Hi! If I understand correctly, you are just beginning the
Biology course? Assuming you have done all the typical
beginning of the course activities, I then have used the
following items with good success over the years:

1. Observation/Description Activity--students work in teams of
3. Provide each team with a small bag that contains at
least 6 landscaping type rocks and 3 index cards. Each
student silently chooses 1 rock and writes a thorough
description of thier rock on the card. All rocks and cards
are placed back in the bag and are then either given to
another team, who has to figure out which rock goes with
which card, or to make it more of a challenge, two bags are
combined, students are resorted into new groups and then
they try to match the rocks with the description. Each team
earns 5 points for each rock correctly identified. The fun
is when the original team cannot identify the rocks they
wrote about either!!! I require a short paragraph on WHY
observation skills are necessary and what problems the
students had with the activity for another 5 points. Good
icebreaker for students, and an easy way to experience
success in an often intimidating class.

2. Distribute a listing of commonly used word parts for
science. Work on word parts and their meanings. Have
students make up funky words from the word part list and
exchange--students have to define the "terms". Some funny
ones may become part of your class'"inside jokes" that year!

HTH!! Have a good term!

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