biologist's+thoughts+16

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.

Back to inside the mind of the biol guru Link to biologist's thoughts 17

**Lesson 85 (Friday 7th October)** It's been a while since our last lesson and they had their first trial exam earlier this week. It is clear that there is a lot of work and preparation required for some. The important thing is that they focus on what they can do over the next three weeks and that developing their understanding of the key concept in each of the different areas is what will allow them to perform well. I cannot emphasise this point enough. Their time should be spent on this and only when they feel confident with the basic concepts should they expand their knowledge by looking at the fine detail. Today was all about covering gene technology issues and preparing for the final SAC next lesson. Most of the lesson was spent showing a variety of videos that covered the issues relating to stem cells, genetic testing and GM foods. The only downside was that there wasn't much time left for having class discussions. This would have made it so much more beneficial but there simply isn't the time left. I really have to try and make sure that in the future I can devote more time to this.

**Lesson 86 (Monday 12th October)**

The final SAC was completed in today's lesson. The technology didn't fail me so that was a positive. I spent quite a bit of thought on how I would get them to present this SAC. Last year's class didn't really like what I had set up for them, so I reverted back to what I did the year before that. I did try to make it as easy as possible for them by giving them a chance to pretty much prepare their entire presentation prior to the lesson. They really only had to come in and type out the information. When I have a look at what they have done I guess I will get a better idea of how they found it. Well, its only down to revision in class. I have asked them to let me know which areas they would like to cover, so I hope they do this.

**Lesson 87 (Tuesday 13th October)** Hmmm... the lesson was pretty much me going over various queries that were posted prior to the lesson. At this stage of the year it really is quite individualistic as to who needs to hear what. I don't think there is much I can do to organise a lesson that caters for all, other than giving them the option of listening to explanations or continuing to work through answering questions. One of the really good aspects of having a biol camp in previous years has been that I was able to give each student an area of the course to summarise and present to the rest of the group in a 5 minute lesson. In the environment of a "study camp" away from the school the sessions run by the students ended up being a great way to learn from each other. This year there just hasn't been the time to run a biol camp or doing such a revision activity. With 17 in the class it can also end up being quite tiresome to have to have them sit through that many presentations.

//Only a 40min lesson but I went over linked genes again. It is clear that this is one of the more difficult concepts in the course. I always find myself going over this several times in class and then one on one a number of times. But that's Ok. What I would really like to do is work out a way that gets them to understand it better when I cover it in class for the first time. Next lesson is a trial exam and then one more lesson.//
 * Lesson 88 (Friday 16th October) **