Bring Out the Science Nerd in Your Students
Middle school science teachers Melissa Zaher and Gretchen Vikingson are unapologetic nerds, with a true passion for curriculum design. Their Getting Nerdy® products provide comprehensive, no-hassle lesson plans designed to engage and delight students.

With science as the primary background subject, students learn all about life science using social studies, technology, English language arts, art and math. The student-led, print and go, low-to-no-prep science circuit stations are easy to implement with a few household items.
Getting Nerdy®

Life Science Lessons for all of Your Teaching Needs

  • Getting Nerdy lessons are designed in a way that makes implementation seamless and easy, providing both you and your students with a daily expectation of the lesson’s structure.
  • This delivery method allows you to focus on what’s important — engaged conversations and inquiry about the material and concepts being presented.
  • Notes are provided in differentiated formats, from graphic organizers to fill-in-the-blank, catering to a variety of student learning modalities and needs.
  • Getting Nerdy products are simple to implement, are easy on the budget and save you precious time when it comes to lesson planning.
Find the Perfect Getting Nerdy® Product for Your Students
Complete Bundles
These digital, downloadable kits include everything you need to teach the topic, including a fully editable PowerPoint, PDFs of aligned notes, activities and assessments, interactive notebook activities, visual word wall cards (English-only and English/Spanish translated) and aligned task cards
Interactive Notebook Activity Packs
Topic-specific interactive notebook activity packs include PDFs of enrichment activities and differentiated templates for ready-toteach lesson plans. Also available is a setup guide and a bundle of all six life science interactive notebook activities.
Scienstructable 3D Dissection Bundles
The Scienstructable dissection models can be used as dissection-free explorations, predissection tools or summative assessments for comparative anatomy. Each model includes fully editable PowerPoint slides and PDFs of handouts and templates.
STEAM Bundles
With science as the primary background subject, students learn all about life science using social studies, technology, English language arts, art and math. The student-led, print and go, low-to-no-prep science circuit stations are easy to implement with a few household items.
Meet the Creators!
Melissa Zaher

I’m Melissa Zaher.The call to teaching never really happened for me as it does for others. After graduating college with a Bachelor’s degree in biology, I ran the gamut on jobs, ranging from mechanic and artist, accountant and restaurant server. Within minutes of meeting Gretchen, I knew I had not only found an incredible mentor, but a lifelong friend.

As teachers, we collaborated on a daily basis, bouncing ideas off of one another and creating science lessons that engaged and excited our students. We loved the creative aspect of being teachers! Fast forward to now – we’re still doing what we love and we’re excited to share our passion for curriculum design with each of you!

Gretchen Vikingson

I’m Gretchen Vikingson. For 11 years I taught life science in Alabama and Georgia and fell in love with the middle school age and curriculum.I was always on the hunt for new ways to engage my students.In 2008 my teaching went through a big change as a student teacher, Melissa Zaher, entered my classroom.With her fresh perspective, old ideas were revitalized, potential lessons were transformed into inquiry-based activities, and I once again found inspiration and excitement in lesson creation.

Together, OUR curriculum truly transformed and now we are developing life science and biology lessons that are proving to be some of the most engaging and exciting on the market. We are so excited to be sharing our lessons with you and your students!

Testimonials

"So thankful for all the wonderful resources Mel and Gerdy have made over the years. I had a student who was not really interested in Science—the cell project (found in the cell complete bundle unit) really brought my student to life.”

H. Lee