biologist's+thoughts+1

It is my intention that I will keep a record of my thoughts after each lesson. Feel free to repsond to anything I have written. Hopefully my thoughts will inspire, motivate and allow you to improve your understanding of biology as well as get the most out of our classes. Link back to inside the mind of the biol guru Link to biologist's thoughts week 3 & 4 biologist's thoughts week 5 & 6 biologist's thoughts week 7 & 8 biologist's thoughts week 9 & 10

**The journey begins (9th December 2008)** Just about to have the first lesson with this promising bunch of biologists. An interesting situation as the class is made up of the two year 11 classes. How will they go being in the same class now? Should it matter? I wonder how I will cope, especially since it has been probably six years since I have had a year 12 class size of 16 or more. Will I be able to give them the same amount of time as I have done in previous years? Will they want it? So many uncertainties at this stage. But I know that many are eager to embark on their year 12 biology journey. And so they should! Some of the stuff we cover is totally interesting and at the cutting edge of biological knowledge. The first lesson, how do I make it interesting? I have decided to give them a quiz to see what they remember about organic substances. Hehehehe. It will put them on the spot but I have to get across to them that consistency in going over the material and continually developing their understanding is the key to coping with the demands of the course. I hope I don't bore to many of them with the chemistry side of things. But if they are to understand the cell and how it functions, they do need to be confident at the chemical level. I think I will just lecture them on the basics of the 4 building blocks. I suppose I will have to see how they go with the quiz. It's so good that I (and they) can get instant feedback on where they are at and adjust the lesson accordingly. Hmmm... the expectations they have on themselves and on me. Will they be met?

**Lesson 1** Well, my first thoughts are that I wasn't too happy with the way I explained things. Maybe it's just getting back into the swing of teaching again, especially year 12. The lesson wasn't that dynamic (maybe not having the lights work had something to do with it as well). I find it a totally different experience teaching the year 12s compared to 9 and 10 and even year 11. I wonder if they realise that I place them on a pedestal so much higher than I do the other year levels. The quiz clearly showed me that many had either forgotten or didn't quite understand some of the organic compounds stuff. But that was Ok as this lesson and the next will be geared towards dealing with that. I can't help but think that lecturing about the organic compounds may seem boring to some. How else do I get this content across to them in the limited time we have? It is so easy to lose them in the chemistry side of things by going into too much detail. I only have a handful who are doing chem as well. It was good that I had a few questions, particularly from those from the other class. They need to realise that questions in class are crucial and they must get me to clarify anything that they are not making sense of. It also tells me that they are actually thinking about what i am presenting to them. I don't want them to sit there like stunned mullets on the occasions that I might be lecturing to them. Only got through carbohydrates and proteins, so will have to cover nucleic acids and lipids, as well as the idea of polymerisation to form biomacromlecules next lesson.

Well, if I hadn't lost some of them with the chemistry last lesson, I am pretty sure I did this lesson. I was just "throwing" new terms, structures, functions at them like there was no tomorrow. But I am determined to try and expose them to as much of the chemistry now before they go away, so that they have something to work with over the break. Hopefully, if they read the notes tonight, things will make more sense. Most of it was lecturing, which I don't like but I did show them some animations. Not sure if they found them helpful, I hope they will let me know. I am now thinking that perhaps I should have started off showing them the animations and then covering things that they were uncertain about. Hmmm... Anyway, tomorrow's final lesson for the year is devoted to bringing it all together into some neat package. I have got a hands-on task for them too, which should provide a change and give them a chance to digest the content covered. I will also get them to add to a class concept map on the IWB for each of the organic substances, which I can then post on the wiki. Maybe, I will also leave it open to them coming up to the board and writing a question that they want answered (as they work through the hands-on activity) or at least listing an area that think they need assistance with. Some fantastic questions were raised in the lesson though. I hope they keep this up. I need to keep myself from digressing too much, as time will always be a hurdle to getting through the course efficiently. With a larger class, some of whom I haven't taught before, I know I need to keep in mind the pace at which I cover ideas and the depth to which I go into them? I am concerned about this.
 * Lesson 2 (11th December 2008) **

**Lesson 3 (12th December 2008)** Felt better about this lesson. Some of the feedback suggests that terminology and ideas were starting to make more sense. It is important that I get them to realise that learning in biology is a gradual process. Things won't make sense first time up but they need to persevere and keep exploring ideas in a variety of ways. Also that there is no definite end to understanding a term or concept. In biology, it is rare that you can say I now understand something fully. So, the key is to guide them on the journey to continually improving, broadening and deepening their understanding. I was surprised by the eagenss and enthusisam in building the models. Off course I stuffed up with the time and they only got 30min. So, I think I will use the first lesson back as a way to refresh the work we have covered and let them complete the task. Getting them to create the models and concept maps seemed to challenge their understanding and at the same time reinforce the structures of the organic substances they need to be familiar with. I feel confident though that despite the inundation of new terms and the chemistry side of things, they will hopefully come back with the knowledge that will allow us to get straight into the heart of the other concepts and save much needed class time.

After a 6 week break, I always find it difficult to get into the swing of things again, especially the ability to communicate clearly and organise things appropriately. So, I am not particularly enthused about how I did things in today's lesson. I wasn't really sure where they would all be at (based on how much work they had done over the break), so I felt I needed to let them ask questions. Hence, I felt the lesson didn't really have a overt structure to it. But they did ask some really good questions that were relevant. Was I losing any of them with my explanations? Not sure, some were very quiet and didn't really participate. But I did ask a few afterwards about how the lesson went and they felt that what we covered was making sense. Wooohoo! Leaving a lesson open like this, is a bit risky. Will all of them be engaged, especially if they feel that they already know the stuff well. I now wish I could have had some images of the different RNA molecules, just so that they could connect with the theory. I wonder if any will ask me to show them some next lesson. Are they reading this? Gave out the course notes and a variety of puzzle booklets for them to use. Hmmm.. how did they feel about these? Maybe they will let me know once they have gone home and had a good look at them. If they are keen, I will expect some comments next lesson. Now to the next lesson, much more structure to this one I think, animations and explanations of the plasma membrane along with some questions for them to do. If they feel like it I will give them the choice of carrying out some role plays to demonstrate the different processes of movement. I can do this now that I have a much larger class.
 * Lesson 4 (Friday 30th January 2009) **

**Lesson 5 (Monday 2nd February 2009)** First of all I'll make a comment about their summary notes. Their work here is impressive. They have summarised points clearly and accurately. I hope that they all take the time to read each others notes (that's the benefit of the wiki) as I am certain this will help them develop a better understanding. I don't want them to rely on me and my explanations. Today's lesson was interesting. I spent numerous hours (perhaps even 5 or 6) creating a 5min presentation on membranes that I was hoping would be a snapshot of what they have already learnt but would also get them thinking back to unit 1 stuff. How did it go? Well, I wasn't happy with the fact that the laptop didn't quite keep the same timing as the desktop computer. Music can be so inspirational. Anyway, apart from that, I really don't know how it went. I would think it was different, they have probably never experienced information being presented in that way before (its this first time I have tried this too). I will need to ask some of them directly to tell me whether it was useful or not. The rest of the lesson was elaborating on what was covered in the presentation. Again, there were some really good questions. This group is defintely capable of gaining a really good understanding of concepts. Some were still a bit quiet, I need them to be more active in classroom discussions. It is strange, I am so use to getting the class into a couple of small groups but being a bigger class I haven't yet found myself wanting or resorting to doing that. At the moment I feel it is me up the front and them listening. Maybe this will change.Next lesson we actually cover some slightly new concepts, so I hope they find this interesting.

**Lesson 6 (Tuesday 3rd February 2009)** It always bothers me when the lesson doesn't start on time, as was the case today. I feel like time is against me and it gets me into the wrong frame of mind. Being able to think clearly for the whole 80min is crucial to me as it gives me more chance of communicating ideas (by choosing exactly the words I want) to the class in the "best" way possible. Confusing the students is very easy to do in biology and the teacher is not immune to this either. Anyway, today they experienced their first surprise quiz. Class results were pretty good. But the value is in them getting instant feedback about what they do know and what they still need to work on. I was pretty happy with the covering of bulk transport, lots of good questions, but we didn't get everything covered. The time issue at play I think but I wonder whether I'm going too slow. I know covering a concept in a number of different ways is something I try to do and this does takes more time. I want classes to be an opportunity for them to gain as good an understanding as possible, so that out of class time is spent reinforcing and going further. Am I allowing too many questions? Am I digressing too much? Interestingly one insightful student coincidently conveyed this to me after the lesson. I think at this stage I am trying to work out what is going to be the "best" approach for this class. Apart from the size, which doesn't concern me as much, it is also the diversity of abilities, background knowledge and even work ethic. Last year's class were so consistent, no weaknesses at all, I could pitch the biology at one level, knowing they would either all cope with it or none would. So, what pace is going to work with this group? Time will tell, it is one of the several key foci that I am working on.

**Lesson 7 (Friday 6th February 2009)** Hmmm... I think that today's lesson went pretty well. There was some new terminology for them but they coped with it. The only difficulty was activation energy. This is really chemistry and sometimes it is difficult to keep explanations simple enough for them to make sense of what is required in biology. I felt the lesson ran smoothly, and the sequencing of information worked. This is always important. What should I cover first? What do they need to know before I cover this etc? I decided to give a few explanations, get their input, provide a demonstration and then finally show an animation (that hopefully reinforces what they heard and saw). Did this work for them or would they find it easier another way? Again, there were a variety of questions seeking clarifcation (they must do this) as well as seaching for more detail. I actually found myself having to stop the questioning at one point. I always enjoy covering enzymes because it is such a crucial area of molecular and cell biology. I wonder what they thought of my analogy. Did it help? I will be looking to them for coming up with their own analogies for other concepts we cover in the near future. I surprised myself, there was laughter, at my expense though but humour is important. Their final year of classes, might as well make them enjoyable. I still haven't got them to do any group tasks yet. They will be doing some pracs soon and their 1st SAC is not far away, so group work is inevitable. But, there use of the wiki has been great so far and it really is group work or collaboration. I haven't thought of that before. The wikispace is a way to get them to do group work outside of the class. Hmmm... An idea just occurred to me for the next lesson. I'll give it some more thought because it might be useful to get them to do the task I have in mind in small groups.