Post-AP Exam

[Jessi Van Der Volgen]

I don't know about your school calendar, but I still have 2.5 weeks of school with my seniors before graduation. What do you all do with your AP students after the exam? I try to do things that are meaningful and interesting, but at nice, easy pace. Any suggestions?

[Debra Garcia]

I have my seniors for one week and the juniors for 2 and they are all in the same class. So I do three main things.

First the Scroll of Life. I have a huge roll of Butcher paper about 1.5 feet wide and about 10-15 feet long. For the few days after the test they decompress by making "The Scroll of Life" which details their experiences in AP over the year. It takes several days to do. It has content from the year creatively included, funny inside class jokes that took place, drawings, cartoons, etc. Some of the students keep a set of notes over the year just for the Scroll jokes. When they are done I laminate it and then I hang it up in the room for next year's class to see. They love making it and reading what those did in the past. A bonding experience. It's also student directed- no influence from me aside from general directions. This years scroll will be crazy b/c I had an all girl class.

I then have them write a group letter to next year's AP class. It is basically a top ten list of things they should do to survive.

Then we do a shark dissection. I never get to it during the year and even though the seniors are done by then they come back freely to do the dissection.

[Elissa Hoffman]

I save my dissections for this part - like Debra said, it's engaging enough that they stay relatively productive.

In the past, we've painted classroom murals also - the kids design something that contains lots of biological images, then we project it with an overhead, trace it, and fill it in.

It's less educational, but I'm also considering doing something relating to "Finding Nemo" and animal behaviors / ecology - so if anyone has anything they would be willing to share, I'd be thrilled :)

[scienceguru]

Elissa,
I've got some film questions slanted toward animal behavior for "Finding Nemo" that I'm attaching. Feel free to use them.

In my class, we're watching "Journey of Man" and "Influenza 1918." Next week, we're doing a human behavior observations lab and then that's it. My seniors are gone after next week.

[Stacy Baker]

Great discussion! I shockingly have four weeks left! Like Debra, my students write letters to next year's AP class. I love the mural idea. Today I tried to get them to make a video, but they were camera shy. I shouldn't have told them beforehand that it would end up here and on twitter!

In two weeks we'll be teaching the 3rd graders about cells. Each AP students is responsible for a mini-lesson that the 3rd graders will rotate to. Beyond that I'm not sure what I'm going to do! This is my first year at this school. Last year my school was finished at this point. How envious I am of them right now!

Poor things will just have to sit through videos next week as I'm taking all of my 9th graders on a 4 day camping trip. Maybe I'll use the Finding Nemo idea. ScienceGuru - the questions you created to go along with the movie are AWESOME! Thanks for sharing!

[Elissa Hoffman]

The Nemo questions are perfect - thank you so much for sharing!! :)

[Jessi Van Der Volgen]

So many great ideas here. I love the looking back ideas -- AP classes really become a little like a family. I typically watch And the Band Played On with my students (a great film if you haven't seen it), we have a photo-scavenger hunt for things we've talked about this year related to ecology and biodiversity, and then we read a book together. I give them a list to choose from and they vote on it. This year we're doing the discussion online. We'll see how that goes...

[Khanh Chau]

I love the idea of a scavenger hunt, and reading a book. Could you post these activities or send them to me?

[e-mail]

Thanks bunches!

[Colin Matheson]

We cover two topics: science technology and society and local ecology.
For STS we watch and discuss two science fiction films, Blade Runner and Ghost in the Shell. Both movies discuss issues about the line between human and robot/bio-android/cyborg. As we enter a world in which we can start to engineer life I feel these discussions are both fun and important.

Then we do the field trips we didn't have time for during the year in order to learn the names of our local plants and animals. I tell the kids they need to know where they come from and represent their homies (endemic species) when they go off to college.

[Khanh Chau]

I teach ap bio in Bethesda, MD and I have 2 weeks with my seniors and 4 weeks with my juniors after the test. The class is a daily double period, so there is a lot of time to kill.

After the AP Bio test I like to do the following things:
1. Paint ceiling tiles. I have the best ceiling in the school.
2. Fetal Pig dissection
3. Watch Wall-e, Nemo, Bee movie

[Sandy Jacobs]

What are your guidelines for the ceiling tiles?  I have been thinking of doing this for a while.  I haven't asked permission and do not know if I should buy tiles they will paint, and set the plain ones back or just go for it (I plan on staying).  I also can't decide if I should do them or let the kids do them ...

 

Any guidance is appreciated.