CHAPTER 15
Strategies for the Beginning and Ending of Class

What Is it?

What happens at the beginning and ending of class is just as important as the learning during class.

Nearly every lesson plan template includes an activity at the beginning of science class to review, preview, or build anticipation for content. The 5E Instructional Model calls it “Engage” (BSCS Science Learning, n.d.), and Madeline Hunter refers to it as an “anticipatory set” (Hunter, 2004).

Although there are many terms describing the short activity students do for the first few minutes of science class, we refer to it as a “warm-up.” Reviewing, previewing, and building anticipation for new content can all take place during warm-ups.

The last few minutes of class are when “cool down” activities can occur, which may offer time for students to reflect, make new connections, or complete a formative assessment.

Why We Like It

In secondary schools, the practice of using warm-ups and cool downs is referred to as “bell-to-bell instruction.” Bell-to-bell instruction consists of students working on any variety of activities from the moment class begins until the bell rings (Ginsburg, 2014). The purpose of bell-to-bell instruction is to maximize the amount of time students are engaged and learning.

Warm-ups are effective tools to begin bell-to-bell instruction. While students are completing their warm-up, it provides us with the opportunity to take attendance, check homework, and address individual student needs, including “catching up” students who were absent the previous day.

We use cool downs at the end of the class for formative assessments or to engage students in reflection activities. Cool downs can provide data and drive instruction because they can let us know when students are struggling or if they are ready to move to the next concept. Wrapping up learning at the end of the lesson can also help students make new connections with their learning (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d.).

Supporting Research

Research shows that warm-ups used as a daily review of previously learned material can help students recall previous information and make new connections (Rosenshine, 2012, p. 13).

An action-research project found that using exit tickets to review vocabulary words with English language learners increased their usage and comprehension of the words (Larson, Dixon, & Townsend, 2013, p. 18,). Another study in science classes found that exit slips improved student engagement and quiz scores (Mastromonaco, 2015).

Skills for Intentional Scholars/NGSS Connections

All three Skills for Intentional Scholars are incorporated with beginning and ending of class strategies. Whether it is a quick review, activation of prior knowledge, learning goal self-reflection, or a quick formative assessment, students are using their critical thinking skills, creative problem solving, and effective communication skills.

Warm-ups and cool downs can be used to informally assess students' depth of knowledge of the Next Generation Science Standards' three dimensions: Science and Engineering Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Disciplinary Core Ideas.

Application

At the beginning of the school year, we teach students the classroom procedure for beginning science class. We practice for the first one or two weeks so students can become familiar with the classroom routine. We ask them to sit in their seats, take out required materials, and begin the warm-up, which is written on the board or projected onto the screen.

Prior to the beginning of class, we also list all of the lesson's necessary materials on the board. These may include pencils, lab notebooks, and highlighters. As part of the classroom procedure, students know to get these materials out prior to beginning their warm-up and to put everything else away. (We, of course, provide the lab supplies, such as beakers, chemicals, and test tubes.) We have students obtain the materials first because it helps them to transition smoothly into the lab after completing the warm-up.

We also practice cool down procedures during the first two weeks. After the main lesson is complete, students return to their desks and begin the cool down, which is available on the board or screen.

In this chapter, we discuss how warm-ups and cool downs can be used in classroom management, as formative assessments, and we address the frequency of their use. We will first briefly review those three areas, and then discuss more specific activities teachers can use—first for warm-ups, then for cool downs.

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

While students are working on their warm-ups and cool downs, we can address some “housekeeping” needs, such as taking attendance. However, once those tasks are complete, we walk around the room and try to check in with every student. Another classroom procedure we teach students during the first two weeks of school is how to complete their warm-ups and cool downs quickly. We begin by telling students that we will not move on to the next part of the lesson until everyone is done. This action reinforces the message that every student is important. We walk around and provide one-on-one support to anyone who may have questions. We also encourage partners to work together, because, as we remind them, “Two heads are better than one.” Once every student is done with their warm-up or cool down, we say something like “Now that everyone is done, let's talk about your answers.”

Once this kind of routine is established, it becomes a vital part of daily classroom management. Students know what to expect when they enter the room. Knowing that a cool down related to that day's lesson will often be their “ticket” out the door may help maintain student engagement during the period.

WARM-UPS AND COOL DOWNS AS FORMATIVE ASSESSMENTS

Sometimes warm-ups and cool downs can be used as formative assessments. The purpose of formative assessments is to provide students with practice so they can receive meaningful feedback, and continue their learning prior to the graded summative assessment (Miller, 2011; Dyer, 2013). In addition, formative assessments can provide valuable information to the teacher so that instruction can be aligned to student needs. We discuss formative and summative assessments in Chapter 17: Strategies for Assessing Student Learning.

FREQUENCY OF USE

Generally speaking, we use warm-ups and cool downs at the beginning and end of every lesson. If a lesson only requires one day, then the warm-up and cool down will occur on the same day. However, if a lesson is three days long, then the warm-up may occur on day one and the cool down occurs on day three. There are times when a lesson teaches many concepts, in which case we may use a cool down at the end of each day so we know how students are progressing. The bottom line is that teachers should decide what frequency makes sense for their situation. For example, some particularly “active” classes might benefit from knowing that there will be a warm-up and/or a cool down every day.

SPECIFIC IDEAS FOR WARM-UPS

Warm-ups can be written in any number of formats, including as a set of questions, brain teasers, jokes, memes, political cartoons, demonstrations, or videos.

Regardless of the format in which the warm-up is written, we use them for four different purposes, which include:

1. previewing new material to build anticipation
2. teaching or reviewing background knowledge
3. reviewing previous material
4. formative assessment

We discuss how to use warm-ups as formative assessments in Chapter 17: Strategies for Assessing Student Learning. The next three sections discuss the remaining purposes for using warm-ups.

Warm-Ups: Previewing New Material to Build Anticipation

Warm-ups can be used to preview new material in order to build anticipation for an upcoming lesson. When we say we are building student anticipation, we mean that we are trying to spark their curiosity.

Curiosity activates specific areas of the brain. Research shows that when people are curious, their prefrontal cortices are activated because their brains are getting ready to learn something (Kang et al., 2009). It's important to stimulate the prefrontal cortices because some of those functions include decision-making, self-control, and problem solving, which are skills that students can actively use to learn new content (UCD Neuropsychology Lab, 2018).

There are multiple ways to build anticipation. One activity could be demonstrating a phenomenon, such as lighting a match and dropping it into a 5-gal water bottle that secretly holds a teaspoon of rubbing alcohol. The match ignites the alcohol and a small explosion occurs. Then light a second match and drop it into the water bottle but nothing happens. Ask students, “What was the difference?” and they must brainstorm an explanation of what they witnessed. Phenomena can also be shown using videos if they are too dangerous or expensive to demonstrate in class.

Another example is asking students questions and delaying the answers in order to build anticipation. In a chemistry unit, we wanted students to understand the difference between mass and weight. We developed the following three questions for students to answer in their warm-up:

1. Which is heavier: 1 kg of rock or 1 kg of feathers? How do you know?
2. Which has more atoms: one grape or one watermelon? How do you know?
3. Which has more gravity: the moon or the Earth? How do you know?

Students discuss possible answers with learning partners and document ideas in their lab notebooks. The purpose of the warm-up is to build anticipation, so we aren't concerned that they write the correct answers. This warm-up can also be used to activate prior knowledge, which we discuss in detail in Chapter 13: Strategies for Activating Prior Knowledge.

After students complete their warm-up, we continue to build anticipation by saying, “We are not going to give you the answers to the questions. It's your job today to determine if your answers are accurate.” We then introduce the activity they will complete in order to learn the required information. We explain that after the activity they will have the chance to change their answers.

When we describe building anticipation in professional development classes, we remind teachers that “there's a reason why we don't want our friends to spoil the ending of a movie, book, or sporting event. We want to experience the emotional ride that accompanies the event. Learning can be this type of event too.” We don't want to spoil the end of a lab for students but, instead, build anticipation so that learning is exciting.

We are strategic when thinking about using a warm-up to build anticipation. We follow this four-step process:

1. Identify the concept students should learn by the end of the lesson. In the chemistry unit example, we wanted students to differentiate between mass and weight.
2. Develop the warm-up, which may include writing questions, designing a demonstration, or identifying a video. To get students to begin thinking about mass and weight, we wrote three engaging questions that we thought most students might answer incorrectly because they had a lack of background knowledge.
3. Create an activity to teach the concept. We created a three-station lab that instructed students to weigh objects, read an article about the number of atoms in the human body, and calculate their weight on different planets.
4. Connect the cool down to the warm-up so students reflect on the accuracy of their answers. Students were instructed to use their lab results to determine if their answers were correct or need to be changed. An example of how we ended the lesson on the difference between mass and weight can be found in the section Cool Downs: Making New Connections Using the Warm-Up.

Are we this thoughtful about every warm-up we use to prompt anticipation? Of course not! Sometimes we just get a fun idea and try it. But it's safe to say, as with all classroom instruction, the more we plan ahead, the more likely our classroom instruction will be a positive learning experience for most of our students.

Warm-Ups: Teaching or Reviewing Background Knowledge

Warm-ups can also be used to teach or review background knowledge. A structured format for this type of warm-up is to use a KWL chart. This graphic organizer is a three-column chart students use to document what they know about a given subject, what they want to know about the subject, and what they learned about the subject. We provide examples and resources for using KWL charts in Chapter 13: Strategies for Activating Prior Knowledge.

When we want to teach or review background knowledge needed to access an upcoming lesson, we attempt to incorporate students' interests and/or connect their prior experiences. Here are a few examples:

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Example 15.1

We overheard students debating in the hallways about whether or not water is wet. See Figure 15.1 for the warm-up we developed for the chemistry lesson that was going to teach students the unique characteristics of water.

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Example 15.2

Before teaching students about wildlife strikes, which is when wild animals come into contact with man-made objects, the warm-up required them to watch a video of a deer that was hit by a bus. The deer's body broke the windshield and it landed inside the bus near the door. The deer popped up and tried tirelessly to get out of the bus. The bus driver finally pulled over, opened the door, and the deer ran away, unharmed. The warm-up instructions said, “Write about a time when you saw an animal hit a man-made object. If you've never seen this happen, then write about what you imagine it would be like.”

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Example 15.3

To teach students the concept of inertia, we took the class outside where a sledgehammer was resting against a low-set table. Near the table we had stored half a watermelon, a dozen raw eggs, a concrete block, and two pillows. We placed one raw egg on the table, picked up the sledgehammer, and asked the class, “Talk to a partner and determine which object will win the Battle of Inertia: the sledgehammer, egg, or table?”

We quickly found out that none of the students knew what “inertia” was but they all had witnessed what happens when two or more objects come into contact with each other. After they made a prediction, we asked, “How do you know?” This question prompted students to think about what they knew prior to class and to use this knowledge to defend their hypothesis. We then swung the sledgehammer and destroyed the egg. Note that students were standing in a safe zone so they weren't hit by debris and we wore a plastic poncho. We asked, “Who was the winner of the Battle of Inertia?” Students identified the sledgehammer and table, which they had accurately guessed.

We continued this activity as we demolished two eggs at the same time and then the watermelon by itself. We repeated the process with a pillow, two pillows, and the concrete block. Afterwards, the class returned to the classroom where the warm-up question asked, “Knowing the winners and losers for the Battle of Inertia, how would you define the term ‘inertia’?”

Students were encouraged to discuss their answers with learning partners. They wrote their answers in their lab notebooks, and then we reviewed the answers as a class to ensure that every student had the necessary information to be successful in the activity we had planned for them that day.

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Warm-Ups: Reviewing Previous Material

Warm-ups can also be used to review previously taught material. After students complete warm-ups that are intended to review previously taught material, we review the answers as a class. We want to ensure that every student has learned the concept.

For example, the day after students had completed the three-station lab that helped them to differentiate between mass and weight, we chose to use a warm-up that would review their learning. Students were shown Figure 15.2 and asked to answer the questions asked by Person 1 and Person 2 that are in the figure.

After attempting to answer the questions individually, we provide time for students to share their responses with a learning partner. Students are encouraged to use their partner's feedback to modify their answers. This exchange is followed by a class discussion. Person 1's mass remains the same because they did not alter the number of atoms in their body, but their weight would decrease because the moon is smaller than Earth so it has less gravity. Person 2's mass and weight changed. They gained mass when they ate the pizza's atoms, which also increased their weight.

SPECIFIC IDEAS FOR COOL DOWNS

We use cool downs for three reasons:

1. to connect the warm-up to the activity that followed it;
2. to review the content from the preceding activity;
3. as a formative assessment so we know if students have learned the content.

We discuss how to use cool downs as formative assessments in Chapter 17: Strategies for Assessing Student Learning. The next sections discuss the remaining purposes for using cool downs, and we offer ideas for incorporating the NGSS crosscutting concepts into cool downs.

Cool Downs: Making New Connections Using the Warm-Up

Cool downs can wrap up the end of class by connecting the warm-up to the activity that followed it.

In the previous section Warm-Ups: Previewing New Material to Build Anticipation, we discussed a lesson beginning with a warm-up that asked these three questions:

1. Which is heavier: 1 kg of rock or 1 kg of feathers? How do you know?
2. Which has more atoms: one grape or one watermelon? How do you know?
3. Which has more gravity: the moon or the Earth? How do you know?

After the students have completed a three-station lab, they returned to their seats for a cool down. We placed the three questions back on the board and instructed students to use their lab results to analyze the accuracy of their answers.

Students benefit in two ways when they are responsible for determining the accuracy of their answers. First, students are practicing their critical thinking skills because they have to compare and contrast their answer with their lab results. Second, research has shown that when a person recognizes that he or she has answered a question incorrectly, the memory areas of the brain become activated to prepare for new learning, which can increase retention (Kang et al., 2008).

After students finalize their answers, we discuss them as a class. Our goal is to ensure that students have learned the proper definitions of mass and weight and can differentiate between the two concepts. In this sense, the cool down is a formative assessment and helps us plan for the next day. If most of the students answered the cool down questions correctly and can accurately differentiate between mass and weight, then we know that the focus for tomorrow's lesson can be the next topic. But if many students are struggling with the cool down questions, then we plan for a second activity and give them another opportunity to learn the information.

Cool Downs: Reviewing Newly Taught Material

Cool downs can also be used to answer new concept-related questions instead of those already asked in a warm-up. For example, after teaching students how to perform dimensional analysis, we developed a cool down that instructed students to complete these two practice problems:

1. If a car is traveling at 65 mph and uses 1 gal of gas every 15 miles, how many gallons of gas will the car use if it maintains its current speed for 3.5 hr?
2. If a father does four loads of laundry every week for 8 weeks and it takes 2.5 hr for every load, how many minutes did he spend doing laundry for those 8 weeks?

After students have time to work on the problems and compare them to their learning partner's answers, we randomly choose a pair of students to demonstrate the math on the board. The answer to the first question is 15.2 gal of gas and the answer to the second question is 4,800 min.

Cool downs that review newly taught material must have their answers reviewed with the class. This process ensures students have learned the new concepts they were exposed to during the lesson and reinforces that learning. This type of cool down can also be used as a formative assessment. If the majority of the students calculate incorrect answers, then we need to reteach the material in a different way.

Incorporating NGSS Crosscutting Concepts into Cool Downs

Cool downs are an effective tool for testing students' ability to use the crosscutting concepts that are required by the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The crosscutting concepts are described in detail in Chapter 5: Strategies for Using Project-Based Learning. Chapter 5 also discusses how to integrate the crosscutting concepts into project-based learning. See Table 15.1: Ideas for Integrating Crosscutting Concepts into Cool Downs for topics that can quickly provide practice or assessment of students' skills using crosscutting concepts.

See the Technology Connections section for additional ideas on integrating crosscutting concepts into cool downs.

As we mentioned, we are not always strategic in planning warm-up and we have to make the same confession about cool downs. Sometimes our cool downs can consist of asking students to write about one important thing they learned that day. Other times—because life happens and perhaps our lesson went on too long—we forego the cool down, but, in this situation, we are purposeful in our planning for the following day because we need to determine if the previous lesson was successful.

Table 15.1 Ideas for Integrating Crosscutting Concepts into Cool Downs

NGSS discipline	Crosscutting concept(s) used in cool down	Cool down example: Students will…
Earth and Space Sciences: water cycle and gravity (integrates physics)	Energy and matter	…explain the energy that drives evaporation in the water cycle and the force that drives precipitation
Earth and Space Sciences: climate change and adaptation (integrates biology)	1. Stability and change 2. Cause and effect	…predict adaptations that occurred while interpreting a graph of the Earth's climate for the past 600,000 years
Physical Sciences: kinetic and potential energy	Patterns	…sort random objects into those with high kinetic energy and those with high potential energy
Physical Sciences: gravity	1. Systems and system models 2. Patterns	…predict what would occur if you drop a cup filled with water that had a hole in the bottom. Would the water come out while the cup was falling? Why or why not?
Life Sciences: predator/prey	1. Scale, proportion & quantity 2. Cause and effect 3. Patterns	…determine the relationship between predator and prey by viewing a graph showing the changes in their population densities over time
Life Sciences: evidence for evolution	1. Structure and function 2. Patterns	…explain the implications as they pertain to evolution after observing X-rays of a human hand, whale pectoral fin, bat wing, bird wing, and penguin flipper
Technology, Engineering, and Applications of Science: Coding	Systems and system models	…read a code to determine flaws and then fix them
Technology, Engineering, and Applications of Science: energy conservation (integrates physics and earth science)	Energy and Matter	…brainstorm ideas for minimizing the loss of energy of a specific technology

DIFFERENTIATION FOR DIVERSE LEARNERS

Many warm-up and cool downs require extensive writing because students are justifying their answers. We allow students who have writing challenges or who are learning English to draw pictures representing their answers. We can also provide students with sentence starters and writing frames. Examples of sentence starters can be found in Chapter 3: Strategies for Teaching the Scientific Method and Its Components and writing frame examples are available in Chapter 9: Strategies for Teaching Writing.

Student Handouts and Examples

Figure 15.1: Is Water Wet?

Figure 15.2: Reviewing Previous Material

What Could Go Wrong?

Warm-ups and cool downs should take no more than 5 min for students to complete. If a student is struggling to finish a task quickly, we sometimes shorten it by decreasing the number of questions to answer.

Students who enter class late or who leave early often miss out on the benefits offered by warm-ups and cool downs. When students don't make it to class until after the warm-up, we have a one-on-one discussion (if possible) to catch them up so they can begin working on the day's activity. If a student leaves early, we assign the cool down as homework and follow up with them during the following day's warm-up.

Technology Connections

Several prompts for the crosscutting concepts can be found at “Prompts for Integrating Crosscutting Concepts into Assessment and Instruction” (http://stemteachingtools.org/assets/landscapes/STEM-Teaching-Tool-41-Cross-Cutting-Concepts-Prompts_Nov2016.pdf).

TeachThought lists “10 Smart Tools for Digital Exit Slips” for teachers who want to use more technology and less paper in their classrooms (https://www.teachthought.com/technology/smart-tools-for-digital-exit-slips).

Figures

Figure 15.1 Is Water Wet?

Figure 15.2 Reviewing Previous Material