01-27-2008, 06:46 PM
Craig and x-uri, I very much appreciate you taking the time to give me feedback. Somebody in a later thread mentioned that after reading this thread that they felt less intelligent than they did before having read it. When I saw that I thought, "Oh, yeah." I mean, I knew there was a LOT I didn't know, but to see in more explicit terms just how much I don't understand is definitely humbling. A part of me would love it if I suddenly became blessed with enough ability to understand quantum mechanics and the relativity theories at say the level of a physics graduate student at Cal Tech. But, I don't feel too bad. I've risen to the level of my competence and I'm trying to do what I can to encourage curious young minds to come to a basic understanding of how the world works from a scientific perspective and to help keep alive the flame that a few of them have that may lead them to pursue science in college and careers. IOW, I believe for the most part (with some unfortunate exceptions) I'm trying to make the most of my limited capacities.
[quote x-uri]
I am curious now, what is the core curriculum for this class? What topics in biology do you cover with gifted middle school students?
Ours is a small school so the students have me as their science teacher for both 7th and 8th grade. Seventh grade curriculum is primarily what is called "Life Science". Eighth grade curriculum is focused more on what is called "Physical Science". But the reality is that since I have pretty much the same kids for two years, I tend to blur the lines somewhat and the net effect is that I try to teach the basics concepts of all sciences (including ecology, geology and astronomy) over the two year span.
The underlying theme I use throughout the two years is that science is about trying to spot patterns in the natural phenomena we experience and trying to develop causal explanations for those perceived patterns, following general standards of scientific methodology in hopes of assuring that we are justified in having some level of confidence in the tentative conclusions. In the physical sciences in particular - especially physics - I hope the students come to understand that the patterns are often so regular that they can expressed by mathematical equations. For example, we measure the pressure of air at a few different temperatures, record and graph the data and then a I have the students derive linear equations from the data (that only requires Algebra 1 skills to do). Then we discuss the information we have derived in terms of the kinetic energy of the air molecules as a way to look for a causal explanation for those results. I try as much as possible to reinforce the idea of finding patterns and explaining them in causal terms. The treatment is usually not as mathematical in the life sciences we do in 7th grade but we do look for patterns of form in living things and try to explain them in terms of function.
One of the underlying sub-themes of 7th grade life science is that living things create a bounded internal environment where nutrients need to pass in and be processed for the maintenance of the internal environment and reproduction of new generations of the living thing and wastes need to pass out of that internal environment. We focus first on how that happens at the cellular level with particular emphasis on the role of DNA as the master code for protein synthesis (going into some detail about the structure of DNA and transcription and translation). We look at the major organelles and their roles. About that time we also begin to look at what geologists think the early earth was like and how a simple cell-type organism might have gotten a start given that kind of environment. Then we go over what the evidence - especially fossil evidence - seems to indicate the first recognizable cell life was like and how it might have effected the earth (e.g., the role of cyanobacteria). We discuss theories about how cells might have evolved from prokaryotic to eukaryotic. Then we take a close look at Protists and talk about how organisms like them might have evolved into colonial structures and on to multicellular life. With multicellular life the fossil record seems to become much more clear, so we take an overview of that - especially focused on how animal life appears to have evolved more complex cellular organization through tissue differentiation and the development of specialized organs to meet the needs of maintaining an internal environment of a large aggregate of cells. There is also special emphasis on aerobic respiration and photosynthesis. That is the backdrop for looking at the evolution of animals following plants onto the land and evolving adaptations to the land environment. This, of course, leads to a look at the evident sequence of land vertebrate evolution from amphibians to reptiles (and dinosaurs) to birds and mammals. Along the way we cover topics like classification schemes of living things and the logic behind those schemes. That is about a half a year of curriculum in the 7th grade. Third quarter is devoted to the students doing in-depth research on a particular phylum or class of animal and then doing a group oral presentation to the class on that phylum or class - that takes about half of the quarter. The other half of third quarter and on to fourth quarter is devoted to looking specifically at human anatomy and physiology - which I hope the students can see as a natural extension of what they have found out about the structure and function of other animals. I end 7th grade with a unit on plants because that is in the spring and early summer when plants here in California are doing the most growth and development.
Oh man, I see I got carried away. I'll try to be more brief about what we do in 8th grade. The main focus is basic physics and chemistry. I do also include a unit on the rocks and minerals part of geology and that leads to a unit on mineral cycles in ecological systems and also energy flow through those systems - reintroducing photosynthesis and aerobic respiration and showing their roles in energy flows through ecosystems from the perspective of life essentially using light energy from the sun to reverse entropy in the subsystem that is a living organism; and how that energy is passed from the producers to different levels of consumers. I already in an earlier post talked about some of what we do in the chemistry part of 8th grade science. The physics topics range from the notion of energy and its "manifestations" - particularly as waves, to the relationship between the electric and magnetism sides of electromagnetism, to forces in fluids, to motion in terms of matter and forces, to simple machines (not necessarily in that order and I try to treat them as interrelated topics). I usually do astronomy at the end of the year just because students seem naturally interested in it and end-of-the-year 8th graders can be challenging to keep interested.
That's probably a lot more than you cared to know. I don't feel like this summary does justice to what I try to accomplish, though. But hopefully it gives you an idea of what we do.
[quote x-uri]
I am curious now, what is the core curriculum for this class? What topics in biology do you cover with gifted middle school students?
Ours is a small school so the students have me as their science teacher for both 7th and 8th grade. Seventh grade curriculum is primarily what is called "Life Science". Eighth grade curriculum is focused more on what is called "Physical Science". But the reality is that since I have pretty much the same kids for two years, I tend to blur the lines somewhat and the net effect is that I try to teach the basics concepts of all sciences (including ecology, geology and astronomy) over the two year span.
The underlying theme I use throughout the two years is that science is about trying to spot patterns in the natural phenomena we experience and trying to develop causal explanations for those perceived patterns, following general standards of scientific methodology in hopes of assuring that we are justified in having some level of confidence in the tentative conclusions. In the physical sciences in particular - especially physics - I hope the students come to understand that the patterns are often so regular that they can expressed by mathematical equations. For example, we measure the pressure of air at a few different temperatures, record and graph the data and then a I have the students derive linear equations from the data (that only requires Algebra 1 skills to do). Then we discuss the information we have derived in terms of the kinetic energy of the air molecules as a way to look for a causal explanation for those results. I try as much as possible to reinforce the idea of finding patterns and explaining them in causal terms. The treatment is usually not as mathematical in the life sciences we do in 7th grade but we do look for patterns of form in living things and try to explain them in terms of function.
One of the underlying sub-themes of 7th grade life science is that living things create a bounded internal environment where nutrients need to pass in and be processed for the maintenance of the internal environment and reproduction of new generations of the living thing and wastes need to pass out of that internal environment. We focus first on how that happens at the cellular level with particular emphasis on the role of DNA as the master code for protein synthesis (going into some detail about the structure of DNA and transcription and translation). We look at the major organelles and their roles. About that time we also begin to look at what geologists think the early earth was like and how a simple cell-type organism might have gotten a start given that kind of environment. Then we go over what the evidence - especially fossil evidence - seems to indicate the first recognizable cell life was like and how it might have effected the earth (e.g., the role of cyanobacteria). We discuss theories about how cells might have evolved from prokaryotic to eukaryotic. Then we take a close look at Protists and talk about how organisms like them might have evolved into colonial structures and on to multicellular life. With multicellular life the fossil record seems to become much more clear, so we take an overview of that - especially focused on how animal life appears to have evolved more complex cellular organization through tissue differentiation and the development of specialized organs to meet the needs of maintaining an internal environment of a large aggregate of cells. There is also special emphasis on aerobic respiration and photosynthesis. That is the backdrop for looking at the evolution of animals following plants onto the land and evolving adaptations to the land environment. This, of course, leads to a look at the evident sequence of land vertebrate evolution from amphibians to reptiles (and dinosaurs) to birds and mammals. Along the way we cover topics like classification schemes of living things and the logic behind those schemes. That is about a half a year of curriculum in the 7th grade. Third quarter is devoted to the students doing in-depth research on a particular phylum or class of animal and then doing a group oral presentation to the class on that phylum or class - that takes about half of the quarter. The other half of third quarter and on to fourth quarter is devoted to looking specifically at human anatomy and physiology - which I hope the students can see as a natural extension of what they have found out about the structure and function of other animals. I end 7th grade with a unit on plants because that is in the spring and early summer when plants here in California are doing the most growth and development.
Oh man, I see I got carried away. I'll try to be more brief about what we do in 8th grade. The main focus is basic physics and chemistry. I do also include a unit on the rocks and minerals part of geology and that leads to a unit on mineral cycles in ecological systems and also energy flow through those systems - reintroducing photosynthesis and aerobic respiration and showing their roles in energy flows through ecosystems from the perspective of life essentially using light energy from the sun to reverse entropy in the subsystem that is a living organism; and how that energy is passed from the producers to different levels of consumers. I already in an earlier post talked about some of what we do in the chemistry part of 8th grade science. The physics topics range from the notion of energy and its "manifestations" - particularly as waves, to the relationship between the electric and magnetism sides of electromagnetism, to forces in fluids, to motion in terms of matter and forces, to simple machines (not necessarily in that order and I try to treat them as interrelated topics). I usually do astronomy at the end of the year just because students seem naturally interested in it and end-of-the-year 8th graders can be challenging to keep interested.
That's probably a lot more than you cared to know. I don't feel like this summary does justice to what I try to accomplish, though. But hopefully it gives you an idea of what we do.