Dear Students... Whoever you are...

The Handy Dandy Guide to Modern Science:

If it blows up, its Chemistry

If it doesn't work, its Physics

If it is green, wiggles, and smells funny its Biology!

Welcome to Mrs. Tyler's Biology class. Now I know what you are thinking, "ANOTHER Biology class.... How can life get anymore boring??" Let me tell you that our class this year is not going to be another boring class. We are going to do experiments that both you and I create, we are going to take field trips, learn facts, discover truths, and even debate ideas. Science is useful in every day life as well. In our class we are going to try and focus on the outside world and learn from it rather than from a book. In fact, John Lubbock said, “Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books.” (John Lubbock (Lord Avebury), The Use of Life (1895)). 

Don't worry, I will be a better teacher than this bug here! 

If ever you have a question and you have to figure out how to solve it you are DOING science. For example, have you ever tried to find out the best way to hang a heavy picture? Perhaps you were trying to figure out why your car was leaking oil? Or maybe your question was how to get in the best shape for your upcoming football, soccer, volleyball (or whatever sport you play) season. All of these questions require you to come up with some options of how it could be done and then try some of your ideas out to see if they work. That is what science is, testing your ideas to see how they work to answer a question. They might not seem like science to you because you are used to looking into a microscope or filling out a paper with a hypothesis and conclusion but trust me it is science just the same. 

Here is a fun site that has a bunch of games on it that teach you a little bit about Biology as you play each one!  http://biogames.info/

I am excited to start the year with this class. We are going to have fun and I hope you are getting as excited as I am. Let's get started on a great year!

Science is FUN

Who knew? Writing really was a huge part of most of my science classes. It may not have been writing a big science paper but we always were writing hypotheses or drawing conclusions. I think that is really important in writing. When a student has many opportunities to perform little writing tasks and then as a few opportunities to produce a polished piece. I remember a couple of assignments that I was able to research a topic and then write a formal paper about it. I was able to share the facts and express my opinion. There were also many lab reports I was able to write and then creative ways of creating texts and demonstrating my knowledge. I remember making an atom out of clay, making an ecosystem, extracting DNA, and dissecting animals. All of these were very beneficial for me and I thought they were fun.

I really think that "fun" is an important word in high school Biology classrooms, and any classroom for that matter. If a teacher always gives multiple choice exams or if he/she always has his/her students write a formal paper the students will get bored and may shut down. If we, as teachers, are able to make our subject fun and unpredictable the students are more likely to be engaged. My personal opinion is that multiple choice exams and other techniques that are similar to it, in other words, general and expected assessment techniques limit the students. I don't think they are bad in every way but I do see some limitations. The students know what to expect, they know there is a right answer, and they don't have an opportunity to share their views. I think that many students prefer these types of assessments but I think all students will benefit with variety. I think it only enforces the ideas a teacher teaches and it encourages the students to look at topics with different lenses on.

I am going to ask my students to create their own experiments, write research papers that are the same as a professional paper, take tests, and produce diagrams or other 3D objects. I think this will really help my students and hopefully they will start seeing the fun side of science. I know I didn't really enjoy science in high school. In fact, I hated my Biology class, then I got to college. It was a whole different experience. All of the sudden I was a scientist. I was asked to analyze experiments and share my opinions. I really enjoyed it. My goal as a teacher is to show them that science is fun and it is useful in their lives. Maybe I can convince a few more people to pursue careers is science because it is a great field.