Cancer Project: Being a Patient Advocate

Just a few weeks ago, we finished our unit on the cell cycle.  The unit culminates with students presenting information on a certain cancer that they have researched.  We've done this project for two years now, and each time I feel like something is missing. I don't like to ask students to do work without a purpose--either to help them understand concepts in the class more deeply or to teach them a skill that will serve them beyond the AP Biology classroom.  This project was hardly doing either. Last year, I modified the project slightly, but after this year's presentations, I finally decided on the purpose of this project.  Instead of just presenting information on the cancer, students are going to become patient advocates.  They'll be researching information that would be helpful for a friend who is going through a cancer diagnosis.  When they are adults and face a health crises or someone close to them does, it will be helpful for them to know how to advocate for the patient.

In the past few years, I have had a few friends receive cancer diagnoses. There are two in particular who stand out to me.  One remained fairly passive in the process, didn't ask questions, and wasn't active in seeking treatment.  The result was tragic.  My other friend did incredible amounts of research, had active discussions with her doctors and chose her doctors and treatments with full knowledge of risks and rewards. Her outcome has been far more positive. I want to equip my students to make informed decisions about their health and be able to help others to do the same. Of course, knowledge doesn't guarantee a good outcome, but knowing how to find the information beforehand can be a huge help.

I've embedded the information and rubric I give students, and a link to it is here. I also have a Google Form that I use to evaluate students' projects as they are presenting. I merge that information into a feedback document for each student.

Book-ending Christmas break with Lorenzo's Oil

Keeping students engaged on the last day before Christmas break can be a challenge, but I don't believe in wasting time.  We just finished our unit on Mendelian Genetics, and watching Lorenzo's Oil is a great complement to what we've done in AP Biology so far.  Last year I found a study unit on the movie here. We started with the activity demonstrating what happens to nerve signals as they become demyelinated. Students start with a "brain bucket full of signals (ping pong balls) and must pass them from one student to the next until it reaches the "body" bucket. We count how many signals (ping pong balls) make it into the body bucket in 10 seconds and then start again. But the second time
we do it, two students have to sit out and the remaining students may not move any closer to each other. We repeat one more time with two more students sitting out, to get a feel for how signal transmissions changes as more of the myelin is lost from nerve cells.

Then we get out the snacks and start watching the movie.  There are questions provided in the study unit to help them keep focused and delve deeper into the science of the movie.

When we get back from break we do the competitive inhibition activity with paper clips and finish the movie.  In the competitive inhibition activity we look at how providing more unsaturated fatty acids "competes" with the saturated fatty acids to hinder the production of very long chain saturated fatty acids (VLCSFA).

As we finish the movie, it leads naturally into a discussion of medical ethics, and is a great segue into our molecular genetics unit.

Modeling Mitosis with Oreos

Yesterday we did another one of my favorite "labs" in biology.  The students had just read the mitosis and cell cycle chapter.  To review the events of mitosis, we do an activity I found on Amy Balling's blog, Ballin with Balling. She talked about giving her students an engaging activity on the last day before Christmas break.  This involved pulling off the tops of double stuffed Oreos and using sprinkles, toothpicks and the cream covered half of the Oreos to model the process of mitosis and cytokinesis.

Her blog post also included a link to the lab sheet she designed to go with the activity.  I used her lab sheet, but reformatted it to be only two pages long.  Here's the reformatted version.

It has been a big hit with the students both years that I've used it.  It's one of the few opportunities that students have to eat their lab.

Unit 6 Guided Reading-Molecular Genetics

My AP Biology class will be finishing our Mendelian Genetics unit right before Christmas vacation. So, as soon as we return to school in January, we'll be diving into what I believe is the most intense unit in AP Biology.  We also get to do the high-tech labs of bacterial transformation and electrophoresis.  Fortunately there are several hands-on activities in addition to the labs to help make molecular genetics more concrete for students.

Here are the guided reading questions by chapter for this unit:

Chapter 16: The Molecular Basis of Inheritance

Chapter 17: Gene Expression-From Gene to Protein

Chapter 18: Regulation of Gene Expression

Chapter 19: Virus

Chapter 20: DNA Tools and Biotechnology

Chapter 21: Genomes and Their Evolution

I Have..., Who Has...?

I have seen several sites using "I Have, Who Has?" cards to get their class moving and reviewing. The other day I saw this mitosis meiosis loop game on the TES website. I took the words and definitions and put them into the "I have, who has" format.  Then I decided that I wanted a template to easily allow me to do this with other topics.  Here is the template I made in docs.  It'll allow 19 words/concepts into the activity.  When I printed it out two-sided the other day, the front and back matched up nicely--I was worried they'd be off.  All of the cards are now laminated and ready to go.

I did the activity today with my class.  This is when I discovered a design flaw in my cards.  I forgot when I print on both sides of the paper, the left side of the first page lines up with the right side of the second page. We only went through half the cards when we got to the card that said we were finished.  The other half of the cards had their actual definition on it!  My students were good sports about it.  As soon as class was over, I fixed the document and my template.

Cellular Respiration Lab with Bubbling Yeast

We did this lab last year in my Biology class and I loved it!  Of course, we did it again this year. The idea for the lab came from  www.mysciencebox.org/bubblingyeast. Alas, when I tried to check the site today, the account had been suspended. The lab itself includes some links to sites that do work though.

I appreciate that this lab uses basic laboratory supplies and household items that I already had on hand.  It also gives us quantifiable data, as students are busy counting the number of bubbles coming out of the pipets with the yeast. Next year we may try a different variable that the original lab suggested as extensions to the lab, such as varying the food source for the yeast.

Here are some things I was reminded about as we did the lab this morning.  We have to get the yeast solution to go down into the bulb of the pipet.  To do this, we held the pipet stem up and flicked the stem of the pipet to encourage the yeast down into the bulb. While I demonstrated how to get the yeast down into the bulb, I forgot to cover the tip of the stem.  As yeast solution sprayed all over me, I quickly remembered that I needed to cover the tip with a paper towel.  We put several drops of bromothymol blue to test for the presence of carbon dioxide.  As you can see in the pictures, the pipets of yeast in warm and room temperature water, quickly turned from blue to yellow.  I also had no success getting my kidney beans to germinate.  They mainly got moldy and stinky.  I'll go back to black beans next time. Last year, even the beans had a noticeable color change in the bromothymol blue.  We do beans along side the yeast to help students understand that plants go through respiration as well (and thus produce carbon dioxide).

Here is the teacher information sheet that the website gave and here is the lab I put together from the information from the website.

Membrane Models

Today in my Living Environment class, we started talking about cell membranes and the idea of them being selectively permeable.  Since we can't actually see the structure of the lipid bilayer, we built it.  We talked about the hydrophilic heads and the two hydrophobic tails of each phospholipid. We also talked about the proteins embedded in the bilayer that allow molecules through that couldn't otherwise pass through the bilayer.

Each student had a slightly different vision of their membrane. We had some very spread out phospholipids and some very tightly packed ones. Some were more fluid than others. The idea came from a pin on Pinterest.  It was just a pin of a picture, so I'm not sure who to attribute it to.  I typed up a version of the activity for my students based on the picture.  I just made it on a half page, so it would fit easily in their notebooks.  

This bilayer got squeezed into one layer. Oops!

We capped the class off with our diffusion and osmosis lab, so they could see the actual movement of molecules across a membrane. 

Unit 5 Reading Guides--Mendelian Genetics

The Mitosis and Meiosis unit will actually get us to Christmas break. I've made some revisions to the guided reading questions for this two-chapter unit. Here are the Holzclaw guided reading questions pared down to fit within the new AP Biology framework.

Chapter 14 Mendel and the Gene Idea

Chapter 15 The Chromosomal Basis of Inheritance

Introducing the Cell Cycle

Last year I found a lab that worked perfectly for introducing the cell cycle unit.  It was on Darci Harland's blog STEM Mom, titled Engineering Cell Division-a NGSS Lesson. I didn't even reformat it--just printed it as is.

I laid out a box of random supplies such as yarn, string, beads, pipe cleaners, play dough, modeling clay, and gummy worms.  The gummy worms just add an element of fun.  I think they look like chromosomes, but my students usually use them for something else in the cell. They happily eat the worms when they finish the project.

We do this before they even start taking notes on the mitosis and meiosis chapters.  As they work through the design and questions, we can talk about what they are realizing has to happen in a cell before it can divide.  It's so much more than just making a copy of the DNA.  This activity also gives me something concrete to refer back to as we delve into the details of the cell cycle.

Modifying the AP Biology Respiration Lab

Last year when it came time for the respiration lab, we dutifully put together the microrespirometers to complete the lab.  It was fairly labor-intensive, with gluing in the capillary tubes, and gluing on nuts and bolts to make sure the respirometer would sink in the water bath. We had a few leaks, and not all of the respirometers gave us reliable data.

At some point, I read the tips on the College Board website for this lab.  One teacher mentioned that her class made respirometers with test tubes, one-hole stoppers, and a 2 mL pipet.  I spoke with another teacher at an AP Biology workshop I attended last year, and she did the respiration lab with crickets. I decided to give both ideas a try this year.

Before the lab, I made a trip to Lowe's to figure out how to keep the respirometers from floating. Steel pipe couplers provided the solution, The test tubes slid right into them. I also did some searching to find a respiration lab that used crickets.  I found one I liked on Mr. Yeung's website. Here's the link to the lab. The key change we made was using germinating peas instead of meal worms to go along with the crickets. Fortunately I found these white plant trays in the science closet at school, which worked great for the water baths. We also took readings every 2 minutes for 20 minutes.

What a difference a few changes make!  The test tube respirometers worked fabulously.  We had no leaks, and had good readings for most of the respirometers.  A storm was moving through the day we did the lab, and we saw some movement of water into and out of our control respirometers with the plastic beads. We were able to use those readings to make some corrections to the corresponding respirometers. Our biggest challenge was getting the crickets into the test tubes! I am happy to report that all of the crickets survived the experiment.

Next year, I'd like to try KOH pellets or soda lime pellets instead of the liquid KOH we use.  I've seen several teachers mention they like using the pellets better.

Unit 4 Reading Guides-Mitosis and Meiosis

We're getting ready to start our Mitosis and Meiosis unit, so I've made some revisions to the guided reading questions for this two-chapter unit. Here are the Holzclaw guided reading questions pared down to fit within the new AP Biology framework.

Chapter 12: The Cell Cycle

Chapter 13: Meiosis and the Sexual Life Cycles 

Independent and Dependent Variables: Pumpkins in the Patch

I felt like my Living Environment students needed some more practice determining what the independent and dependent variables are in an experiment.  I also wanted to emphasize that when we graph the results of our experiments, the independent variable values go on the x-axis and the depended variable values go on the y-axis.

We were just going to work with a practice set we used earlier in the year, but would place the independent variable horizontally (x-axis) and the dependent variable vertically (y-axis).  I found this set of variables in the blog post on in stillness the dancing titled Functions from the Start.

The envelopes of the variables were in my binder ready to go.  Then I read Sarah Carter's latest blog post on Math = Love, and knew I needed to change what we were doing.  I shamelessly copied her activity, making a few modifications.   She called this activity "Ghosts in the Graveyard." I decided to call it Pumpkins in the Patch so I could use it any time in the fall.

After downloading her PDF files, I converted them into Google docs,  This allowed me to change the font and title. Otherwise the challenges are word for word.  We'll use pumpkins instead of ghosts, of course.  My other change was the answer sheet that the students fill out as they go.   Instead of just a table to fill out, I put some of what I learned in the teacher workshop I went to last Friday on using Google apps in the classroom to work.  To emphasize dependent on the y-axis and independent on the x-axis, the answer sheet is full of vertical and horizontal arrows that I put together in google drawings.

The left-over Halloween candy will come in handy for prizes when we do this in class later in the week. Each time a team of students finishes one challenge, they put a pumpkin with their name on it in one of the patches (big circles drawn on the white board).  Each pumpkin patch will have a different point value that all of the pumpkins in it will receive. At the end of the game, the point value for each patch will be revealed.  The team with the most points will get a few fun sized candy bars.

Here's the challenge document with the pumpkins.  Here's the answer sheet.

A Big Picture of Photosynthesis

After giving my students a big picture of cellular respiration, I wanted them to also have a big picture for photosynthesis.  I found this blog post  on the Science Tutor.  There was a graphic organizer for the Calvin cycle and a story board for the light reactions. I used them last year, but I wanted my students to actually see the process of the light reactions. This year I spent some time with shapes in MS Word to put together a picture of both the light reactions and the Calvin cycle.

During class I give my students a set of instructions to work through to help them understand what is going on in the diagrams and in the process of photosynthesis itself. Here is the document they work through. The document also includes links to two different videos on photosynthesis to help students understand what's going on in their diagram.

A Big Picture of Cellular Respiration

When we start learning cellular respiration in AP Biology, I pull out my "relic" from college. It's a yellowed piece of 11" by 17" paper dated 9/25/95.  On it is a photocopied, hand-drawn diagram of the process of cellular respiration. Dr. John Azevedo drew the diagram and gave everyone in his Microbiology class a copy.  I wrote notes all over it, and by the end of that class, understood cellular respiration better than I ever had.

Now, every year I teach AP Bio, each of my students gets a photocopied, hand-drawn 11" by 17" diagram.  My hope is that they always have the big picture of cellular respiration in mind as we work through what is happening.  To make it even more concrete, I have punched out several different colored shapes for students to use as molecules going through the process.

I have a whole set of questions that students work through to help understand the diagram better. This is the slide that I put up for them to use to work through the diagram, followed by a set of questions to gauge their understanding of the process.

Maximizing Lab Report Feedback While Minimizing Grading Time

Over the summer a blog post caught my eye because it mentioned giving feedback to students without taking hours.  I loved this idea, since grading AP Biology formal lab reports takes forever. The post in Mrs. Brosseau's Binder reminded me that often I am writing the same comments on students' labs. I put together a Google form, trying to remember the most common comments I give when grading labs. I added all of the possible comments in the form and then also added the option "other" which allows me to type in whatever comments I might want to add that are not already on the list.

Here is the link to my Lab Grading Google Form.

I needed a way to take the information from the form that goes into a spreadsheet to give individual feedback to students.  One way to do that would be with the form add-on docAppender.  For my classes though, I found that the add-on autoCrat in Sheets worked best for me.  I needed to make a template for my feedback to go in, and then autoCrat makes a document for each student whose lab I grade. It took me a little while to figure out how I wanted the template to look and to get all of the tabs in to map the information from the Sheet into the template. Now when I grade lab reports, I can give my students rich feedback in a nicely formatted document. Then I just drag the newly made documents into the Google Drive folders that I share with my students. I love it!

Here's the link to the Lab Grade Template that autoCrat merges for me.

Grading labs comes down to these steps:

1. Create a Google Form to use when grading labs (or use mine).
   
2. Grade labs by clicking the comment choices in the form, or adding other comments as needed in the "other" option in the form.
   
3. Once you have graded the labs, go to the Sheet that is created from the form responses.
   
4. Make sure to install the autoCrat add-on from the add-ons menu.
   
   
   
   
5. Start up autoCrat and answer the questions it asks--such as which template to use for the merge.  You can already have one that you've made or use mine. 
   
   
6. After answering questions, start the merge, and viola! you have documents of feedback for each of your students.
   

One other explanation of my form.  I grade each section of my students' labs with a rubric using a score range of 1 to 4, but each section of the lab gets weighted differently.  In the end, it all adds up to 100 points.  I add the formula to calculate that in sheets so I don't have to.  Here is the rubric I use for grading labs.

Organelle Elections

Over the summer I found an article by Brad Graba on the NSTA blog who had turned learning about the cellular organelles into an election campaign. As the nation's election nears, it seemed an appropriate activity to help the students to learn their organelles.

Each pair of students had to design a campaign poster for their chosen organelle.  They could be creative with their slogans, but each slogan had to relate to some function of that organelle.  They also had to create 4 mudslinging posters against other organelles that they were hoping wouldn't win the election.

I put together a document of instructions to get the students going.

Here are a few of the smear posters.

As we were grading the quizzes on the organelle chapter after this activity, several times I heard, "I got that one right because of your presentation!"  I didn't lecture and they learned what they needed to know.  That's a win in my books.