My Science Box

How does a brain - less than 3 pounds of wrinkly pink matter - enable a person to sense their environment, think, feel, make decisions, remember things, and control every behavior? This is one of the greatest mysteries of life. For teachers interested in teaching students about the brain and its neurons, here is a set of lesson plans for exploring your brain.

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.

I used this to show my students what happens during menstruation. I have them fill out where the flow is, when ovulation happens, when the lining begins to shed, and when are the prime times to have sex for fertilization (or the prime times to avoid sex!) 

I included readings about what happens during menstrual cycles. 

I have attached my rubric, and two worksheets for my sex ed project. In our library, we have blank papers To help the students with MLA format - I have attached samples of those was well. I am sure there are a few things that need explaining, but I can't think of them now, so please email me or add comments if you have questions, or post your version of it!

Thanks!

Christina Green

"Osmosis Jones" is a Warner Bros. Cartoon that follows the attack on a disease on a live action man (Bill Murray).

Grade level: Middle School, although probably suitable for integrated science class in high school as well.

Concepts: Diseases, human body systems

Found: Sometimes Blockbuster or other video stores will have it. I found it for $4 at a used bookstore!

Materials

• Frogs (order them from Carolina Biological catalog # 22-7444, 22-7445, 22-7446, 22-7464, 22-7465, 22-7466, between $3.35 - $5.95 depending on the quantity ordered and whether there is any color injection)
• Paper plate or dissection tray
• Scissors
• Scalpel or razor blade
• Forceps
• Optional: dissection probes
• Optional: dissection pins (especially useful if you have dissection trays on which to use them)

Sarracenia flower dissection: Image courtexy of Noah Elhardt

Leopard frog in duckweed: Image courtesy of Steven Dunlop

Summary
To learn about the structure and function of living things, it is essential to explore the anatomy of real organisms up close and personal. While much can be accomplished by studying living things and their life cycles (see Raising Plants and Raising Trout projects), dissections offer a view of the internal structures and how they contribute to the whole. What follows are resources and information for teachers interested in conducting a flower and/or frog dissection. There are many excellent lesson plans and dissection guides on the web already. Rather than recreate these resources here, My Science Box provides nitty-gritty logistics and resources such as a selected list of great web resources, how to order frogs, what equipment you need, student handouts, and teaching strategies.

Summary
What does it mean to be alive? Is a cactus alive? Is a seed alive? Is the air we breathe alive? What are the necessary characteristics? To hook students into the question, they are introduced to “glue monsters” (sometimes known as “scooting glue”) and the class discusses whether the “monsters” are alive or not. Next, students are given cards with the names of various objects and asked to sort them into categories: alive, once was alive, never alive, and not sure. Finally, students create a list defining the characteristics of life – a set of characteristics that all living things share. The list is initially developed in pairs, then in larger groups of 4, and ultimately as a whole class. The final list is turned into a poster that can be referenced and modified throughout the remainder of the unit as students learn more about what it takes to be alive.

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.