Hannah Moriarty

Grade 9 Biology Class

Claremont Academy

1/30/14

Round #2: DNA Decoding Sentences:

My goal in this course is to not only teach my students about biology but to help them learn how science affects their everyday lives and the world around them. Although I do think it is very important for all of my students to learn about biology I am more passionate about having them apply these lessons to their own lives in order to practice healthy living, better understand themselves and help preserve the world in which we live. As their teacher I want to focus on helping my students to become well rounded, healthy adults as well as educated about biologyToday we will look at my ninth grade biology class in a heterogeneous classroom setting at Claremont Academy.Students are being asked to explore, hypothesize and use collaborative group work to breakdown information and devise conclusions to the information presented to them.This activity will ask students to use their reasoning skills and work with one another in a professional manner to come to a common goal or theme. The purpose this lesson is to allow students to work in groups to perfect their decoding skills and learn how simple mutations can have a great effect on our genetic code or the “blue-prints” of our lives.

In previous lessons throughout this unit students have been learning about the role in which DNA plays in our lives and how it acts as the “blue-print” of our life. Students have also been exposed to protein synthesis and the role it plays in helping to develop our genetic code. The class has been introduced to the difference between RNA and DNA and the different bases that makeup these specific sequences. Today the students will take a closer look at the scientific process known as translation and how simple mutations can affect our genetic code. I have carefully selected different positive, easy to read sentences that the students in groups will work together to decode an d make sense of. This activity has been designed to help students practice their decoding skills as well as work together as a group to achieve a common goal. This lesson will helpfully help my students learn the importance of group work in a fun competitive manner as well as understand the important roles that translation and protein synthesis play in helping to develop our genetic codes.

In this particular lesson students will start by answering a “warm-up” question pertaining to ways in which Morse code is similar to decoding DNA and how mutations in this type of decoding would affect our genetic codes. Students will then watch a short student-friendly video-clip on protein synthesis explaining its importance and how mutations in this process affect the outcome of our genetic makeup. As a class we will discuss the video and further elaborate on how protein synthesis is related to Morse code. I will then present the class with the activity they will be doing. I will explain the instructions to them and as a class we will do an example problem so they are clear on what I am asking them to do. Next they will begin decoding these different student/science friendly sentences. The first group to decode these ten sentences correctly will win a prize. We will finally go over the sentences as a group and have a quick re-cap/notes portion as to what this lesson has taught us. I will hand-out copies of the notes to each student so that all students are able to follow along. Finally I will assign the students an exit ticket question for them to decode a DNA sequence on their own and then explain what they learned about mutations in this particular lesson. This will help me to assess which students may need more help and who grasped the purpose of this lesson. As the students fill out their exit tickets I will check off that they took down the notes and assign them their homework which will be practice further decoding more sentences.

This lesson is intended to allow students to work together in groups to achieve a common goal and decipher/comprehend the importance of decode DNA sequences and the role in plays in their own lives. I want my students to not only become more educated about biology but to understand how working together can benefit their experience in an academic sense as well as make it more enjoyable. This activity will hopefully motivate them to practice their decoding skills as well as converse with one another about mutations and how they can affect their genetic codes. .

Round Focus:

Although most of the students that makeup this class are extremely creative and energetic they working effectively in groups. All too often the more motivated person in each group begrudgingly does the majority of the work while the rest of the group simply observes them is is off topic. I want to use this lesson as a way to observe/ensure that all of the students are able to understand my instructions and are all on task. I want to determine who is on task and who isn’t contributing to helping their group reach their goal. I also want to determine if all of the students appear to be engaged and if they seem to be enjoying to activity to some extent.

This particular class is composed of students with a wide variety of intellectual abilities and various levels of motivation. One of my goals this year and with this unit is to teach my students the importance of being held accountable for their own actions and the expectations I have set for them. These lessons will help them to not only improve their skills as students but also help to shape them into more well-rounded adults. One focus of this round is to observe how motivated the students seem when it comes to completing the task they are being asked and do they seem engaged and grasping the concepts at hand. Since class unfortunately isn’t very concerned with their overall academic experience, my goal is to try to incorporate creative ways to help make learning fun, interactive and effective.

As I walk around periodically and as I listen to the students work together and describe how they will go about completing this activity. I will check in with each group by asking them about their findings and if they are making connections between the importance of protein synthesis and genetic mutations. Are students taking charge or being responsible for their own learning? Are they absorbing what they are discovering and truly taking it to heart? Also, are they taking this lesson seriously?

Thank you for attending this round and thank you for your comments! 

Round Questions:

  1. Since there a various academic abilities in this particular classroom I have given all of my students the same accommodations. I have done this so that they can all feel as equals and not to make anyone feel out of place. Did all of the students seem to comprehend what I was asking them to do regardless of their academic ability? Record evidence that either supports of disproves this notion.
  1. Record any evidence supporting or refuting students are working well together in groups to achieve a common goal while still remaining engaged and using the proper scientific vocabulary.
  1. Are students grasping the process of protein synthesis and how to decode their sequence of nucleotides? Record evidences that show that students understand what a mutation is and how it might affect our genetic code?