Random Thoughts About Teaching Biology

After many years in the works, my idea has finally come to fruition!! The Biomedical Science Focus Track @ SCH 

Please welcome the very first cohort of Biomedical Focus Track students at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy! 

[Above: Adam Lane, Soleil Bynum, Gray David, Nolan Gibson, and Anna Gauvin]

In keeping with Springside Chestnut Hill Academy’s (SCH) long history of excellence in biomedical and health-related courses, and outstanding student successes at local, regional, and state science competitions, SCH has introduced a new opportunity for students who love science and are interested in pursuing a career in the biomedical sciences. This group of exceptional 9th-graders has committed to the Biomedical Science Focus Track (BioMed@SCH) for the duration of their high school years. After completing all requirements, students will earn a certificate of excellence in Biomedical Sciences in addition to their diploma.

We are eager to place these capable students and future cohorts in research facilities, science programs, and internships each year. We would also like them to visit biomedical-related work environments to meet you and some of your colleagues, get a tour, etc. If you or your organization is interested in hosting an SCH BioMed student, please contact me, Lisa Queeno, BioMed program coordinator.

Why students need to feel a sense of belonging to achieve and why their physical/emotional needs need to be met in order to even begin the climb to doing their best work: see diagram below that I modified in red.

Some assorted personal educational philosophies: 

How should science courses be constructed and organized?

1. Courses should be at least 50-75% lab and activity based.

2. Labs should be written (or rewritten) so that there are introductions with some background material that helps connect the student to the current unit.  You could also include some "prelab questions" for HW to make sure that they have understood the intro, etc.  Discussion questions should help address NGSS and ask students to analyze, synthesize and apply.  There should also be some images incorporated in the lab formatting to make them look better.

Labs should also be rewritten to make more of them move from confirmation to structured to guided to open inquiry.  Students will need scaffolding as they learn to hypothesize and design their own investigations in the guided and open inquiry labs.

3. Class discussion should not be mostly the teacher at the front disseminating information. It should be you facilitating student synthesis of information.  It would be helpful to go between teacher at the front, to small group work answering questions that you have put after every few Notes slides, back to whole class, etc.  Kids answer those questions while you circulate from small group to small group, talking science with almost every student every day! You can confirm answers as a whole class, but these also serve as notes, rather than having them fill in the blanks during note taking.  Use more diagrams and illustrative pictures on which to take notes, not sentence completion.  

4. You need to be available for a regular time each night to answer student emails.

On-going Goals for me and my science department teachers:

1. co-teacher work - curriculum grids, planning, course expectations, course website.

2. Diversity, Equity & Inclusion - can your students see themselves in your courses? are you meeting the Learning for Justice Social Standards & Scorecard  

3. differentiating instruction

4. study skills & science literacy - reading textbooks, article and primary sources, and then  writing about what they have read, in a variety of formats; taking notes in class and from readings, podcasts, etc., preparing for tests,etc....

5. How do you connect your students to the larger, diverse world around them?

 Did you incorporate local resources (ex. Wissahickon, field trips); guest speakers, etc.

6. statistics, graphing & scientific research skills; how do you "think like a scientist"

7.  Incorporate technology into our courses on a regular basis, so that data collection is more effective, graphing more accurate and informative, access to real scientific information on the internet more readily available for student use, and student presentation of their work more "professional" and creative.

8. Assessments & Grading: 

*Do projects and major labs have clear rubrics that make them as rigorous as other major assessments?  Do your tests and homework assignments reflect your course and what happens in your class?  Tests should include lab based questions and short answer / essay questions that reflect the analytical discussions that take place in classes and that require students to synthesize information and write clearly.  They should be based on learning objectives that combine content with science practices/skills.

* maybe include 10% of related previous units on each unit test? 

*grading - MS & US;  grading compliance and behaviors vs mastery 

-using formative vs summative assessments

-grading in parallel courses - how do we norm A's, B's, etc.? How do we grade the same test? how much does it count vs labs/activities vs. tests vs projects; retakes/corrections?

See Grading for Equity - Joe Feldman

From one of my Physics teachers. My reply is below her email.

Here’s an interesting study about how dividing lab group work can affect the student experience with some fun gender specific  results. The “Implications for Instruction” section is really interesting! 

https://aapt.scitation.org/doi/10.1119/5.0033824 

I’ve never been a fan of designating one kid the “note taker” and another the “timer keeper” or whatever, but I do understand that for a group that struggles with how to organize their time and work efficiently through the lab that these strategies may give direction. Also some of this assumes that when left to their own devices all kids will participate fully in the lab which isn’t always true. What do you think?

My Reply:

good article which confirms everything that we try to do - don't give too many confirmation labs, which they call guided inquiry. They are just student-done demonstrations, rather than the teacher doing them. Studies show that students don't learn the material any better by doing those confirmation labs than by taking notes and doing readings; they might enjoy it more but it doesn't improve their performance on assessments. The group B type lab is "doing science" - we should shoot for at least 50% of those! Give students a problem to solve or a question to answer, teach them a technique or two so that they can collect data and let them modify the basic set-up in answering the question that the group is asking. That way they are all involved in problem solving and the distribution of tasks usually flows naturally from that.

Thanks for sharing - it was nice to see someone quantify what good science educators have been saying for 25 years and what the NGSS are trying to get teachers to do!