Source: http://learnweb.harvard.edu/alps/tfu/pop3_3.cfm
MY ROLE AS A BIOLOGY/LIFE SCIENCE TEACHER
My role as a life science teacher at the middle school level is closely related to my philosophy of science education and, indeed, life. I have developed a deep concern for the integrity of local ecosystems and the biosphere in general. I can trace my interest in living things to my early boyhood and the countless hours exploring the sea shores and woods of a small peninsula community in Boston Harbor called Squantum. My observations as a young scientist prepared me for the four year tutelage with Miss Wilma Schields at North Quincy High School. She advised me during the development of a science project on the marine boring crustacean, Limnoria. I was challenged to go beyond the natural history of the animal and study and learn about its environment as well. In so doing I gained a healthy understanding of how ecosystems work. I later perfected my understanding of ecosystems under the direction of Dr. Patricia Morse at Northeastern's Nahant Marine Laboratory. Here I assisted Dr. Morse in the study of nudibranchs from literally every environment nudibranchs inhabit the world over. These lessons have become the basis for my approach to teaching science to young people.
I graduated from college with a major in Biology and a minor in Chemistry. Two months before I graduated I was asked to substitute teach in the local junior high. My first lesson was photosynthesis. It was such a challenge and reward to help people understand a scientific process and its relationship to their world, that I decided to become a teacher. I should have known all along I would be a teacher because even when I was in high school I was bringing my science project to junior and elementary classes to share it.
Over the years I have established an atmosphere of exploration through my curriculum and even the physical makeup of the classroom and the extensions of the classroom I use. I am lucky to teach in a school where the backyard is a pond, there is a brook one block away and an estuary and seashore within two class periods walking distance. My students are encouraged to do the same kind of things I did as a youth. The classroom is set up for cooperative activities, has an extensive library and reprint system, at present has a model pond in it and also has a student "lounge" for informal discussion and seminars - complete with a couch built by students. I have tried to model my classroom after a field laboratory like Nahant Marine Labs or Clapp Laboratories in Duxbury. Individual initiative is valued and special projects are the norm, there is always something going on in room 33!
As you can see my philosophy is to provide students with the opportunities and the flexible structure to explore their environments. Their first lessons teach them to become great observers. After that we use the skill to find and explain connections, connections to themselves, their community (ecosystem) and the world. Through this student laboratory I have developed, I believe my students will gain the same kind of respect for nature and our ecosystems that I have. It is often involved, messy way of teaching but feedback from former students indicates that it has made a difference in the way they approach life.
My teaching technique is to engage the students with a personal challenge that is relevant to them. The challenge is often in the form of an application of their new knowledge of a subject. I have developed a number of units using this technique; Culturing Invertebrates, Family Trees, The Cell Play, Exploring Body Systems, Unit Box Teaching, The Photosynthesis Story and "Senior" Projects. I use the technique constantly in my interactions with students especially for individual projects. I use this strategy because it works. The basic strategy can be applied in many individual ways and for all types of learners. I am an avid believer in the multiple intelligence approach to teaching.
My Family Tree unit is a good example. After studying a chapter in Mendelian genetics using the traditional approach (a skill I believe is most important for students), I challenge the students to apply Mendel's rules to their own family's traits. They have to construct a family tree, then pick three or more traits to research. Possible traits include contrasting traits, co and incomplete dominance, multiple traits, multiple alleles and allows room for "suspected" traits. This way the student with musical ability can trace her suspected trait through her family and determine if the trait follows Mendel's rules. Each student must pick at least one contrasting trait to work with to ensure success at a basic level.
The next step is collecting data. Beside each figure on their tree they list the phenotypes for each trait. Then they determine dominance by applying Mendel's rules. Once dominance is determined, symbols are identified and the genotypes for each individual are entered into the figure on the family tree. From these, Punnet squares can be constructed for a variety of situations. I like to have the students do a cross for their parents and determine their chances of being what they are. They can also do a cross for them self and a fictitious mate or do a backward cross to determine unknown traits. In the end all of this research and information must be presented neatly in a contained package for grading. I use a Rubric that has five levels of performance and five criteria. In this project the students are challenged to collect original data and then apply scientific concepts to determine answers to a variety of meaningful questions.
I think the ultimate in feedback from this project is when students figure out the chances of themselves being what they are for just three traits (usually less that 1/16) and then extrapolate to the thousands of traits they have and the fact that they are what they are is "one in a trillion", each person is very special.
The critical problem in my school district related to biology education is the critical problem of biology education in general. Aldo Leopold said it best, although Burroughs, Muir, Thoreau and others said it earlier, "There is as yet no ethic dealing with man's relation to the land and to the animals and plants which grow upon it." More than fifty years after Leopold wrote these words the lack of a "land ethic" is still evident. Our local environment including Butler's Pond, Furnace Brook, the Black Creek estuary and Quincy Bay are all good examples of the lack of a land ethic and the struggle to build one. These environments are abused by many and worshipped by others. The evidence of abuse ranges from lawn clippings improberly disposed of to attempts to build on designated open land. The local Conservation Commission, the Parks Department, my classes, classes from other public and private schools and individuals in the community have fought hard to keep the environs open. There are laws implying a land ethic but there is also much more pressure to use the land in human terms only. These pressures come from the public and therefore the general population is no closer to a land ethic than in Leopold's day.
The solution to the establishment of a land ethic is to teach the value of land in the biological sense. Leopold sees land as a biological community and the true value of the land is the integrity of the biological community it supports, not the economic value of harvesting or using it for human needs only. The way to come to value the land and its flora and fauna is to experience it. Therefore, the solution must include a rich and deep experience of the land and its biological communities.
In my courses I have made a rich and deep experience of the land community the most important and first concept I teach. My Culturing Unit requires each student to become a proficient observer using a land community and then to apply his/her observational knowledge to reconstruct a model ecosystem and maintain it for five weeks in the classroom. The project requires a great deal of messing with the land and the organisms upon it, especially smelling, tasting and feeling as well as hearing and seeing.
While the students are engaged in their project we read Mowat, Leopold, Carson, Dillard, Muir, Burroughs, Thoreau and the like. Each student keeps a journal with 30-50 specific assignments. The student's final essay is to defend Leopold's Land Ethic using examples from their own research. This unit takes a whole term and is costly in terms of classroom and curriculum time. But for me it is no real dilemma. My goal as a biology teacher is to impart the value of our biosphere and its inhabitants to my students in such a way as to enrich their lives. Providing the time and structure to critically experience an ecosystem seems to me the most important thing to do. I have each student try to define Nature and his/her relationship to it. Our relationship to Nature is a throughline of reflection for the year's course of study. In this way, and if more students could receive the in depth experience, I believe our local environments and our nation's biological resources can be valued and maintained at a level that will provide quality existence for each and every inhabitant of this earth.
