Persistence

In my classroom, just inside the door there is a piece of construction paper with a word printed on it. This word, which is changed weekly, is meant to give students an opportunity to reflect on their behavior, attitude, and state of mind. And though I can't remember what the word is this week (or last), I found myself this evening reflecting on the word persistence. So I looked it up: to persist, meaning to go on resolutely or stubbornly in spite of difficulties. I had originally been considering this word, because of some of my recent interactions with students have left me wondering whether they can or even want to persist, in biology or high school. I feel like I have seen enough to know that students have a stubborn nature, but I rarely see it applied to their schoolwork. But on those occasions when I do see it, I am inspired. I am proud to spend time after the bell working with a student to finish the day's assignment.

So tonight, I continued to consider persistence, in the context of my own life. In particular, I am thinking about my need (and to some degree desire) to understand the crystal structure of cadmium minerals. I have been having serious difficulty understanding the concept of symmetry elements and operations, the three-dimensional arrangement of atoms, and the extensive crystallographic language that is used to describe the whole thing. I have four books from the library on crystal chemistry and mineralogy. I've spent two weekends building paper and Styrofoam and toothpick models of mineral structures. And I still don't really understand how 6mm is different from 6mc. But I know that I can't give up, I have to persist.

So, I understand that biology isn't the most interesting thing on the planet. (I say this with a full knowledge that biology might well be the most interesting thing on the planet.) And I know that it is way way way above crystal structures and mineralogy on the list. But perhaps the key to really learning either one is persistence.

You Are What You Eat

A new semester and a new class full of students to get to know. First hour biology is replacing my previous environmental science class. I understand that many of the ES students have moved on to bigger and better things: mostly microbiology. I wish them the best of luck.

No class on yesterday due to the snowstorm, but Monday was an investigation of food to determine major biomolecules. Students tested pizza, chips, bologna, sugar, and apple for sugars, starch, protein and lipids. I only got to witness the beginning of the lab, but I thought that the students enjoyed it. It will be interesting to return next week and determine whether the concepts have been absorbed or not. I also wonder whether they will examine what they have tested and compare it with the foods that they eat on a regular basis. For example, it was quite difficult to get a positive reading from the protein test with the pizza, despite having cheese - and maybe that will make students question eating pizza as their source of protein in the future?

Week 3: Ecological Footprint and Scientific Method

On Monday, I worked with the environmental science students on the ecological footprint activity in the computer lab. Your ecological footprint is a measure of the amount of goods and services that are required to sustain your life. This about how much land your house covers, how much land it takes to grow/raise your food, how much land it takes to dispose of your waste, and the space which is required to contain the energy resources that you use for electricity and transportation. The calculator, available on the internet, then extrapolates you’re footprint to the entire world population, telling you how many earths would be required if everyone lived like you do.

It was interesting to do the activity with them, and to watch them working through the questions that they were given. I could tell some of them starting making connections between the selections that they had made relative to their peers in the lab, and the number of planets that appeared in the summary. One student even asked me what would happen if they said that they lived in Australia instead of the US. I told them to try it, and they discovered that not only was the answer different, but some of the questions were different also. And in the end, their footprint was smaller if they lived in Australia. We compared the profiles and discovered, not surprisingly, that energy was a major difference between the US and Australia.

In biology, I helped students with a scientific method lesson, where they were identifying parts of experiments including dependent and independent variables, control and experimental groups, from a set of experiments fictitiously carried out by characters from the Simpsons on the internet. The original assignment was for them to find definitions for their terms on the internet, and then proceed to the site with the experiments listed. However, it became obvious that the students were having difficulties finding definitions that were going to make it easier to do the second part of the assignment correctly, so Mr. Sowder instead gave them definitions. I had tried to have them sift through all of the definitions that they were finding to determine one which seemed the most useful in scientific study (as Mr. Sowder had suggested that they do when they encountered more than one definition) but I was pleased when they were given definitions that were clear and related to the second part of the activity.

I thought that the lesson was well suited for the students, because reading about Homer and green slime is more fun than most scientific experiments that I know. I also thought that it was interesting that Mr. Sowder was having them really think about the steps of the scientific method and the elements of a scientific experiment outside of traditional science experiments. I think that having students connect the concepts to somewhat irrelevant stories will strengthen their understanding of the material.

Week 2: Missing in Action

I missed my hours this week because I was attending a professional conference in Boston, presenting some of my dissertation research on life cycle assessment. I have mixed feelings about missing my time in the high school this week. Mr. Sowder was very flexible, and I understand that TF program expects there to be some days which will be missed for research and conference travel. But, I regret that my absence was this early in my time at the high school, because I think that it will create some discontinuity in my relationships with the students that might not have occurred if I had missed time later in the semester. I will have to be very present next week when I return, to assure that the students and I can make connections.