Cellular Respiration Digital Diagram

Last year I blogged about the cellular respiration diagram that I had saved from college and use in class with my students here. After a Google training last year, I decided that I would attempt to use Google Drawings to make the respiration diagram. I spent more time than I care to admit, but got the diagram put together here and out to my students.

We worked it the same as last year. They worked on labeling the diagram first and we talked through it and even acted out oxidative phosphorylation. Then they completed their guided reading questions. Students comment each time we do it that way, how much more they understand the reading questions for this chapter.

Although it may look like there are lots of details for glycolysis and the Kreb’s cycle—for those we focus on what goes in and what comes out. We spend plenty of time discussing the significance of NAD and FAD “boats”. This year they coined NADH and FADH2 the party boats since they are full of high energy electrons.

We wrapped up our discussions today with the Mystery of 7 Deaths case study that you can find here. I loved the reasoning I was hearing!

Penny Density in Physical Science

One of the labs we did this year in Physical Science when we were studying density was one called "Coin Operated" from our textbook, Holt Science & Technology: Physical Science. Lab groups are given a set of 10 carefully chosen pennies that they mass individually and are asked to divide into two groups. (Their masses give a big hint about how to divide them.) They also use the water displacement method to determine the volume of the pennies. Students find the density for each set of 5 pennies and then are asked to determine what element they are likely to be made of. In an ideal world, one set will be close to the density of copper and the other close to zinc. Then students are tasked with figuring out how they could divide the pennies without an electronic scale. Eventually, students realize that older pennies (pre-1982) are made of copper and new pennies (post-1982) are made of zinc.

Our first test included a lab practical section and I wanted students to find the density of a penny and use that information to determine if the penny was from before 1982 or after 1982.  Of course, how do you hide the date from the students?  Fortunately, one of the few souvenir items my husband and I  let our kids get when we go somewhere special are those squished pennies with the logo of whatever place we are at. One of my daughters helped me round up four of these squished pennies so I could have four test lab stations going at once. Believe it our not, it turned out that two of them are pre-1982 and two are post-1982. Since the test, I've found two more, both post-1982.

Mini-Poster Presentations

When I look back at each year I've taught AP Biology since I returned to the classroom, I can give each year a theme.  Year one: survival (myself brushing up on all the content and the new AP exam), then year two: tweaking the alignment of the class with the Essential Knowledge statements and Learning Objectives for AP Biology from the College Board, and now year three: reflection and revision. I've changed how I grade formal lab reports (a blog on that will have to come later) and we've added a different type of lab report.

So, we're trying something new in AP Biology this year--the mini-poster presentation for a lab report. The formal lab report still has its place and we'll do 4 or 5 of them this year, but I felt like we needed something else to help expand the student's repertoire of presenting and defending their findings. I read the blog post on Authentic Peer Review by Brad Williamson in the KABT Bio Blog, looked at his linked resources and decided to run with it.

This week students picked their item to core and determine the molar concentration and water potential of. This is part of the standard AP Biology lab on diffusion and osmosis. Before the lab I had prepped the 0.2M, 0.4M, 0.6M, 0.8M, and 1M concentration of sucrose, colored each a different color, but didn't label them. That just gave an extra "mystery" for them to solve. Each set of lab partners also had a labeled and laminated tri-fold folder made from two Manila folders glued together and a huge supply of various post-it notes (even graph paper ones!).

They wrote their methodology as they went through the lab. Their presentations came together as they collected data and began their analysis.

Once the reports were finished, I gave each lab group a printed copy of the rubric I'll use to grade their presentations. Then all students had to go around to each report and make a suggestion for the authors of that report that they believed would help improve that report according to the rubric.  I give each group an opportunity to revise their presentation before their final submission to me. This process gives the students both experience with peer review and the ability to do revisions. Then I'll grade the reports using the same rubric.

After the reports are graded, we'll be able to peel off all of the post-it notes and start our next presentation.

The class enjoyed the process of putting the lab together. One lesson I've learned though as I've been buying specialty post-it notes is to encourage the students to write out their first draft on scratch paper and then transfer to the post-it notes when they think they're ready.

Cell Membranes and Bubbles

I was happily reading through the Facebook feed of the AP Biology teacher group and saw a post from a teacher who had just done a bubble lab to teach properties of cell membranes. It looked like fun and I was about to embark on cell membranes. The lab is from Jeremy Conn of Clear Biology.  You can download the lab from his site here. I just used his resource without any editing--which is handy since I'm having a hard time keeping up with everything to do. I made some bubble solution on a Thursday, and we did the lab this past Monday.

I think sometimes I forget that even though I teach Seniors, they are still kids.  (Actually, we should all be kids at heart.) The students loved this lab and had so much fun playing with bubbles.  And in the end I felt like they significantly improved their understanding of cell membranes and the fluid mosaic model.

As they progressed through the activities, they got more excited. My favorite was the loop of thread that opened to a circle and then could move around the bubble frame like a transmembrane protein.

As they were cleaning up, I heard conversations about how they should do this bubble lab with their fourth grade buddies. (One advantage of being in a K-12 school.) Love it!

Monomer to Polymer Game

About midway through the year last year, I stumbled across the National AP Biology teacher Facebook group. I must confess that now most of my time on Facebook is reading discussions in the group and not as much time keeping up with what my friends have had for dinner. =) One of the benefits to starting the school year so late in New York (after Labor Day), is that I actually have time to put together ideas I find by people who have already started their school year. A post from late in the summer this year was by Mary Neimeyer who made up a polymer building game to help drive home the understanding of dehydration synthesis and hydrolysis. Then another teacher in the group, Kelly Riedell added some more details and cards. I pieced them together and decided to make my own cards and modify the rules a little. We finally got to playing the game today and it was a huge hit.  From the group that got cut-throat competitive I heard, "I can't believe we're yelling about monomers and dehydration synthesis!" The other group asked me if they could have the game pieces to play it in study hall.

I put together the directions that Kelly Riedell made with Mary's description with some modifications and made playing cards for the game.  The directions can be found here. And the game cards can be found here.