Reconnecting & Reflecting

Although last year was an amazing adventure as my first year teaching in Seoul, it was a dismal year for my blog as I only posted a handful of times. One of my goals for this year is to reconnect with my PLN, and being more active on this blog is a part of that. Beyond all the transitions involved with an international move last year, I think part of the reason I didn't blog as much was because I didn't have any big ideas I felt like sharing. But I've realized many of the blogs I like to read aren't necessarily about "big ideas" - they're just a peak into the day to day life of a classroom.

So, with all this in mind, my blogging plan for this year is to post one day a week, focusing on reflections from the past week's classes. I'm teaching Honors Biology (9th grade), Honors Anatomy & Physiology (11th & 12th grade), and AP Biology (11th and 12th grade) this year, and I may or may not write about every class each week.

Without further ado...Here's what we did this past week!

Honors Biology
I introduced the idea of scientific argumentation to my 9th graders during the first week of school. The CER framework was brand-new to them, so I had them practice it in pieces. They put all of those pieces together in a full written argument last week, and the results were daunting. It was clear the students were still struggling with data analysis and applying science ideas to explain data. I needed to hit the brakes and revisit CER.

Since we're in the middle of exploring a phenomenon associated with healthy diet and weight (involving NGSS standards on biomolecules and cellular respiration), at the end of last week the class worked together to design an experiment that required them to collect heart rate data for various cardiovascular activities. I then worked with them step by step to analyze the data, modeling how to sort on a spreadsheet, how to account for outliers, when to average data, how to judge whether data is reliable, and how to discuss trends and patterns in data. Students worked in partners and used their whiteboards to write a Claim and Evidence for the cardio data. Using whiteboards was great for this because as I circled the groups and gave them feedback they needed to make lots of changes, which is easy to do on a whiteboard. Also whiteboards are easier for me to read than a lap top screen or notebook page when I'm on the move around a classroom. Many groups filled two whiteboards as I prompted them to fully and specifically support their claims.

I used a similar strategy for the Reasoning section - student pairs working on whiteboards. During this time, most of my prompting was asking, "why?"

Student: Jogging increased heart rate more than playing basketball.
Me: Why?
Student: Because you're moving more when you're jogging.
Me: Why does moving more increase your heart rate more?
Student: Because you need more oxygen.
Me: Why?
Student: Because you need more energy.
Me: Why do you need energy to jog?
Student: To move the muscles.
Me: How are energy and oxygen related?
Student: Oxygen is needed to make ATP in cellular respiration.
Me: And what does heart rate have to do with that?

I think you get the idea. Initially, this student's Reasoning would have simply begun and ended with, "You're moving more when you're jogging." I'm working to help them better understand how deeply they need to dig to truly justify their claims.

The culmination of all this practice was a chance to go back to their original argument that was initially so challenging for them and, redoing and revising it with their improved understanding of the process. I have yet to look over their work, but if their questions during the process are an indication of their new thinking, I believe some positive progress has been made.

Pre-assessment in Anatomy: Outline a body and draw a list of structures where you think they are located. Structures from different systems were drawn in different colors.

AP Biology students started out their year by designing an investigation of ant behavior.

Anatomy students participating in a model for homeostasis: "Homer-ostasis" requires them to keep the yellow "Homer Simpson" cup full, yellow, and at the correct temperature, despite a hole in the bottom.

First attempt at a scientific argument using the CER framework with AP Biology students. This is new to most of them as well, so we've got some work to do as a class.