Breaking Away From Content Delivery

The more I research and reflect on how we learn best, the more frustrated I get with programs that essentially require teachers to teach to some form of standardized test in order to ensure the success of students.  Though I believe that IB biology provides a good platform for skill development in higher order thinking skills with lab design and analysis of data, I find the content to be too prescribed in terms of terminology and phrasing.  As a result, a teacher could potentially get great results by simply teaching the test using only a program approved textbook or study guide for teaching resources.  In addition to this, the time requirements for completing the "content delivery" in the higher level course, frequently prevent teachers from using more time-consuming, non-traditional methods such as project-based learning for much of the content. 

Several months ago, I read a great post by Shawn Cornally from his blog "Think, Thank, Thunk".  If you do not follow him, you should definitely add him to your list.  In this post, he made me yearn for a teaching situation in IB biology where I could implement all of the cool strategies I get to use in my 10th grade integrated science class (not bound by a standardized test at the end of two years) such as project-based learning and gamification.   ​The struggle he describes is one that I would love to tackle in my IB biology class.  I wrote to him to ask how he could possibly do all of that in an AP/ IB class (talk about your super teacher). It turns out that his school doesn't have an AP or IB program for biology, though some elect to take the AP Biology exam after taking the course.  I suppose the grass is always greener, but at the same time, I decided to make it my mission this year to find ways to move away from the test and challenge my IB students creatively forcing them to use those higher order thinking skills that we as a school have embraced this year: namely critical thinking, creativity, information fluency, and collaboration. 

My last post is one example of how I have moved away from the lecture model in IB to teach content that is typically delivered old school style.  Today I will explain how I taught cell transport processes using a new tool I discovered called Inklewriter.

It is almost a guarantee that my students will find a question similar to these on their exam in May of their senior year:

1. Describe the process of mineral ion uptake into root.
2. Explain how the structure of the villus in the small intestine is related to its function.​
3. Explain the process of active and passive transport that move materials across a membrane.  ​
4. Explain how a nerve impulse passes along a neuron.​
5. Explain the process of ultrafiltration.  ​

What do all of these have in common?  ​Cell membrane transport.  As a result this is one of the most crucial themes for kids to not only understand but also be able to apply to a myriad of situations. 

​Inklewriter is an online "choose your own adventure" tool.  Though you would typically find uses for this in an English class, I adapted it to address this theme in IB Biology.  Since cell membrane transport is dependent on several variables such as concentration of molecules, size, polarity etc., it reads just like a choose your own adventure story.  If this is the situation does it do this or this?   

Prior to class, I had all students sign up for accounts and familiarize themselves with the instructions on how to create a choose your own adventure story.  Then in class, I paired them up and let them run with it.  The majority of them chose to use a metaphor such as a bouncer (cell membrane) at a party, or Middle Earth (still trying to process all of the weird references in this one).  Others created their own fantasy or went the literal route.  ​

Either way, the entire class was actively engaged in this activity, and I was able to identify any gaps in their understanding of transport by reading their stories.  Since the majority of them also applied their knowledge of transport using a metaphor, they are more likely to remember how this works and be able to apply it to new situations when they learn about the different body processes or transport in plants.  The best part was that we only had to spend one class period working on this. The engagement factor alone motivated my students to devote more time outside of class working on this than they would have if I had simply assigned a reading out of a text for them to memorize. 

Here is a link to the assignment.  ​You can find a more detailed description of this along with a PDF file under the IB Biology Lessons link on this blog.

Old Habits...Don't Seem to Die Part I

Last night our school PTA hosted an 80's retro dance.  Seeing this as an obvious opportunity to channel my inner Madonna circa 1983, I joined some friends at the salon to tease the life back into our hairstyles. 

While sitting in the chair watching an Indian woman born circa "the year I graduated from high school" completely butcher the required technique to maximize both the wingspan and the staying power of the sides of my hair, I found myself growing more and more frustrated.  Then it happened.  It all came flooding back as if there had not been a 20 year interval between that moment and the last time I tortured my hair in the name of fashion.  I started issuing instructions rapid fire, and in the end I commandeered the brush, hair dryer, and extra large can of aerosol hairspray so that I could show her how to tease out hair properly.  Once I realized what I was doing, I handed the equipment back to her, the trained professional, and allowed her to finish her task...or at least that is how I wish the events would have played out.  

In any case, I find myself sitting here the next day reflecting on this incident, mostly because I just spent an hour trying to rid my hair of a bottle of hairspray and a rat's nest of tangles.  But also because of two provocative reads that have inspired this series of posts.  I recently read the Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life and Business (a must read if you haven't already done so). 

In this book, Duhigg illustrates why habits exist using current research and narratives in neuroscience, and then proceeds to discuss their potential for transformation.  Clearly the skill set involved in destroying my hair beyond recognition was habitual.  I guess doing something daily for an unmentionable amount of time will do that.  I was then sidetracked and started to reflect on the skill sets that I focus on daily with my students.  Some, I soon realized, are also unmentionable in light of the article that popped up on my Twitter feed this morning from Forbes:  "It's the End of an Era:  Enter the Knowledgeable Networker".  In this article, Ken Perlman discusses the end of the era of the knowledge worker.  He claims, "Today, no organization can hire all the knowledge workers it needs to cover every emerging need. Companies are generating exabytes of information. In 2013 alone, we’ll generate more data than we have in the previous 5,000 years combined. An individual or self-contained group of individuals may know all the vital facts of their field in this very instant, but the speed of change can make their knowledge obsolete in the next instant." 

Ring in the era of the knowledgeable networker.  Perlman describes them as, "...very good at what they do, and at the same time, do not pretend to know it all. They consider the entire puzzle, not just their own area of expertise. They’re integrative thinkers with broad interests and connections. They see how puzzle pieces fit together without needing to know everything about each piece – instead, they KNOW A LOT OF PEOPLE and HAVE A LOT OF INFORMATION SOURCES." 

And this brings me to today's dilemma.  How are we as teachers helping to facilitate the formation of requisite habits in our students to produce a generation of knowledgeable networkers?  How many of us are continuing to foster the skills that support the habits and practices of knowledge workers instead of those that are specific to knowledgeable networkers?  And how do these skill sets differ? How many of us are guilty of checking the box of 21st century skill #159 after introducing it on only one assessment then proceeding to drill and kill to produce experts in our discipline?  What changes need to be made to our curricula to accomodate these new skill sets?  And with that I leave you with one last question that I posed to my 10th grade class the other day: 

"Ms. Newcomb had quite the hairspray obsession when she was your age. In fact, she used a bottle and a half of hairspray every week.  Each bottle contained 12 oz. of hair spray. The problem was that the hairspray caused a sticky layer of gunk to form on her bathroom sink and floor, so every 4 oz’s or so, Ms. Newcomb would have to clean the bathroom floor or her mother would threaten to stop buying her hairspray.  How many times did Ms. Newcomb have to clean her bathroom during her "big hair" years between 1988 and 1992?" 

Part II was posted on March 7.  ​