biologist's+thoughts+6

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 biologist's thoughts 7 biologist's thoughts 8 biologist's thoughts 9 biologist's thoughts 10

**Lesson 30 (Tuesday 21st April 2009)** Let me see now, the first lesson back for term 2 seemed to go well. Firstly, a few comments about the evaluation survey that I asked them to complete. Although I might have a pretty good idea of how things are going and what they might be thinking, it is always worthwhile getting them to share their thoughts (anonymously, I am not sure they realised this) without any other influences. The range and depth of thoughts in the comments was impressive, more importantly their suggestions for improving my teaching as well as what happens in class were fantastic. In some way hearing it from them motivates me more to do something about it. And I can certainly target their concerns more specifically. So, I have taken on board what they have said very seriously and in the planning of this first lesson I have already addressed a couple of their ideas. Did they notice? Hopefully they will over the next few weeks. It was comforting and humbling that they generally view the class and my teaching as being of high quality. It was also very interesting to see the diversity in how they view various aspects of class. This is, off course, the challenge in teaching any class. Some like group tasks, others want more discussion, some prefer doing more questions, some think we go too fast, others too slow, it never ends. I am debating with myself whether I will share the responses (which are totally anonymous, I don't even know who wrote what) with the class, just so that they get an idea of what I (and they ultimately) have to deal with. Maybe they will let me know by posting a comment after these thoughts. Back to the lesson. Starting off with an exam question on photosynthesis I think worked really well. It allowed me to highlight some key skills in being able to answer an exam question. It was good to see correct responses but it also highlighted how easy it is to make mistakes. And of tremendous value was the fact that I could clearly show that VCAA accepts a variety of responses. This should give them confidence in knowing that there isn't just one way of writing an accurate and relevant answer. My aim is to have one of these to start off the lesson from now on. Perhaps this will also encoursge those stragglers from term 1 to get to class on time. I left half the lesson for them to work on a set of questions that covered the different types of pathogens, with only a brief "lecturing" stint. Again, I used advice mentioned in the survey to provide a group activity as well as getting them to do more questions in class. But I also gave them the option of either working in a small group or working on their own. And this is exactly what they did. There was a lot of focus on the task, small groups had good discussions about the answers and those wokring solo did just that. So again, I wonder if this was noticed? There were some excellent questions again in class. Hmmm... the interesting thing was that they were all actually very relevant, there was really no need to digress. Next lesson will be about preparing for the bacterial response SAC. They don't know it yet but they are going to have to design the experiment. I am only going to give them a few constraints, otherwise it will be all up to them.This is going to be interesting to see how they go about dealing with this.

The fact that you started right on time was noticed and i thought it was a very good thing. Not sure what everyone else said so i couldn't have noticed all the other stuff. Im also a fan of the exam question to start of the lesson (time permitting). just be careful not to spend more than 10 minutes on it otherwise surely it will be getting in the way of other stuff. //V.Lenin// thx for your comments Lenin. VM

**Lesson 31 (Friday 24th April 2009)** A lesson full of frustrations. The new senteo software was a pain and it didn't save the quiz results properly. Damn technology. Lack of time reared it's head again. I was hoping to go into detecting self and non-self but that will have to wait. The rest of the lesson was all about preping for the SAC. I think I gave them a pretty good introduction about the method they were going to have to use. Hmmm... there wasn't much of a response by them in having to make decisions and design their own experiment. Maybe they are not concerned by this any more. Perhaps they feel much more confident with experiments and scientific process. This was certainly evident in the many excellent questions that were posed during the dicussion. Often discussions can be dominated by a few but I feel that there were many more contributors today. Not much more to say aobut today's lesson. Could have I done anything differently? Not really. Maybe I could have left the demonstration til next lesson and instead got them to spend time in their groups planning what sort of set up they will use.

**Lesson 32 (Monday 27th April)** Well, by the end of today's lesson I felt a pervading sense of satisfaction-a somewhat rare experience in recent times. And it was not necessarily to do with my performance but rather the class. I don't think I have had a SAC run so smoothly as it did today. This year is the first time in probably 7 or 8 years that I have had such a large biol class, so running pracs and SACs of this size is an almost novel experience. But today went very well which has led me to think why. I can put some of it down to them being more proficient and experienced in dealing with year 12 type experiments, and they are. It is difficult for the class to see this as often it is only outsiders that notice changes (particularly improvements). I have no doubts that they were well prepared and their understanding of scientific process is so much stronger and part of it may be also the preparation that I have provided. But here is the key as to why I think they did so well today. Two of the students (two that normally wouldn't do so in class) decided to take on a leadership role right at the start and I think it was because they felt that they had something positive and beneficial to offer the class. They also probably realised the importance of taking on this role so that the rest of the class could "follow" (bearing in mind that I was leaving it to the class to design the experimental set up) and utilise the class time effectively. Perhaps it was the fact that it was also a SAC (much more important in their eyes than normal class activities) that compelled them to do this or that they knew the class can get carried away with discussion at the expense of being decisive and efficient. Whatever the reason, it was very impressive that the two students did this, I was caught by surprise but very pleased. Now, it doesn't stop here because just as importantly was the response of the rest of the class. There was almost an instant acknowledgment of the leadership and subsequently there were more excellent ideas put forward about the set up. It was collaboration at its best. I cannot remember any better in any class. So, all the groups carried out the experiment (which can be intimidating and confusing) with proficiency and I can only be confident that their agar plates will produce some clear results for them to analyse in a few days. It is not often that I can feel so content after a lesson and from my point of view I guess I have been able to create an environment (even if it is inadvertently) and provide the opportunity for two students to take the intiative which ultimately allowed everyone to benefit. At this point I am wondering how much they actually enjoyed the experimental component today. Usually a SAC is a stressful and brain draining experience and probably not too enjoyable. Maybe someone will post their thoughts below or at least let me know tomorrow. Hmmm...I have an ex-student coming in as a guest speaker for tomorrow's introduction to the non-specific immune response. It will be interesting (as usual) and I guess I am curious to see how the class goes.

**Lesson 33 (Tuesday 28th April)** I had a guest speaker today (ex-student) who I felt ran a very good lesson on the non-specific immune system. The students were given an opportunity to explore their prior knowledge and discuss in small groups. Again excellent questions were posed by the class throughout the lesson, it really does indicate that at least some of the students are thinking deeply about the information that is being presented. The questions for me about having this sort of lesson is "why do it?". Will the guest speaker do justice to that class time in place of me? The answer is yes from four perspectives. I have always said to the students that they need to learn about biology from as many sources as possible, hear explanations from a variety of people, read explanations from a variety of texts. Also, there is the likelhood that this ex-student (only being 2 years out of the course) is likely to communicate and use language more at the level of the students. Thirdly, it adds variety to the classes, something different, listening to someone else (who they know), they can see an "outcome" of the course and the ex-student can also share their experiences with the class. Lastly, it gives me the chance to view the students in the class from another perspective, always useful. I should add I never had any doubts about the accuracy of the delviery of the content (she was taught well!). Let's see, their next lesson is the bacterial resposne summary report SAC, again no teaching for me. I think a few of them are a little concerned about this one. Hmmm...

**Lesson 34 (Friday 1st May)** Had to hold back on my thoughts as one of the students was not present for the SAC. This SAC will challenge them. Why? Because they have had to cope with trying to understand a rather large section of the course, even though I won't be asking questions about every little bit of it. So, I was getting them to experience what they will have to deal with when it comes to the exam. I keep telling them, the big ideas are what is important. Being able to rely on an understanding of the key concept to answer a variety of questions. Are they getting this message? What are they doing to improve their skills in this area? They must have a strategy for this. If they don't, then they need to come and see me. Although I have yet to look at their responses, I could tell that they did struggle with some aspects of the SAC. As usual, they must go away and learn from the experience. And because some of them had other SACs in other subjects, including the english SAC on Monday, it should be very clear to them now that they must be organised and consistent in their approach to all the work.