How does the structure of microscopic organisms enable the functioning of all life on earth?
Learner’s Mindset
Students will be taught to view challenges in this course as opportunities to learn and grow, and believe that abilities can be developed through effort.
Critical Thinking
Students will think critically throughout the unit as they revise their ideas about the living world and the cells that make up living things.
Responsibility
Students will learn to use lab equipment responsibly and safely so that the equipment can be used in the future.
What are things that all living things have in common?
How do our bodies “know” how to build specialized cells?
How does DNA provide the instructions for our life functions?.
Students should be able to differentiate between eukaryotic cells and prokaryotic cells.
Students should be able to differentiate between different macromolecules in living organisms.
Scientific Modeling - Students use scientific modeling to collaborate on a hypothesis regarding the essential question. Students use scientific models to make meaning of phenomena.
Written and Oral Discourse - Students will communicate ideas and arguments through writing and through speech
Note taking - Students write key ideas in their lab notebooks so that they may use the resource on labs and other assessments.
Use of Microscopes - Students will learn proper microscope techniques in order to prepare slides and then use the microscope as a tool to make observations and identify different types of cells.
Differentiation:
Explicit instruction of expectations for answering questions in complete sentences (TTQA) on formative and summative assessments.
Explicit instruction on lab notebook setup and maintenance throughout the course.
Explicit instruction on reading articles, lab activity instructions, and textbook passages (Bold Words, Headings, Interpreting Diagrams and Charts).
Explicit instruction on how to use a microscope as a tool in biology
Reteach and recall material during the start of the lesson prior about previous concepts in order to develop memory skills and create future study material for exams.
Review activity and instruction on how to study for closed book exams. Students draw connections between concepts through a visual web of ideas.
HS-LS1-1. Construct an explanation based on evidence for how the structure of DNA determines the structure of proteins which carry out the essential functions of life through systems of specialized cells.
HS-LS1-2. Develop and use a model to illustrate the hierarchical organization of interacting systems that provide specific functions within multicellular organisms.
HS-LS1-3. Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence that feedback mechanisms maintain homeostasis.
Textbook - Miller & Levine Biology
Khan Academy
POGIL - Process-oriented guided inquiry learning
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