All Blog Posts (33)

Science Content Day

Today my district had a professional development day focused on content areas. We had 120 science teachers at my building. They really enjoyed the opportunities provided. In the morning, we had an opening session followed by three breakout sessions. Teachers selected three sessions to attend. The choices were:

Creating Class Web Pages
Designing Online Surveys
Digital Lab Reports
Emergency Lesson Plans
Google Docs for collaboration
Inter

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Added by Glen Westbroek on October 5, 2009 at 7:38pm — 3 Comments

Looking for ways to engage students

One of the requirements in my state core for science is for students to identify predators and prey. In the past, we've read from our textbook or done a game relating to predators and prey. While these both met the state core requirement it has not "engaged" my students in a way I've enjoyed. This year, I looked at possible online tools that could be used for this core requirement. I decided to use Motivator from… Continue

Added by Glen Westbroek on October 4, 2009 at 5:29pm — No Comments

The End of The Line

The problem According to… Continue

Added by Sean Nash on October 2, 2009 at 12:00pm — No Comments

From Day One: Information Literacy In The Biology Classroom

I believe information literacy is the responsibility of all content teachers. The following piece is a bit about how I tend to kick off a new year, and how to easily aim at info literacy from very early on.

As I have spewed onto the blog before, I do not like to go shy into the… Continue

Added by Sean Nash on September 3, 2009 at 3:00pm — No Comments

Trophic Levels and Energy Transfer

Today’s objective dealt with understanding the 10% rule of energy transfer between trophic levels. I used four student volunteers. They represented Producer, Herbivore, Carnivore, and Scavenger. Started with 1 liter of RootBeer in LARGE Graduated Cylinder. Poured out 100ml for first student (producer). Removed 10 ml from this for second student (herbivore). Took 1 ml out for third student (carnivore). FInally removed 0.1 ml using a pipette for fourth student (scavenger). Poured Root Beer from… Continue

Added by Glen Westbroek on August 28, 2009 at 10:30pm — 10 Comments

Reading Into Genetics

As a Biology teacher with dual certification in Communication Arts, I feel th… Continue

Added by Erin Nash on August 7, 2009 at 9:35pm — No Comments

What will you do differently with students next year?

After attending NECC 09 in Washington D.C. I determined to consider my next year’s teaching. In the process, I realized there were some changes I wished to make in how I work with my students. Perhaps the most important of my changes is a desire to allow students to choose the most appropriate tool to use when doing an assignment. As I thought about it, I realized I wanted to see what others might consider important as well. I posted the following on Twitter: What will you do differently w/ stud… Continue

Added by Glen Westbroek on July 10, 2009 at 4:54pm — 10 Comments

Spheres of Influence

How fun is this?

Three years ago I moved into a position of instructional coach for my building. The majority of my days are now spent as a content-generalist coach focused on helping teachers improve pedagogical skills. Our opt-in model keeps the conversation f… Continue

Added by Sean Nash on July 5, 2009 at 10:38pm — 3 Comments

West coastie

Ok - I live on the water - literally - in a house boat on Puget Sound - I also teach Marine Bio - so you wanted a coastie - how can I be of service? Continue

Added by Michelle Whittaker on May 22, 2009 at 4:15pm — No Comments

Get your students involved in this... name a new jelly!

Perhaps this is a good "final week" mini-lesson? => Toss in your two cents to the official naming contest for the Bonaire Box Jellyfish. Come on, you know you love Latin. I received a message about this a day or so ago on a marine science listserv. Go… Continue

Added by Sean Nash on May 18, 2009 at 9:00am — No Comments

Compare & Contrast: With regard to what?

Student comparison diagram of the anatomy, physiology and inferred behavioral characteristics of both a crayfish and a grasshopper.

Here's one that will make sense to a biology instructor of any flavor. Since structure & function is such a hug… Continue

Added by Sean Nash on May 18, 2009 at 8:29am — No Comments

Ready To Set Sail!

Just in time... guest bloggers! We are less than a day away from our Marine Biology class field study on Andros Island in the Bahamas. I am still waiting for students to come in to weigh t… Continue

Added by Sean Nash on April 2, 2009 at 5:30pm — No Comments

Tree-Dwelling Octopuses Prompt Media Literacy Discussion

What do the concepts of biology, media literacy, and April Fool's Day have in common? Potentially... quite a bit, in fact. Actually, it seems cephalopods of all sorts have been getting my attention as of late.

Today's lesson in Principles of Biology was essentially: pay attention.… Continue

Added by Sean Nash on April 1, 2009 at 2:48pm — 1 Comment

A Synthesis Blogging Whitman

Dare I say, "trust me?" You'll have to visit this one to see how the topic of "evolution" mentioned within the text of Whitman's Leaves of Grass led me to post this article here. Evolution & Literature, yum.......

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Added by Sean Nash on March 23, 2009 at 10:40am — No Comments

The Octopus Gets Due Respect

My last post was a highlight of a train wreck of a children's book. If you know me, you know that I don't like to dwell long on things negative. And thus- this post was published.

Regardless of your take on The Septapus, I have felt the need for a review of a real… Continue

Added by Sean Nash on March 21, 2009 at 7:38pm — No Comments

Inquiry Introduction to Probability

One of my favorite activities to do with 7th grade science students is to allow them to explore probability as we begin our unit on Genetics. I'm constantly reminded that they often view three possibilities as being equally possible. I determined to use inquiry as a method to help them see the relationships that exist with two factors. This activity uses coins (or poker chips having sides labeled as "heads and tails." When we finish the first day, students have data from their class, but not oth… Continue

Added by Glen Westbroek on March 9, 2009 at 7:56pm — 1 Comment

Attack of the Septapus -or- Why are you doing this to my kid?

Fuel (I thought that perhaps a few of the bio geeks here would get a kick out of this one.)

Lately, my students and I have been studying not only the effectiveness of biological illustrations, but also the efficacy of their own illustrations to personally enhance th… Continue

Added by Sean Nash on March 9, 2009 at 12:21am — 3 Comments

The Power of Visualization?

I think the TPACK framework is one of the most influential things I have learned about/grappled with this past year. As an instructional coach in the middle of an educational technology implementation, this is one piece I have relied on heavily for personal focus and planning.

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Added by Sean Nash on March 5, 2009 at 5:00pm — No Comments

Peeing Egg Lab

Students began the Peeing Egg lab during class today. This is the first of three days we will do this lab. We will wait at least 2 days between each part of the lab to ensure as much success as possible. A major part of my lab design is to get students thinking. I also allow the students to determine what solute they want to use for the last part of the experiment. Yes, each group gets two eggs and has a control egg that is soaked in water versus another egg that is soaked in a solution of water… Continue

Added by Glen Westbroek on February 27, 2009 at 4:46pm — No Comments

Web 2.0 Science Presentation Handouts

I was asked to provide my handouts from the presentation "Top 10 Internet Sites for teaching 21st Century Skills." The first handout is an overview of 21st Century NETS for students and teachers. As my state as not adopted 21st Century Skills, I wanted to highlight these.… Continue

Added by Glen Westbroek on February 22, 2009 at 11:28am — No Comments