I love teaching biology but there are some parts of it that weigh heavily on my soul. I usually explain to my students at the start of each semester that bio has a lot of things that need to be remembered (at least in the curriculum I am working from), unlike physics and chem which have fewer main ideas but a lot of time is spent examining applications of the basic principles. There are, however, some key theories in biology that help to tie all the facts together. Two that I always focus on early in the year are cell theory and natural selection. And in order to understand cells, it is necessary to understand basic cell anatomy (in my opinion – the comments are open so that you can try to enlighten me to the contrary). I am embarrassed to say that early in my teaching career I would do this by setting up the overhead projector and putting up the overhead slides – with bulletpoints, I am embarrassed to admit – which were basically a textbook delivered via overhead projector. More recently, I’ve been using the Cells Alive website as a resource so that I could have students goto the web and copy down the description of the parts of the cell, essentially a snazzier and more engaging textbook with a veneer of innovation because I the students were using computers. But still basically a textbook approach to teaching – here is what you need to read to answer these questions that let me know that you glanced over the assigned readings.
But in an attempt to avoid being one of “those teachers” that make Alec and Will cringe, and inspired by the discussion on Scott McLeod’s blog post, I have been racking my brain trying to think of a different way to do this so that students are more engaged in the creation of their knowledge. And I thinking have an idea that doesn’t suck. And if it does, I want you to let me know.
One of the ways that I can understand something abstract and complex like a cell, is by analogy. Instead of supplying the analogy, I’m going to ask students to work in pairs or trios develop their own analogies. They’ll start with a couple of days of research about the structure of prokaryotic, plant and animal cells. Then each group will develop an analogy for each of them (I’ll give them some examples to start with – a plant cell is like a city, an animal cell is like a factory, etc.). For a deliverable, I’m going to have them create a representation/explanation of their analogy to share with or present to the class, with bonus marks given for creative analogy and/or presentation.
I’m hoping it doesn’t suck and I’m hoping it helps the students understand the cell and how cell theory is such an important foundation of biology. I hope I’ll have the opportunity to report back on the success of this approach to teaching what could otherwise be another list of stuff to read and regurgitate at test time. And if Alec and Will like the idea, that wouldn’t be too bad either. 
- Posted using BlogPress, which so far I’m liking, from my iPad
#1 by Brendan Murpy on 2010/09/15 - 08:59
This sounds pretty good Rob, now how are you going to assess the learning?
More than asking students to find an analogy, maybe you can ask students to present to the rest of the class an analogy that makes sense to them?
#2 by Rob Wall on 2010/09/15 - 09:46
The details of assessment are still crystallizing in my head, Brendan. So far, I want to see each group’s research notes to make sure they are thorough enough to make the analogy phase work for them. I’m also going to assess the appropriateness of their analogy as well as a few bonus marks for creativity of the presentation. Students are away from school for the next couple of days so I’ll be able to put together a rubric I can give to them on Monday.
As for the presenting to the class, I’m planning on doing that but I’m not going to spring that on them until they are done the research phase. (Unless they read this blog, in which case they just found out.)