We are implementing GEP in Biology and geology in 4th ESO. This course we have used the CLIL methodology to learn about Mendel's experiments and also about the voyage of the Beagle.

Mendel's experiments:

During the 1st and 2nd session they work on Mendel’s experiments and what he observed to deduce the 1^st and 2^nd law of inheritance.

In the 1st session the main concepts to understand Mendel's experiments are introduced by teacher’s explanations with a power-point presentation. In the power-point, there are some pictures that illustrate the observations that Mendel did about the different flower colours in parents, the first offspring and the second offspring. Students do the Kagan structure “Stand up, Hands up, pair up” to answer some questions about Mendel’s observations, which include explicit, implicit and referential questions.

In the 2nd session they fill a Dictogloss about Mendel’s experiments with collaborative learning. Students work in pairs to complete a dictogloss about Mendel’s experiments where the First and the second laws are explained.

The voyage of the Beagle:

They work on the voyage of the Beagle to know what Darwin observed and how he deduced the theory of evolution and to learn the use of the past simple.

In the first session the students watch a short video about the voyage that Darwin made around the World as a scientific assessor, in order to introduce the new vocabulary that they need to understand the reading about the voyage of the Beagle. After this introduction, they work in expert groups to read a piece of text that contains the explanations of the video "The voyage on the Beagle" and the conclusions that Darwin drew. Each expert group focuses on a different section of the text and will learn about different observations that Darwin did. Scaffolding is provided in the form of a link to a mind map with new vocabulary. During this activity, they answer some questions about the text using the Placemat technique. At the end of the session, they collect each answer and transform it in a sentence that summarizes the content of the text.

In the second session each expert goes with his/her base group and they share what they have learnt in their experts groups, using the sentences that summarize each piece of the content. To write the text they join the main concepts shown in a scaffolding sheet.

In the third session, they make a map to show the voyage of the Beagle and locate and explain the main discovers that Darwin did. Finally, they present their maps and co-assess them using the corubrics.