Sessile Animals

In the last post, I mentioned allowing my students to choose the direction of their biology classes. They chose to start with vertebrates (I think because we humans are vertebrates), but after looking through the material I had to confess something to them. I told them that if we still start with animals, but with invertebrates (without backbones) we could dissect worms. After letting them decide, I came to class the next day with an agenda. To be honest I would have been ok with vertebrates first, but preferred that we learn about invertebrates first. They took my bait, and changed to invertebrates with the promise of a worm dissection after break, and vertebrate biology to follow. A fair compromise, I think and hope that my students agree.

So Monday of last week, we started learning about invertebrate animals. The really fun part about this is I am learning along with my students. My specialty is Biochemistry, not vertebrate or invertebrate biology. They ask me questions that challenge my knowledge, and we get into lively discussion and debates. On Friday we had one of these debates.

The definition of sessile is: an organism that is permanently attached to the surface. I asked my students to think of a land animal that we could consider sessile. This opened a huge debate in all three of my classes if a person in a coma could be considered sessile. We spent all of Friday’s class talking about this question. I was very proud that my students would think to question what sessile meant, then extend the definition to fit things that they see in their life.

Student Choice

As a biology teacher, the big news is the upcoming standardized test for all the biology students. DC is piloting a test, and my 9th graders are all going to have to take it in May. I have basically ignored that this test is coming. This has served the class well, and the students seem to enjoy what we are doing. Suddenly this attitude is not going to work. The students have caught wind of this test, and they are getting anxious. Even though this test is a “pilot” year, the students are concerned, and want to do well. So now I am left with the dilemma, create a class that the students can still enjoy, yet teach to the test.

So what do I do? I choose to dive head first and let the students dictate where we are going next. There are several topics that are going to appear on the test that we have yet to discuss, plants, vertebrates, invertebrates, evolution, viruses, bacteria and fungi. I told the students this and said, “Vote on the topic that we should start with.” Now we are going to learn about vertebrates as dictated by the students. Then next, we’ll see. I think this is the balance that I need, interest the students and allow them to critically dictate the course, but also learn for the test.

DNA Replication & YouTube

In my 9th grade biology class, I have been teaching a unit centered on DNA. My students have really taken to the subject, and genuinely seem to enjoy what they are learning. I like teaching biology, because it is very easy to relate the concepts to “reality.” Humans have DNA, and my students always make reference to themselves as the biological subjects. In this unit I started discussing DNA replication. Through some hands on building projects, and my feeble attempts at drawing, I thought my students had a handle on DNA replication.



I soon realized that the difficult subject matter had not solidified in my students’ mind. Frustrated, I was at a loss as to help my students understand one of my favorite parts of biology, when a student emailed me a video from YouTube. The clip was a short segment that illustrated DNA replication. He stated, “You could show this in class, it helped me understand.”

The next day in class, I did show the video and although I thought it was a bit dry, all of my students watched. As they were watching, I saw many light bulbs come on, as they started to understand what was going on in DNA replication. I was impressed that my student not only took the initiative to find the video, but also that he was critical of the verbal text I was providing to the class. My words were not explaining this well enough so he found something better. Now, I have students emailing me video all the time, which makes me happy. This means that not only are they thinking about biology, but also they are taking the time to look up clips on YouTube. I hope this means that they are watching them.