Since I feel like I don't use this blog enough, I have thought that I might create a 'favourite lesson of the week' post each week to share what's happening in my classrooms. It will hopefully get me back into the habit of blogging as well as sharing the amazing things that my students are doing :)
This week's favourite lesson comes from Year 12 Biology in the Maintaining a Balance unit. The girls have just started the Year 12 course and we are having a go at the 'flipped classroom' method. So before the girls came to class, they had to watch this short video that introduced them to the content that would be covered: Maintaining a Balance 6 (creative name I know, but at least it's easy for them to follow along!). I'm still getting a hang of creating my flipped videos using Screencastify and the feedback from the girls so far is quite positive.
When the girls arrived to class, they did a quick Flubaroo quiz that looked at a number of past HSC multiple choice questions relating to the syllabus dot points that we had done to date. I find this is a great way to get the girls focused on Biology and ready to tackle the next 80 minutes. Sometimes I do a Kahoot if I am OK with the lesson starting off a bit more energetic, but if I need them focused using Google Forms & Flubaroo to give a quick individual quiz is much more calming!!
The girls loved the automatic feedback they received when their marks turned up in their Inbox with a few clicks of a button on my end. It was a great way for all of us to see whether there were any obvious gaps in what we have covered so far... all looks pretty good at the moment :)
Once we had finished all of that we did a first-hand investigation to observe the structures of the mammalian heart, with a focus on comparing and contrasting veins and arteries. This is not a mandatory HSC practical, but I always find it a great way to get the students engaged in something as simple as the blood vessels in the body. It's also good to see who is going to be squeamish when it comes to the mandatory dissections later in the topic!
This week's favourite lesson comes from Year 12 Biology in the Maintaining a Balance unit. The girls have just started the Year 12 course and we are having a go at the 'flipped classroom' method. So before the girls came to class, they had to watch this short video that introduced them to the content that would be covered: Maintaining a Balance 6 (creative name I know, but at least it's easy for them to follow along!). I'm still getting a hang of creating my flipped videos using Screencastify and the feedback from the girls so far is quite positive.
When the girls arrived to class, they did a quick Flubaroo quiz that looked at a number of past HSC multiple choice questions relating to the syllabus dot points that we had done to date. I find this is a great way to get the girls focused on Biology and ready to tackle the next 80 minutes. Sometimes I do a Kahoot if I am OK with the lesson starting off a bit more energetic, but if I need them focused using Google Forms & Flubaroo to give a quick individual quiz is much more calming!!
The girls loved the automatic feedback they received when their marks turned up in their Inbox with a few clicks of a button on my end. It was a great way for all of us to see whether there were any obvious gaps in what we have covered so far... all looks pretty good at the moment :)
Once we had finished all of that we did a first-hand investigation to observe the structures of the mammalian heart, with a focus on comparing and contrasting veins and arteries. This is not a mandatory HSC practical, but I always find it a great way to get the students engaged in something as simple as the blood vessels in the body. It's also good to see who is going to be squeamish when it comes to the mandatory dissections later in the topic!
The girls enjoyed looking at the sheep's heart and knowing that our heart is almost identical. They were able to distinguish between the atria and ventricles as well as observe the delicate valves that keep the blood flowing the one direction. Observing the difference in thickness of the muscular walls of each side of the heart helped the students to understand how the blood travels around the body, that the left hand side is much thicker than the right due to it's role in pumping blood to the whole body, while the right only pumps blood to the lungs for oxygenation. Most importantly, the girls were able to observe the extreme differences between the veins and arteries and relate this to their function, which was the main syllabus point of this lesson.
To finish the lesson, the students worked collaboratively on a number of questions that put what they just discovered in the activity into practice. This is the area of the flipped classroom approach that I feel I need the most work in. The videos are coming together nicely, but making sure that the girls are given time in class to work collaboratively on developing their understanding of the content is what I need to focus on a bit more!
Here's to the weekend - I hope you all have a great one!!
To finish the lesson, the students worked collaboratively on a number of questions that put what they just discovered in the activity into practice. This is the area of the flipped classroom approach that I feel I need the most work in. The videos are coming together nicely, but making sure that the girls are given time in class to work collaboratively on developing their understanding of the content is what I need to focus on a bit more!
Here's to the weekend - I hope you all have a great one!!
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