Listen Up!
11/18/2017
We are officially a third of the way through the school year! As we head into the Thanksgiving holiday to reflect on the good things in our lives, students are digging deeper across all subjects, finding connections everywhere they turn. As they build knowledge and understanding in science (genetics), social studies (the region of Africa south of the Sahara), and language arts (informational writing and science fiction/dystopian novels), dividing lines between these content content areas begin to blur. Students noted references to mitochondria as they learned about humanity's origins in the heart of Africa and explored the concept of cloning and nature vs nurture in our ELA novel, The House of the Scorpion. Students are finishing the novel over break and we will launch into spirited discussions upon our return. We have formed four research teams that will be digging deeply into different regions in Africa, and we will be launching a project after the break. The driving question for our project will be: "How can we curate a museum that teaches others about the rich culture, history, and geography of Africa south of the Sahara?" We will be visiting the Anchorage Museum as part of this project, and a guest speaker will be joining us to share his experiences serving in the Peace Corps in Tanzania. As we reflected on the many activities these past two weeks in our 7th/8th grade class, we were struck by the many opportunities students had to speak and listen in formal and informal learning situations. The English Language Arts Standards include specific standards for speaking and listening, both crucial skills in our demanding world, and they are divided into two key areas: Comprehension & Collaboration and Presentation of Knowledge & Ideas. In the past two weeks students: prepared, practiced, and presented their Ruth Arcand Park construction plans to a panel of community members (very professionally!); watched and discussed documentaries about Africa and genetics; held a lively literature discussion about our novel; shared their favorite Thanksgiving traditions during Advisory time; collaborated and problem solved in teams during Math classes; visited the Hatchery to learn fish genetics; and provided advice and feedback to peers for improving their writing. We are so impressed with their mature conversations, comments, and questions, their ability to present formally and informally as situations demand, and the way they build on each other's ideas. (A short list of some of the key standards they practiced is listed below.) CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 7/8 topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.2 Analyze the main ideas and supporting details presented in diverse media and formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) and explain how the ideas clarify a topic, text, or issue under study. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.4 Present claims and findings, emphasizing salient points in a focused, coherent manner with pertinent descriptions, facts, details, and examples; use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and clear pronunciation. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.5 Include multimedia components and visual displays in presentations to clarify claims and findings and emphasize salient points. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.6 Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate. In closing, we wish you and your families a wonderful and restful Thanksgiving Break. Thank you so much for the chance to teach your children; it is truly a pleasure and an honor! Congratulations! You’re Grandparents!
11/3/2017
If you were to walk down the hallway to the science lab, you would see 77 beautiful pet babies! They were all “born” last week and seem to be thriving - even though they are stapled to the wall! While the seventh and eighth graders seemed to have fun with this project, serious learning took place behind each of their baby’s designs. A few weeks ago, at a parent lunch, both student and parent created a “pet.” This pet had no specific design except that it had to display 6 particular traits in one of two forms. For example, it had to either have pointy or floppy ears, a tail or no tail, square or round eyes, and so on. The pets were created with their designers’ personal touch. As you can imagine, the variety from this creative group did not disappoint! (Caution: biology terms ahead.) It was only after the parent lunch that the students learned which traits were controlled by dominant or recessive alleles. Since those phenotypes were plainly visible, students had to determine the genotypes. Students knew that if a trait was recessive, it had to be homozygous - so those genotypes were easy. However, for the dominant traits, students had to flip a penny to randomly select the genotype as either homozygous or heterozygous. (Are you still with me?) Switch momentarily to social studies. Think awkward middle school dance. Yup, all the student pets met up and awkwardly paired off with the pets made by parents in a random selection. (Yes, I know. Natural selection would have been more scientifically correct, but this is middle school and I didn’t want them to actually fight over the cutest parent pet!) Once paired, these middle schoolers were tasked with making six offspring, which they took very seriously! Back to science. For each pet baby trait, students had to make a Punnett square to show the probability of the allele sets when the parents’ genotypes were crossed. Then, they rolled a die which selected the Punnett square quadrant from which to select the allele set. Once all of these were determined, students had to make the babies according to their newly combined genotypes reflecting the crosses from the parents. And, voila! The basics of genetics understood. |
Sarah Mariner
Ms. Mariner earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Biological Science from Colorado State University, and was awarded a teaching certificate through the University of Alaska, Southeast. Her varied background includes being an environmental education field instructor in Massachusetts, Colorado, and Baja, Mexico. She also served two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic. Archives
April 2021
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