The best way for my students to be engaged in the classroom and understand the concepts I am teaching them is to do hands-on projects. The only problem is usually not having any materials and not having the money to buy any. The best way solve this is to get creative and use things that are readily available and free, like the paper bags we used in the chemistry lab I wrote about in the last blog. I can also sometimes get students to bring in materials especially if they get extra credit for it, but it typically takes a lot of nagging.
In biology we've been learning about mitosis and meiosis. I read about a project online somewhere that involved making cells out of paper plates and then using other materials to create chromosomes and other parts of the cell. I was able to get a few kids to bring in styrofoam plates (paper plates do not exist here which blows my mind because there is such a huge problem with trash) and I had some colored pipe cleaners, a few markers, and Quinn let me have a ball of purple yarn. The kids made chromosomes and spindle apparatuses out of yarn and pipe cleaners and drew the rest with marker. I'm not sure if this helped them learn about the process of meiosis better or if they were just replicating the picture in the book, but most of them had fun anyway.
In period 2 we stuck all the plates up on the wall above the chalk board using tape and glue. They looked pretty good when they were all organize together. It was the first thing all the rest of the students noticed when they walked in the room and they all thought it was pretty cool. Period 6 saw them and were immediately jealous that their plates were not yet up on the wall, even though the only reason for this was because they hadn't had class yet. The glue didn't hold on the chromosomes that well and every couple days I find another lost chromosome lying on the floor, but so far the plates have stuck to the walls pretty well. I was a little worried because the wind usually knocks down everything I put up after about a week.
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| One of the best projects |
Before we learned about meiosis we learned about mitosis. This was right before midterms so I had them do a midterm project on mitosis. All of my students are always begging me to do a "cake project" especially since the beginning of the year when I had the freshman make edible models of the atom. So I had all the biology students work in groups to make an edible cell in one of the stages of mitosis. I made it clear that it did not necessarily have to be made out of cake, it just had to be edible. Of course most of projects were made out of cake or cake related treats, such as brownies and rice krispie treats.
Some students obviously put a lot of time, effort, and planning into their projects. Other students were asking during class if they could go to the store to by M&M's because they were just now assembling their cakes and need them as centromeres. Of course, it was never their fault. "Miss, Peter ate all our chromosomes and now we have to go buy more!" One of the most creative projects was from a student who used a bowl of jello for her cell and pieces of candy floated around inside representing the chromosomes and other parts of the cell.
Of course, the best part was when everyone got to eat all the projects. They could hardly get through the presentations because they were so excited about the prospect of shoveling all the cakes into their mouths as fast as they could. During the presentations I could see kids sneaking gummy worms off their cakes and slipping them into their mouths. If group members caught them they would either be slapped and glared at with a disapprovingly, or, more likely, the group member would do the same thing, until, by the end of the presentations there were just bare cakes left.
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| My student's science fair poster board. |
This semester was also the time for the island wide Science Fair. Science teachers helped students with projects and then helped them write reports and make a poster board which they could then present to the judges. Most of the students who asked me for help I could tell did not really want to do a project but they just liked the idea of having done a project. They really didn't want to put in the time and brain power it would require.
I ended up mostly just helping one of my students. It was difficult for both of us. She didn't have the experience or knowledge about how to even begin to do a science fair project and she also didn't have many resources. But she was pretty persistent and enthusiastic about doing a project. It was hard for me because I wanted her to do the project mostly on her own, but I found this wasn't really possible. Then it was a question of how much time and effort I was willing to put in and who's project was this anyway? In the end, she did not create a winning poster, but I think she learned a lot about doing an experiment and presenting it in a poster and report. She's only a sophomore so she'll be able to use these skills to compete for two more years.
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| This girl goes to a different school, but I know her because we play soccer together in Leone. |
In biology we've been learning about mitosis and meiosis. I read about a project online somewhere that involved making cells out of paper plates and then using other materials to create chromosomes and other parts of the cell. I was able to get a few kids to bring in styrofoam plates (paper plates do not exist here which blows my mind because there is such a huge problem with trash) and I had some colored pipe cleaners, a few markers, and Quinn let me have a ball of purple yarn. The kids made chromosomes and spindle apparatuses out of yarn and pipe cleaners and drew the rest with marker. I'm not sure if this helped them learn about the process of meiosis better or if they were just replicating the picture in the book, but most of them had fun anyway.
In period 2 we stuck all the plates up on the wall above the chalk board using tape and glue. They looked pretty good when they were all organize together. It was the first thing all the rest of the students noticed when they walked in the room and they all thought it was pretty cool. Period 6 saw them and were immediately jealous that their plates were not yet up on the wall, even though the only reason for this was because they hadn't had class yet. The glue didn't hold on the chromosomes that well and every couple days I find another lost chromosome lying on the floor, but so far the plates have stuck to the walls pretty well. I was a little worried because the wind usually knocks down everything I put up after about a week.
Some students obviously put a lot of time, effort, and planning into their projects. Other students were asking during class if they could go to the store to by M&M's because they were just now assembling their cakes and need them as centromeres. Of course, it was never their fault. "Miss, Peter ate all our chromosomes and now we have to go buy more!" One of the most creative projects was from a student who used a bowl of jello for her cell and pieces of candy floated around inside representing the chromosomes and other parts of the cell.
Of course, the best part was when everyone got to eat all the projects. They could hardly get through the presentations because they were so excited about the prospect of shoveling all the cakes into their mouths as fast as they could. During the presentations I could see kids sneaking gummy worms off their cakes and slipping them into their mouths. If group members caught them they would either be slapped and glared at with a disapprovingly, or, more likely, the group member would do the same thing, until, by the end of the presentations there were just bare cakes left.
There's also a cell play out there to teach the function of organelles and a mitosis dance, which REALLY helped mine to remember it so now that we are doing meiosis they can note similarities and differences.They added their own music and "directors" were voted on to lead. We videoed and watched it later.
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