Sunday, March 14, 2010

STEM Strategies Lesson Plan

I enjoyed using the 5 E's lesson plan strategy for my lesson. I have never been one for writing formal lesson plans, so I usually like to try different ones to see which I would use if I had to. With the 5 E's, I had to look at how to engage my students in the lesson, give them something to explore, allow exploration, give students an opportunity for elaboration, and the chance to evaluate what was done.
The activity I chose for my lesson was on the topic of evolution. I wanted to use this activity as a chance to show my students the value of questioning science. Evolution is normally a touchy unit at my school, due to the emphasis put on religion in the community around the high school where I teach. I began the lesson by defining a scientific theory so that students understood where I was coming from as we discussed Darwin's theory of evolution. I did not want to create a debate between religion and science, but allow students the opportunity to ask questions and to take some responsibility for their learning.
The activity was on evidence for evolution. Students were going to use an investigation on comparative embryology as evidence for Darwin's theory of evolution. While this was one of many activities that my students would do on evidence for evolution, this one was found to be somewhat controversial due to the fact that the scientist that came up with the diagrams (Haeckel) was though to have purposefully selected diagrams of embryos at certain stages of development to make the theme of common ancestry more obvious than it actually should have been. In reality, if the embryos are examined closely, the similarities are not that evident.
Engaging my students was not a problem. The particular class that did this lesson was my Honors Biology class, composed of about one-third gifted learners. They love investigations and the chance to do hands-on work. I gave them some introductory information on how various species go through the embryonic stages of development. The exploration portion of the lesson was obvious- the students got to cut and paste embryo diagrams of a calf, pig, human, fish, and chick through three stages of development. Once finished, I wanted to elaborate by asking them to analyze the investigation. I am hoping they will not just question their own choices in the experiment, but the validity of the diagrams and investigation itself.
Upon completion of their questioning, I will show them a video clip of the controvesial comparisons that were made by scientists in the past. They will see other diagrams and pictures of embryonic development that shows that the comparison is not so cut and dried.
Overall, my goal is to inspire my students to question the world around them, a major quality of any scientist. By placing an emphasis on STEM education, we want students to feel passionate about science. By empowering them to question an activity they conducted in school, I am hoping they will continue to question things that are presented to them and someday take their inquiries to work in the field of science.

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