Biology Syllabus

Except when I am in class, my classroom, room 512, is always open to you. Just drop by and visit with me.

The second best way to contact me is to compose an email message using the Canvas Inbox.

If you must send me an email you can reach me at Carlos.Diaz@scsb.us, but I would rather you use Canvas Inbox as it keeps better track of our communications.

Instructions -- For different emergency situations are located on a multi-colored cardboard letter-sized notebook on the blue shelf right next to the front door. Be aware that we will be practicing many drills throughout the year so pay attention during them.

Evacuation procedures -- For most situations, we will remain in the classroom until we are given the command to evacuate through the intercom. Please listen and follow the teacher's or substitute's commands so that we can all evacuate as fast and as safely as we can.

First aid kit and Medical Emergencies -- See Nurse. If medical assistance is required in the classroom solicit help through intercom. Inform the teacher. Do not worry about rushing out of the room to see the nurse if it is an emergency; the nurse will issue a pass back to class after the situation has been handled.

Classroom security -- Solicit help through intercom. Located on the wall between the main door and the laboratory bench that is closest to the door.

Eye-Wash and Shower -- Make sure you know where the eye-wash and shower is in the classroom. We always run a drill the first few days of class; if you didn't get the opportunity to participate make sure to ask your teacher to show you. It takes seconds to damage your eyes permanently so make sure that you always wear your protective eyewear as well as make sure that pathways to the emergency eye-wash is clear of obstacles (i.e. your schoolbag should not be on the floor obstructing a path).

Personal Protective Equipment and MSDS -- These are located in the filing cabinet next to the emergency exit hallway. Please be respectful of the equipment. It is there to be used but not abused. Err on the side of caution and always wear safety goggles, coat, and appropriate gloves, and tie your hear up. We will be practicing proper safety etiquette in the laboratory before we don any experiments - make sure to pay attention and follow those guidelines.

This course structure communicates important information about the Biology classes imparted at Branford High School by Carlos Diaz. It is the purpose of this document to align instruction and assessment to the contents of this document. However, because of the fact that classrooms operate in a differentiated environment the teacher reserves the right to make changes to the course structure at any time. The changes made may or may not be properly reflected in this document.

Biology 1 is a Core Course that must be taken by all students who wish to graduate with a High School diploma. Biology 1 is considered so important that there is an End Of Course examination (EOC) imparted by the State of Florida Department of Education (FLDOE). This EOC represents 30% of the overall course grade for the year. A satisfactory passing grade on the EOC is a requirement to graduate from High School. There are five scoring levels to the EOC, but only levels 3, 4, and 5 are considered passing. EOC Level 5 is the highest grade and our primary assessment objective.

Biology 1 will provide engaged students with a foundation in the concepts and terminology of biology and help students develop skills important to the comprehension of our world as well as master the scientific process. Genetic Engineering has become part of our everyday lives (just look at the back of something as basic as Smucker’s Red Raspberry preserve label next time you visit the store “partially produced with genetic engineering”). Biomedical Engineers earn $85,620 on average

and employment is projected to grow 23 percent from 2014 to 2024, much faster than the average for all occupations

. Our student body at Branford High School is in a unique position to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Our FFA agricultural leadership program strengthens the confidence of our primarily agricultural student body. Let us take advantage of this unique opportunity. Let us encourage our students to embrace this Biology course and use it as a springboard to guarantee their future and the progress of our blessed community. There is only so much we can do as teachers and parents; learning is an individual activity.

The Biology 1 course is structured with the help of FLDOE standards to ensure that all stakeholders (parents, teachers, and students) are equipped and empowered to guide students to reach their full potential (FLDOE - Academic Standards)

. Every student can succeed; let's make sure they will devote their energies to meet the course objectives.

The primary objective is to provide the students with practical working knowledge required to be literate in the foundations of Biology.

In this day and age, biological knowledge is essential to global citizenship. Biology is a vast and very rich field. It covers Medicine, Agriculture, Biochemistry, Ecology, Epidemiology, Microbiology, Marine biology, Zoology, Psychobiology, Paleontology, and many other fields. It would take lifetimes to study them all to the depth of knowledge that they deserve.

Biology 1 is a starting point, introductory course, at a cognitive level that a student can understand and apply the knowledge acquired into their daily lives. For example, they will be able to explain the cell cycle and mutations are and how uncontrolled cell growth can potentially result in cancer. To keep the course practical, productive, and manageable FLDOE professionals have devoted extensive time and resources to breakdown the most important content for this course. Our course follows this valuable FLDOE advice and it is how we group our units.

Biology 1 has two course numbers associated with it that are implemented at Branford High School: Biology 1 standard 200310 and Biology 1 Honors 2000320.

Biology 1 Standard has 85 FLDOE Course Standards and Biology 1 Honors has 107 FLDOE Course Standards. These standards are unpacked by the educator and used to prepare lesson plans for the students. The student will be assessed on these standards. The objective is for the students to master every single one of these standards at the expected DOK level while performing meaningful activities at a DOK 3 level or above.

Biology 1 has another extremely important component: Vocabulary. There are over 500 different vocabulary words and terms that the student must master. They will not be able to pass the standards if they do not acquire the vocabulary. To quote FLDOE standard LAFS.K12.L.3.5:

“The student must acquire and use accurately a range of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when encountering an unknown term important to comprehension or expression”. Building this word consciousness is no easy task.

Research suggests that if students are going to grasp and retain words and comprehend text, they need incremental, repeated exposure in a variety of contexts to the words they are trying to learn. Reading is very important component of our course and should take place at home. When students make multiple connections between a new word and their own experiences, they develop a nuanced and flexible understanding of the word they are learning. In this way, students learn not only what a word means but also how to use that word in a variety of contexts, and they can apply appropriate senses of the word’s meaning in order to understand the word in different contexts (Landauer & Dumais, 1997; Landauer, McNamara, Dennis, & Kintsch, 2007; Nagy, Herman, & Anderson, 1985, page 33 - vocabulary)

At Suwannee County School District we use CANVAS as a course learning management system and FOCUS as a course grades and disciplinary student information system.

Canvas announcements will be used as a weekly journal. It is expected that students check Canvas calendar and announcements to make sure to turn in their work before their accommodated deadline (The Due Date in Canvas already includes the accommodation or the student, if any).

Canvas Inbox will be used as a communications tool between the teacher and the student. If Parents have joined as course observers in Canvas, they will also be included in classroom wide communications.

Canvas contains the individual assignment grade for that activity. As grading occurs in Canvas it is the fastest way for the student and parent to find out the student's status regarding what has been done and what is still left to do. Canvas assignments are usually posted in a sequential fashion. Meaning, the student must first finish and post one activity before the next one will open. A student should not develop a habit of turning things late as it will impact their final grade. Activities turned in after the accommodated due date but before the "available until" date will only be allowed a 70% maximum score per district guidelines. Activities will not be allowed to be turned in after the "available until" date which will mean a zero posted as a grade in FOCUS.

Focus contains the final official grades that includes the weights for different categories (assessments are typically 70% of grades, for example). FOCUS also contains disciplinary student information if required.

Using the FLDOE Toolkit as a strong guideline, this course is divided into 21 topics or units. Every unit is as self-contained as it can be. They are organized sequentially in what most educators in Florida have deemed the most productive and effective order. The result is that this pacing is very similar to the pacing of other counties in Florida. It becomes important if the student has to migrate to another school district during the year.

Each Unit appears as a module on Canvas and are structured in activities in the following order:

• Unit at a glance page with important information on what the student will be expected to Know, Understand, and be able to Do.

• Pretest to understand our student's prior knowledge and make informed decisions regarding curriculum and activities in our differentiated classroom.

• Reading Assignment. These are a series of graded activities, assigned through Canvas, to be done at home and are due before the unit assessment at the latest. The textbook is an online CK-12 Flexbook specifically tailored to the particular unit.

• Vocabulary Assignment. This is list of words and terms that the student needs to know to master this unit's learning objectives. This unit is graded by having the student complete and turn in a snapshot of the corresponding Quizlet study sets Learn activity.

One or more of the following (not in order):

• Journal Activities. These are activities that will require students to create handwritten notes and/or diagrams on their paper journals.

• Worksheet Activities. These are activities where the student will be required to fill out a worksheet then turn it for grading.

• POGIL Activities. Student guided groups discussions.

• Laboratory Activities. Hands-on activities that teach about science in the context of the appropriate learning objectives with a Lab-report as a deliverable.

• Florida Students Tutorials. FLDOE developed online tutorials that are very specific to a particular learning objective.

And finally:

• Unit Test as a summative assessment. As the last unit activity, the Unit Test will open only after the student has turned in the other activities for that unit. Failure to turn in the test before the accommodated date will result in having the test score be multiplied by 70% as a final grade for the test.

This Grading plan may be subject to change in accordance with district guidelines.

EOC is the test given to the student by the state of Florida sometime in late April - early May. This test represents 30% of the final grade. The EOC has 66 multiple choice questions.

CANVAS. Scores for canvas activities will be shown on the Canvas gradebook. This is also

FOCUS Grading is by unit, is summarized by quarter, and is assigned the following way:

70% - Summative Assessments (individual weight varies):

• • Unit Test

  • Florida Students Tutorials Assessment

  • Science Friday ACT Type Tests

  • Laboratory Quizzes

30% - Assignments and Homework (individual weight varies):

• • CK-12 Reading Textbook Activities.

  • Quizlet Vocabulary Mastery.

  • Handwritten Journal, Pogil work, and participation.

  • Worksheets, Presentations, and other assignments.

Other activities:

• • Formative assessments (unit pre-test, bell ringers, classroom questions, exit tickets).

  • Florida Students Tutorials (brief tutorials on which the Florida Students test is based on).

  • Quizlet Live competitions (up to 15% extra credit on unit test for winning groups).

  • Visiting lecturers. UF Lecturers that visit us to give us an idea of their research.

The activity due date in Canvas is the official turn-in date for that activity. Any activity turned in after the due date will have a 70% penalty (i.e. the score obtained for that activity multiplied by 0.7) as determined in the county-wide policy.

Canvas has three dates for each assignment: Available From, Due By, and Available Until. Usually an Assignment will not open until the student has completed and turned in the previous assignment on Canvas. In Particular, Unit Tests will not open until all activities for that unit have been turned in.

A student may start working on any activity if it is open to them. This behavior is highly encouraged.

Due dates have been established according to common sense classroom flow. Because the classroom is differentiated, hard due dates cannot be established at the beginning of the school year. These due will be modified in Canvas according to the classroom needs, a particular student's accommodation, or county policy regarding excused absences.

Activities will not be accepted after the Available Until date or the day before quarter grades are due, whichever date is earlier. If the activity does not have an available until date assigned to it, it is assumed that this date is the day before the unit test or the dat before quarter grades are due.

The Textbook is CK-12 Biology for High School Flexbook 2.0 and is available online through Canvas. There is no printed version of this book as it is an interactive book.

Writing implements as required (pens, pencils, the like).

A 3 ring binder with a pocket for handouts or a letter size notebook with a separate folder to keep the handouts organized. The student is responsible to keep an organized written journal of all class activities. An electronic journal is not allowed. This may be in the form of a sequential notebook with a binder to organize worksheets and material given in class or a three ring binder.

A Charged chromebook.

A calculator is not required.

Our classroom is primarily a safe and secure environment where we promote active learning. Anyone working against this environment will be removed from the classroom.

Institutional policies on academic honesty, plagiarism, examination policies, and classroom conduct.

Cellphone free zone. No energized or visible cell phone (including smartphones, smartwatches, and similar distracting electronic devices) are allowed in the classroom for any reason at any time. They will be confiscated and turned in to the front office where the guardian must come to retrieve them. Note that if your cellphone is confiscated on Friday you might not get it back until the next school work day. A disciplinary referral will also be logged into the student record. Expulsion from the classroom for repeating offenders. If your guardian needs to get in touch with you have that person call the front office at (386) 935-5600. The reason for this policy is simple: your focus must be on the learning activities within the classroom.

Respect others. Stay Silent when others are talking. what you have to say is important. Raise your hand and share when acknowledged.

On Task from Bell-to-Bell. Notebooks, writing utensils, assignments and any required material should be on the desk surface from bell to bell. The bell is a signal for the teacher to wrap up the class not for the students to drop all they are doing and rush to the exit. It is expected that students will behave and enter or exit the room in an orderly fashion.

Assignments must be turned in on time. School policy on late assignments will be followed. Understand that the due date posted in CANVAS has already taken into account your accommodation (if any).

No food or consumption of beverages is allowed in the classroom. This is mostly for your own safety as this is a laboratory classroom.

Suggestions for Success:

Journal. Take notes on a separate sheet of paper; do not write directly on the journal pages until you have a full understanding of the material. Your journal should be complete and kept immaculately clean. It is also a good idea to use different colors on the drawings.

Reading. Be diligent with your reading assignments.