My Science Box

Day 1

Objective: Observe Chemical Change

Strategies: Inquiry and Reciprocal Teaching for Reading Comprehension

Lesson 1: Introduction to forces
Students complete an anticipation guide, using prior knowledge to predict whether statements like “A rock thrown in space will keep going forever” are true or false.  

Lesson 2: Types of forces (informal)

Week 1 - Pretrip

Monday - Observation Mariposas in the classroom, camouflaging into the room, see whose lasts the longest between 6th and 7th grade.   

This series of activities is designed to complement a semester long introductory biology course for non-majors (general education) at a 4 year university. These activities are designed to be used to review material from the week's lecture in an activity-based way that is practical to implement in a  section of 25-75 students.

The original course is structured in 3 segments:

Introduction

Big Ideas

Overview 

Here's my current syllabus for an introductory college biology course for undergraduates planning on entering elementary teaching. This is NOT your traditionalcollege biology course. The goal of this course is to give students mastery over theconcepts required of K-8 students in California in a hands-on, experiential way.

In this box are an assortment of lessons to teach students about earthquakes and plate tectonics. As students progress through the unit, evidence supporting the theory of plate tectonics accumulates. They begin by researching the 10 largest earthquakes over the last 30 years. This information is plotted on a world map along with information about the location of active volcanos and mid-ocean ridges.

Physiology is the study of living things – their structure, organization, and biochemistry. This unit gives students an opportunity to discover the fundamental characteristics of living things and explore some basic cell biology. Students begin with several activities culminating in the creation of a list of characteristics that all living things have in common – the characteristics of life list. From here, students learn to test for signs of life by growing microbes on agar plates, conducting biochemical tests, visualizing cells, and experimenting with photosynthesis and respiration. Finally, students learn about the organization plants and animals through dissection and the raising of plants and fish in the classroom. Throughout the unit, students return to the characteristics of life list, refining and revising their list as they learn new concepts. A planning guide for a voyage with the Marine Science Institute is included as a way for students to learn about the many forms of life in the San Francisco Bay.