My Science Box

Here's my current plan for the Bio 101 course for undergraduates planning on entering teaching. I encourage any other college professors out there teaching a similar course to give me feedback or use a similar syllabus yourself!

http://ecofoot.org/

Here's a great web resource:

http://wise.berkeley.edu 

Summary
Raising trout from eggs to fry in the classroom is a fabulous way for students to observe and study the life cycle of vertebrates and simultaneously learn about threatened species in local watersheds. Many states have programs where teachers and students raise trout in their classrooms in partnership with the Department of Fish and Wildlife for later release into a designated lake, creek or river. Described here is information for teachers on how to partner with state agencies, fish hatcheries, and local fly-fisher groups to raise rainbow trout in the classroom. A worksheet for the trout release field trip is provided. Best of all, many Trout in the Classroom Programs are fully supported by local fly-fisher groups and the California Department of Fish and Game (such as the California program that I participated in), and thus there is no materials cost to the teacher beyond the costs of organizing the trout release field trip at the end of the project.

Summary
Sail aboard a research vessel and explore the living treasures of the San Francisco Bay. The Marine Science Institute (MSI) provides some of the best hands-on science and environmental education in the Bay Area. On the Discovery Voyage, students spend 4 hours learning about the San Francisco Bay ecosystem by examining water quality and collecting organisms at every level of the food web from microscopic plankton to mud dwellers to bat rays and fish. The diversity of life in the Bay is astounding and surprising to students who have spent their whole lives living by its water but never “diving in”.  If a half-day voyage isn’t for you, many other fantastic programs are available including Inland Voyages (where live marine organisms come to you), Ocean Lab (where students explore animals of the rocky coastal ecosystem in MSI’s Discovery Lab classrooms), and Tidepool Expeditions (where MSI naturalists provide a guided tour of the tidepool creatures at Pillar Point).

Summary
Once students have some experience working with a basic terraqua column (see the Terraqua Columns Lesson), they have an opportunity to design and conduct their own investigations with their mini-ecosystems. There are hundreds of variables students can manipulate with a minimum of materials – temperature, light, pollution, type of water, type of soil, etc. As a class, students brainstorm variables that might affect the plants, soil, and/or water in a terraqua column. In teams, students propose a project, and once approved, set about testing their ideas and observing the effects of their manipulations on their mini-ecosystem. If your school participates in a local science fair, this is a fantastic activity to introduce students to experimental design, variables, and control groups.

Summary
This section will give you information to help you plan a field trip with Save the Bay. I brought 32 students to Arrowhead Marsh, a hidden wetland near the Oakland Airport, to meet up with extraordinary Save the Bay Instructors. The day was divided into two parts: 1) Canoeing – where we did water quality monitoring, explored the marsh with all our senses, and went on a wildlife scavenger hunt 2) Restoration – where we repotted 300 native plants, cleaned up the shoreline, and went for a walk on a boardwalk above the marsh. Students were able to explore a wetland up close and observe a leopard shark, feel the Bay’s muddy bottom, and listen to the endangered snowy plover.

Summary
Students go on a web-quest for information on Save the Bay’s Bay Classroom website. They discover facts and information about the part of the San Francisco Bay, its history, the creatures that call it home, and ways they can help protect the bay. This easy activity requires little supervision and is thus offered as a great substitute teacher lesson plan or for one of those teaching days when you need a last minute lesson. Suggestions for making this lesson more interactive are provided.

Summary
This is an alternative assessment activity in which students pull apart a rotting log as an example of a microhabitat that can be explored in the classroom. As they dissect the log and discover the myriad of bizarre creatures on and inside the log, the notes the students keep can be used as an assessment of many of the major concepts in this unit. Another use for this lab is as an engaging way introduce a very special organism-organism relationship, symbiosis. Termites have a symbiotic relationship with the protozoa in their gut. The protozoa that digest the cellulose in the wood for the termites, can be extracted from the termites’ gut and observed under a microscope. One of my students who witnessed the extraction and then saw the protozoa proclaimed “That was the coolest thing I have ever seen. Ever.” Finally, if you are just fascinated by termites and want to become completely enamoured, try putting a termite on a line drawn by a Bic pen…

Summary
At the end of the unit, students can now apply their understanding of ecosystems, food webs, resource management, native vs. nonnative species, and human environmental impact to a real world situation. Individuals involved in habitat restoration routinely research and select plants and animals to include in a redesigned ecosystem. In this final project, students will create posters with a minimum of 8 native plants and 5 native animals that should be included in the redesign of the habitat they surveyed previously. They will look at how these organisms will interact and discuss how to sustain the ecosystem into the future. If it is possible to do a long term habitat restoration near your school, this is an excellent exercise to get the students personally invested in the restoration work because they played a role in selecting the species they will reintroduce.