My professional discipline is teaching Life Science to 8th graders. The context that is covered in a school year is anatomy, general biology, micro-life, genetics, ecology, and evolution, along with conducting controlled experiments: Science and Life Issues, SEPUP curriculum. I have been a Chicago Public School teacher for 20 years and have had the pleasure to work at Peck Elementary, an outstanding community school, all these years.
Peck is a Mathematics and Science Magnet Cluster school located in West Elsdon, with an enrollment of around 1500 students, serving PreK-8th grade. Peck has a school rating Level 1+ and honored with the new Principal's discretion Independence status. It is a Title 1 school with 86.2% Low Income, 9.9% Diverse Learners and 34.2% Limited English. It's school population is 97.6% Hispanic, 1.5% White, .6% Black, and .7% Other.
My ultimate goal this year for my big idea is to implement engineering into life science. I would like for the students to initially create a model, either two or three dimensional, to represent their concept, idea of the scientific principle we are studying. Furthermore, to implement the cyclical engineering design process of the model to create, improve, ask, imagine, and plan meeting the NGSS Science and Engineering Practices of developing and using models. This is a cyclical model that allows students the flexibility to develop their thoughts and to rethink their thoughts as they are faced with creating models to express their understanding of the concept from the beginning, middle and end of the lesson; therefore, redesigning their model if needed with new information learned throughout the lesson.
The article, Understanding Understanding, is a great start to allowing students to self reflect to check for their understanding of a concept by using the six facets of understanding, such as use it, prove it, connect it, defend it, explain it, and being able to read between the lines. My goal will be to use these facets to attempt to make it meaningful to the students, giving them a purpose for the goal of understanding vs. just spitting back facts and not understanding what they've just memorized. I would like to have students, also convey their understanding of concept through creating memes, Stop Motion Studio videos, etc., many of the quickfire activities we learned this summer session.
Students will be recording their data and 2-dimensional models in science journals, and 3-dimensional models will be an option for students, allowing the use of everyday materials. One of the models students will be creating will be the human heart functioning as a double pump and showing blood flow direction. Also, as we get into our Deep Play I am hoping to have students use simulations. I want to create a meaningful virtual learning environment in my classroom for students to be actively engaged and getting full benefits of the program to assist in developing understanding of concept and it's connection to the real world. A final goal product is for students to create a prototype of an artificial heart valve using everyday materials.