Food Chains and Food Webs SKETCH NOTES | Energy Flow | Science Coloring

Instead of lecturing and notes the traditional way, try something new!

In this download, you will receive a set of Sketch Notes I designed, drew, and used with my own 7th grade science students in our Evolution and Adaptations unit. My students LOVE them, as they are a great way to break up the monotony of traditional notes. There are plenty of possibilities for differentiation and delivery, and plus, your kids get to COLOR!

INCLUDED

• Blank Sketch Notes
• Uncolored Answer Key (to give your kids without coloring ideas)
• Colored-in Answer Key (for inspiration | your convenience)
  

DIFFERENT WAYS TO USE START USING SKETCH NOTES NOW!

• METHOD 1: Project your own blank copy of the notes onto the board, and fill them out with your students while you are lecturing.
• METHOD 2 (my favorite!): Create an Edpuzzle of you completing your own note set and lecturing as you go. Students can then pause to fill in their own set, as well as take mini-quizzes to engage them with the content along the way.
• METHOD 3: Post the answer key—colored-in or not—into Google Classroom, Edmodo, or whatever EdTech platform your school | district may use. Have students fill in and color on their own time.
• METHOD 4: Post answer key semi-completed online, and have students either fill in the rest of the information by reading through a note set you create, or by doing research online.
• METHOD 5 (my other favorite!): Give students a limited time (5 minutes is usually plenty) to fill in the blanks from either the board or your EdTech platform, then remove the key | have all devices closed. Then, while students color, lecture and review the notes with them.

And… about a dozen other methods, too!

WHY USE SKETCH NOTES?

Sketch Notes are a great way to break away from the traditional norm of lecture and content delivery. Students tend to be more engaged when they’ve had time to move through the notes at their own pace, and the coloring (especially color coding) allows them to relax while passively reviewing the material. The content has this extra chance, then, to stick in the brain and make sense.

They are:

• Fun
• Easy to use
• A way to shake things up
• Easily differentiable
• A brain break
• Scientifically proven to increase memory of the topic!

A NOTE ON COLOR CODING... and why you should teach it to your students!

At the risk of Sketch Notes being a normal set of notes, or a random coloring sheet that gets glued into a journal and forgotten, teach your kids to COLOR CODE! This means, boxes and lines pointing or referring to specific sections, get colored the same as that section.

In my students’ experience, it helps them find information much more quickly, as well as make more sense of their own notes that they take.

Best of luck, and happy Science-ing!

-B