A Year in Review: A Science Class Quarter 3

Quarter three came right after the holidays, after a nice break and the completion of the human body unit it was a relief to begin a new unit, a fresh topic of discovery. This is the quarter I think students enjoy the most because it is a very visual unit: Genetics and Adaptations. Students are curious about why things look the way they do. They want to know which traits they inherited from their parents and which they acquired after birth. A debate question for my students, whether we are more like one parent, or our siblings. My students created their own species of plant and animal for a new planet they designed and terraformed. They had to use legitimate science and explain both parents, the exact traits they bred for and why. This was our second PBL of the year- Making Life Possible for New Generations. Definitely a memorable quarter.

These are only a few of the student-driven activities that were implemented into our classroom quarter three. This quarter was definitely all about student collaboration, PBL, and lots and lots of makerspace.

Interactive Word Wall Activity: Students used the Interactive word wall to create a web of all the genetics terms and how they are connected. They added off of each other live throughout a 20 minute time frame. We used a lot of mini-lessons for Genetics vocabulary as it is probably the most extensive unit for terms and definitions.

The genetics collaborative assessment- The next day students had a collaborative assessment where they lined up and were each given one genetics term and they had to work together to make connections correctly between each of the words. Then from the beginning of the line to the end they verbally made a vocabulary de-scramble of the big picture, making larger connections between the terms.

Probability and Punnett Squares- Genetics is all about probability and Punnett Squares but these are simply the mathematical tools used to calculate. Students had several different activities using the makerspace where they designed virtual offspring by making genes and Punnett Squares using these tools to determine which traits they would have inherited and the class discussed inherited versus acquired and the 50/50 rule.

Debate: Cloning, selective breeding, designer genes, pesticides vs. organic- This quarter lent itself to plenty of debates, Socratic seminars, a conference on cloning and an Edcamp on food pesticides, selective breeding, organic vs. non-organic etc.)

Design a new species: using real science PBL- This was a PBL that lasted 3 weeks, students researched 4 different imaginary planets- I created the details and then decided which animal and plant would be most successful there. Then they crossed two animals that genetically could be bred and created a new species of plant and animal. They were 150 years in the future so we could make the claim that we figured out scientifically how to make a new species from closely related organisms and allow them to continue breeding. Other than that they had to be close enough like a lion and tiger to be able to successfully breed. Best part is that they made stop-motion video of their creatures in their "natural habitat" this combined the makerspace and technology.

Butterfly Camouflage Activity-This is one of those, would they buy a ticket lessons? After identifying all the ways animals can behaviorally, physiologically or chemically hide or mask themselves we discussed camouflage at length and then students colored paper butterflies and hid them in the room-plain sight. Each class demonstrated different animals trying to find them: First they stood at their desks and made a 360 just looking and counting as many as they could see. Then they could crouch down and make a turn counting more. Finally they were animals on the hunt but they could only claim one. So I said focus on just one. If two people have picked the same one- this is competition and you will have to find another one. I told them to go put their finger on one. Then they removed them from the wall and we added them to the found area in the back of the room. The student with the very last butterfly to be found was rewarded a king size candy bar. This got them active, mobile and very competitive a fun two days.