Let's Get Ready and Roll on to Something New

Transitions of course are the key to the quick, smooth, effortless change of course in a classroom. For me they can be an opportunity for brain breaks, turn to a partner, even 5-2-1 activities. My signal is a raised hand, a count down 5-1. Rarely does this not work and most of the time I raise my hand and others will get the class quiet before I even have to count down. Those seconds are the difference between calm and chaos. But to me they aren't really my transitions just the change-over. Transitions are those times when I am allowing students to find the connections, formulate the pattern, see the big picture. This week there was one such transition: heredity to asexual reproduction. Students understand that reproduction is fertilization but they often do not cross the bridge between uniformity and diversity, genetic randomness versus cloning, the importance of mutations and variation.

This year my team decided to teach types of asexual reproduction after Genetics. At first it seemed weird to teach it last, but after teaching the unit on heredity and Genetics the path to asexual reproduction became more clear. The randomness or probability of gene expression leads directly to our diversity. We discussed personal characteristics, the dominant and recessive traits within the classroom and all my classes, and they even graphed these similarities. Finally students created an "offspring" using probability, basically flipping a coin to determine the traits. Then I asked them to work together in groups to determine how their "offspring" created by the coin toss would be different if there was no probability, if we could choose the traits? A great selective breeding and cloning discussion ensued. But then, I asked is there any organism that naturally clones itself? Organisms that require only one set of genes to reproduce?

I showed them a great Ted Talk video called The Animal that Wouldn't Die about Hydra. Then students used Nearpod, my first time ever, to read articles, watch quick clips of asexual reproduction: vegetative propagation, budding, binary fission, and regeneration. Then after the explore part of the lesson, I wrote on the board- Demonstrate asexual reproduction. They went to the makerspace and created using play-doh, pipe cleaners, etc. examples of each. As a group they showed the class their examples. Lastly, I had them post a blog, on Seesaw about the four types of asexual reproduction and why the organisms that use them are successful with little diversity. How can asexual reproduction be just as successful as sexual reproduction and why?

I always say when we change topic, "Let's get ready and roll on to something new." But I always take that step back and let the students control the speed and direction of the momentum. Let them free for awhile but then always bring them back as a group to assess and review. This was a busy week full of vocabulary but with the visual cues and makerspace students agreed it was an easy transition and they made the big connection between traits, probability, and unity and diversity. Writing, creating, collaborating, together are the transitional tools that helped my classes come full circle and close a unit with reflection and understanding.