent different atom types

31 yellow (representing carbon) 18 green (representing oxygen) 6 blue (representing nitrogen) 6 red (representing hydrogen)

o Title signs: “Pure Substances”, “Mixtures”

o Definition sings: “Elements: Made up of 1 type of atom.” “Compounds: Made up of 2 or more different atoms, bonded together in a fixed ratio.”

Plant & Animal Cells o Different coloured pieces for various parts/organelles of the plant and animal cell, curly ribbon for

chromosomeso Labels for cell organelles

Safety Comments: A stapler may be required to attach items to bulletin board; stapler should be used by students with caution.