"The cell does what? where?, show me!!!" How do you
show microscopic? Sure you can see a cheek cell & maybe the nucleus if you
stain properly using a compound light microscope, but what about all the cell
activity you teach your students about? How can you make the microscopic come
alive? I have shown you or shared with you a few different activities/demos I
use to make the cell "come alive," now you need to find some ideas.
Share ones you may have already done but also think back to when you were first
learning the concepts. What could your teacher have done to make not only the
cell, but cellular activities "come alive?"
To make cells come alive, I would use the Internet resources at my fingertips. Everyone presented interactive web activities that helped make cells come alive and I think these activities give students a different perspective and increase their understanding. To make cells come alive I wish my biology teacher would have provided more hands on activities for cellular transport. To show cellular transport I would like to try an activity with soaking gummy bears in water and salt water to illustrate the difference between isotonic, hypertonic, and hypotonic. Gummy bears are something the students can relate too and hopefully if the salt water solution is concentrated enough, there will be a drastic change in size the students can witness. I would have the students complete this lab over several days. Each day they come into class I would have them weigh the gummy bear and measure its dimensions.
ReplyDeleteRebecca, I agree with utilizing the Internet. It provides a ton of resources that you can use in the classroom. I really like your idea of cellular transport with gummy bears! It’s a fun activity to peak the student’s interest. Also, it is a great way to represent the differences between hypertonic, hypotonic and isotonic. In addition to using this as a lab activity, you could also use it as a discrepant event to get the students thinking why the gummy bears are different in each solution. Then, the students could experiment with the gummy bears to see if they can produce similar results. I noticed how you said, “hopefully if the salt water solution is concentrated enough.” Sometimes, lab activities don’t work the way we hope they do! I sometimes try to do the experiment, activity, or demonstration before I present it to my class. This way, I can work out all of the kinks!
DeleteIf I think back to 9th grade biology class, I honestly cannot remember my teacher utilizing hands-on activities or animations in class. The only thing I remember was copying notes off of the board while she was explaining the content. We also worked on various coloring worksheets and had to build a DNA molecule, but it was nothing like teaching biology today. Personally, I don’t think it was 100% her fault because that was well over 10 years ago and teachers didn’t have access to the resources that we have today. Obviously, if my teacher would have been able to use various animations found on websites, more hands-on demonstrations, lab activities, and/or web quests, the class would have been more interesting, and I would have been able to visualize and have a better understanding of cell activity.
ReplyDeleteOne activity that I would like to share pertains to the process of DNA replication. This activity makes DNA replication come alive rather than the students just sitting through a lecture or copying notes off of the board. Also, I always look for activities that are “cheap” and do not require me to spend a ton of money on supplies. For this activity, all a teacher needs are green, yellow, blue, and red paperclips. The activity takes the students through DNA replication of a short sequence of a human gene that control’s the body’s production of the growth hormone, which causes growth during childhood and adolescence. This is easy for the students to relate to because they are having growth spurts during their teenage years. The students work in pairs and begin with a specific sequence of the gene. Then, they use the colored paperclips that correspond to the nitrogenous bases to create replicas of the DNA strand for the human growth hormone. As a result, students are able to view and practice DNA replication along with creating a model of a DNA strand.
Hi Jilian,
DeleteI agree with you. I think we are lucky now to have resources more readily available to us. It is easier now to incorporate clips and animations into our notes. You paperclip idea sound very interested I would like to learn some more about how it is done. Is this the project you intend to do for your micro presentation?
When I was in middle school my teacher put us in groups and had us make edible cells. My group made a cookie cake with all different types of candy to represent the different parts of the cell. I enjoyed the project so much that to this day I still remember all the organelles and their function. She had animations to go along with a lot of the concepts. I think that the class could have been improved had she included some more hands on activities. She had this edible cell which was awesome but then we didn't do anything else hands on. I think students learn best through doing so the more hands on the better.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in my biology class in high school, we learned a lot about cell systems. In that class we used a lot of different videos that showed the cellular functions. Using these videos we were able to discover the roles of the cell parts, but not really see how they work with other things to see the big picture. When I was in my other biology classes, we used these videos again, but also coupled them with internet activities, like games, interactive videos, etc. These activities incorporated the ideas of what we learned in class, but also let us see the bigger picture of what is happening in the cell. Additionally, in some of the classes we did random activities much like the one that Anna mentioned. When I was in middle school, we also did the edible cells and this helped some of the students learn the cell parts, but I am weird and it didn't help me that much. When I was in high school on the other hand, we did an activity in which we had to act out the different parts of the cell throughout the year, each student being assigned a different cell part. By the end of the year we had to preform almost all of the cell parts and how they work together. This project ended up lasting the whole year though because we were assigned more roles throughout the year. On the last day of the year, we had to preform as a class to demonstrate the entire life cycle of a cell. This activity was really a lot of fun and lasted the whole year, but most importantly it helped everyone in the class learn all of the functions and roles of the cell.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in high school I recall two projects that I did. One of them was to create your own 3D cell, I remember putting in all the parts and labeling them. The other, which was optional but everyone did, was to create an edible cell because that meant we could share and eat some of them. My edible cell was made with jello and my favorite candies. I know that we had notes that we took, but I honestly don't remember the specifics of those.
ReplyDeleteLike Anna mentioned earlier if students have a more hands on approach they are going to remember concepts and ideas better then if students were just lectured to about cells.