Wednesday, October 3
Today the students had to design a dichotomous key for algae. They had to work with 14 different types of algae. It was a really good exercise for students and their teacher. I gave them two different examples and let the students decide how to proceed. This turned out to be a great review for the test.
 |
| Very Organized |
 |
| Organized |
It was interesting to see which example students picked. What is important is to pick the one that is the most user friendly for them. This is just another example of what is now called "thinking maps" or "concept maps". Either way it is just one way to help students organize information.
If you want to engage students it is just one tool among many.
Here are some examples of my students dichotomous keys:
It really was a fun activity once they got the idea and hopefully will improve test scores.
Another fun thing we are doing is watching "Big Mama" crayfish. Today I got pictures of her egg mass. Soon we will have lots of little baby crayfish.
The pictures are not great but you can see the black egg mass underneath her tail. She really loves her little log and it has turned out to be a great place for her to hide while she waits for the babys to arrivel
 |
| Mama and log home |
 |
| This was the best picture showing the egg mass. |
Yesterday at the end of the aglae lab one of students brought me an egg mass attached to a stem. It was a mass of snail eggs. I put it under the digital microscope and took pictures. We then put it in a petri dish with pond water and left it over night. This morning I took more pictures and some video of the baby snails moving in the egg. I plan to keep taking pictures until they hatch. It is facinating to watch.
 |
| Snail Egg Mass |
 |
| Baby Snail in Egg |
No comments:
Post a Comment