Subject:Science, Biology, Genetics (DNA & RNA Structure, Mendelian Genetics/Punnett Squares, Replication, Protein Synthesis, Genetic Engineering)
Grade Level: 9-11
Description: Students are grouped homogenously by language and ability level in order to learn about various aspects of genetics. In their groups, they are given specific sub-topics to teach the class. A more scaffolded version of the sub-topics guides them as they research answers on the Internet and in textbooks. After learning the material, they create a lesson plan to teach the class. Lessons must include a warm up/do now, minilesson, activity, closing, and a homework assignment. They spend almost the entire 1-hour period teaching the class. At the end of each lesson, the class takes a short quiz to assess how well the “teachers” taught the material, and they fill out a performance evaluation form and the “teachers” reflect on quality of their lesson as well.
How it Works: The projects start with completing the research. The students complete most it using the Internet, but the research could be completed by only using books. The use of the Internet allows students to translate information into their native languages if needed.
Once the students understand the content, they construct a minilesson that varies from handouts that the class completes, a short PowerPoint presentation, and a poster to a mini-lecture driven by questions from the “teachers” to showing a BrainPop video. The students decide which format is best suited to their language, skill, and preference and the material they need to teach.
After the MiniLesson, all groups prepare a hands-on activity for the class to complete. In order to facilitate choosing an activity, we provide students with folders containing various activities relating to each topic for them to choose from. For example, activities included building a DNA molecule using clay, cutting out puzzle pieces to make a DNA molecule, and decoding messages using the codon table. Before teaching the lesson, students actually do the activity themselves and obtain all of the materials needed to complete the activity beforehand.
Students answer any questions that the class has at the end of the lesson. The class then completes an evaluation of the lesson the “teachers” taught, and the “teachers” completed a self evaluation of the quality of their lesson. A mini-quiz is given at the end of each lesson to assess the quality of the lesson and how much the students learned. Once every group has presented their lesson, a comprehensive test is given to the students.
Final Project/Product: The final product is the actual lesson that that the students teach.
Overall Value: This project’s greatest value is that the students actually assume the role of the teacher. It is amazing to see how much responsibility they take on and the pride they have in their lessons. In order to teach the material, the students need a strong understanding of it; teaching the class further cements their own understanding. Usually when each group studies a different topic, the group only understands their topic and does not understand the topic that their peers researched. This project solves this dilemma as the students are ‘taught’ the other topics by their peers. Furthermore, genetics lends itself well to differentiation. In order for the students with more English proficiency to fully understand their topics (such as protein synthesis or genetic engineering), they have to understand the more basic topics (such as DNA structure). At our school, we usually group students heterogeneously, but this gives students the opportunity to work with others who are similar in their English fluency and ability levels. It also enables different students to take on leadership roles within their groups and takes some of the pressure off students who speak little English since they are in a group with others like themselves. Students also have a greater appreciation for the amount of work that goes into preparing a lesson as well as the difficulties with classroom management.
English Language Learners: This project is geared toward ELL students because each topic the students teach is at a different level. The basic topics are fairly visual and easier to understand. The more complex topics require a basic understanding of the easier ones, so even if the group that is teaching DNA structure has difficulty conveying the material, the more advanced groups already understand it based on their own research. This means that there is less pressure for the students who are new to English, as most of the students have a basic knowledge of the topic before their lesson.
Grouping the students homogenously allows the teacher to spend more time with the students who are the newest English Language Learners. During the lessons, the teacher devotes most of the time to guiding these students through the lesson and its corresponding activity as the other students in the class are working in groups independently.
The scaffolded versions of the research questions help guide the students better than just giving them specific subtopics that they need to teach in their lesson. Students with lower fluency with English are able to use PowerPoint presentations and BrainPop as their minilesson to ease the pressure of speaking in front of the class.
The warm-ups/do-nows are visual in order to reach all of the students. Requiring all groups to have a lesson with an activity means that most students choose very visual or hands-on activities.
Tips for the Teacher: We were concerned at the start of the unit that the students would have difficulty grasping the material with little prior knowledge or exposure to genetics, but they managed to do a great job. In order to teach the students some of the major concepts, we used extended warm-ups/do-nows. We created giant DNA molecules out of paper and had the students figure out the base paring rules. Then we created a giant RNA molecule and compared it to the DNA. To teach replication, we then “unzipped” our giant DNA molecule. By the time the students were ready to present their lessons, they were familiar with most of the topics.
In order to hold individual students accountable for the work they completed each day, a group leader assigned every member of his/her group a grade at the end of each period. This was taken into account in the individual student’s final grade for the project.
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