What is it that you saw today, this morning (May 7, 1998)?

I came in [to the classroom] and the kids had the pond, the environment set up around the pond, and there's a lot of commotion and they said, "Mr. McWeeny, come here. Meet Fred." And so, I came in and there's these two big eyes staring out at me from this muddy unsettled pond... My first reaction was something negative. It was only because I really had a feeling for the frog. I said to myself, "Poor frog." It's in this unsettled environment struggling. I said to the kids, "Has the pond stabilized yet?" "What does that mean?" [they asked] ... So, I started right in on them. I spent about ten minutes, praising them for all of the excitement that they had about it. They finally came up with the idea, with a lot of pressure from me, that they should really return the frog today and after the pond stabilizes for a few days introduce [another frog] ... They agreed that it was easy to catch these frogs so, they probably could get more... To bring it back to assessment, that's like a thousand hundreds on a test to me to have the kids be involved that way and engaged in something. How do you assess that? Observing it, I guess.

 

[There is a pond in Mr. McWeeny's classroom.

Students call the pond Butler Pond after a local pond located behind the school. ]

Yeah, they own that place [the pond]. They own it not in a physical sense like they control it, it's more they own it because they understand it now. I know all winter, they've been thinking about getting some frogs in that pond. So, the first frog they saw, "This is going to go into our model pond." What other assessment can you have than that? You know it was kind of a spontaneous thing, but I just knew that it was in the back of their minds and that they were really thinking about getting some animals.

What happens [to get your kids involved in their learning]? You come into your room and they go okay?

The first day of my classes has evolved into almost a ritual. I have no problems jumping in the first day... One year, I got off the boat at 8 o'clock that morning and was teaching at 8:30 that same morning the first day of classes. I have no problem with it. It's evolved in such a way that it is a ritual for me. What I like to do is to tell the kids about some experience I've had the previous summer. You know, the old thing, what did you do last summer? The teacher tells. You know, what did you do last summer. Well, I just stepped off a boat this morning at 8 o'clock. We sailed over from Monhegan Island last night. I like to let them know how I spend my time. I don't go into details because there's time during the year that I actually get the slides out and show them pictures of some of the things that I've done. I like to do it in a surprising kind of way. Later on in the year, I like to take out pictures from my trip to Africa. Or when my wife and I worked on the New England aquarium, right on the research team. I have a slide show that shows how dull and boring scientific research can be. But then how exciting it can be. How one day I slipped into the water, I actually got to swim with white whales. But I bring those in later.

What I like to do is kind of whet their appetite for a little bit ... Who is this guy who usually has long hair? (I don't get a haircut during the summer.) So there's this funny looking guy in front of the classroom. I try to let them know right away who I am. That I'm really not a scary guy that there is something inside here and I'm tempting them to try to draw out what makes McWeeny tick. That takes up about 5-10 minutes. Just some sort of vignette that maybe peaks their interest ... hopefully.

Then I go into ... my classroom ... it has a certain ecology about it. I go into some structural stuff.

What do I expect? ... I immediately talk about a permanently bound notebook. That we have a record keeping system where everyday somebody in the class records what we do in the class and that gets pasted into a book. We have a scrapbook of proceedings in the classroom. I talk about extra credit and how to get extra credit. To me, extra credit is important and it can make a difference in the whole grade. I explain to them that it cannot make more than a whole grade difference ... I don't want to send out mixed messages. I don't want to give somebody an A who is doing the standardized C kind of work. I don't want the high schools to think that they're coming up ... But I don't mind giving a kid a B for doing extra work if they're getting C on the standard stuff. I'll give them extra credits like that.

So, you're letting them know what's involved in the work.

Yeah, I'm wanting them to know that we're going to get into some real science. And that you're going to be expected to learn certain concepts and certain ideas and to somehow to express to me, back to me. That's when we get into talking about assessment. The first thing that I think is interesting to them, and it is to me, is that you're not going to have tests the first term. But then I ask them the question, "There's no tests, so how am I going to grade you? And how am I going to be fair about grading you?". Since I had already explained to them about the notebook, somebody usually says, "I guess you're going to take a look at our notebook." I say yes and I go into explaining how I systematize the notebook so that we can look at it. Not only will I be looking at it, but there will be peer reviews. We'll be looking at each other's notebooks and trying to help each other. That's why the tables in the classroom are situated in 6 parts. You sit facing each other, not the teacher because we're going to be working together in groups.

At the beginning of the year, is it laid out what sections you will be addressing?

Occasionally, if I have time I'll go over general yearly outline. Sometimes I'll just go over a term outline.

Basically, why don't I do it for you? I can say to the class, I put it on the black board, I say, "This term we're going to be studying about culturing and next term we'll start with a traditional genetics unit which will expand into a project you will do with your family where you will collect real data. Then, we'll talk about how cells work and we'll tie genetics into cells and DNA." Most students have heard about DNA by now.

"Then from there, once we know how the cells work, we'll look a specific body systems, usually 2-3. You'll use yourself as guinea pigs. We'll be running up and down stairs and taking each other's blood pressure and all that. Then, you'll leave me for a term and do some in-depth science, chemistry. So, you'll spend a term in chemistry with the chemistry teacher. While you're doing that, I'll be doing the cells and the body with the other kids who are with me so that you all basically get the same program. Finally, when you come back, we'll do photosynthesis. Photosynthesis will allow us to tie a whole bunch of things together. And then you'll do a senior project."

And then I open the term for them to do a senior project ... doing something in a scientific way, something that is not exactly science. Usually, I'll blurt that out and put it on the board and sometimes they'll copy it down ... But then I get back to "We're going to be culturing things, growing things. Remember last year when you were a 7th grader and you came in here to get something and there were all these tanks and all over the place and everything? Well, here are all the tanks piled up and we've got to get them down over the next few weeks. We're going to be using them, building mini-environments. But we're going to do it in a way that makes sense. We're going to think about it and we're really going to take our time doing it." And then I say, "Are you ready to start?" This is usually towards the end of the class time and I say, "Get out you're notebooks and here's your homework assignment. This is task number one."

 The way we arrange our notebooks is they have a permanent bound notebook. I tell them to go 4-5 pages. They start tab #1 and they take a little stickie and they put a tab there. So, we get a whole bunch of tabs all the way down the notebook. In the first few pages, we make a table of contents later on, which I actually publish later on and they just paste it in there. I say, "Okay, here's your first homework assignment. This is tab #1. I want you to out into a place that you would say is fairly natural. It can be a backyard. It can be some kind of field down the street. It can be the seashore wherever you think it represents something a little bit natural. Don't go out into your front yard and you just cut it or something. Do the bushes on the side or something and observe just for 15 minutes and record what you observed." Now, on purpose a very vague assignment. If the kids raise their hands and say, "What do you mean, Mr. McWeeny, observe?" I avoid answering the question because I want them to struggle with that word. And it they say, "How are we going to record this, Mr.. McWeeny?" I again avoid the question. I try not to answer the question directly because there's lots of different ways. I've actually had people bring in a video of 15 minutes. I'm recording literally. Some people this doesn't happen too often. I've been doing this for 20 years. I don't believe that I've been doing this since 1977-78. So, for twenty years I've been actually doing this unit. Each year it's different. Each year, I think, it gets better. More intense. I would say out of the 20 years, 15 students have brought in audio and video, pictures... Most students will record by handwriting. A lot of students will be creative when they put it in their own book, which is kind of neat. I like that. They actually bring some things with them Some will get baggies and put a whole bunch of things in there. Assignment #2, the next day, when they bring their homework in is to switch notebooks. Right off the bat we're going to do a peer evaluation. No time to think about it or anything. Just switch notebooks. "Now, take some notes for your friend. We're going to talk about the assignment. The assignment was to observe and area for 15 minutes and record what you observed." Then we talk about what observation means. We talk about the five senses. Some kids usually come up with 6 senses or I say, "How do you observe?" We usually come up with sight first. If we only come up with 5 senses, I say Telling them about 6th sensory, your feelings, your heart, your soul sometimes I'll just put other. A space just in case Then, I say, "Let's think a little bit. Let's brainstorm. If somebody observed something by sight, which most of us probably think is the most common way of recording something. Let's say we'll give sight one point, how many points would you give hearing feeling tasting, and smelling. Tasting always gets the most. I caution them not to taste anything they don't know ...

So then, they say, "Now I'd like you to read your friend's record. Look at your friend's record and I want you to score it. I want you to give 1 point for everything that they saw, 2 points for everything that they hear, 5 points for taste." Whatever comes out. Each class is different by the way. It's kind of hard but I never remember. It is in their notebooks so I can look at it. So, we come up with some kind of scale. I don't have a set one in my mind except that I would like to see higher points scored things that are less used. They score it. The typical thing that they might score is 20, 25, 30. Some kids will get up to 50-60. "Well, what do it do with the leaf pasted in this book? Well, can you feel it? Yes. Well, you better give them some score for that because it's recorded. Can you smell it? Can you taste it?" But whatever the score is, "Assignment #2: Go out and repeat the assignment and double your score if it's over 50, and triple your score it it's under 50." But then I say, "You can only taste 2 things," because then they'd taste everything in the environment. I try to moderate it a little bit so that they're using all their senses.

You're not only engaging them and reflecting on what these things [their senses] mean, but also reflecting on the process of assessment ... By doing this, you are involving them in an exploration of that assessment right at the beginning. They're getting ownership ... They're become part of the process ... It's a trust-building exercise...

Exactly. And the first time they switch books is with their friends ... If you asked me when and how that evolved, I'd have to think about it. I don't know. I probably was brainstorming in class and so we could score all these senses. Let's try this. I'm always trying something new ...

You'll have students with scores of 5 or 8 . They're the ones who will most often ... Usually, it's a boy. It's an 8th grade boy who doesn't like to write. And that's the only way that he would think of doing it. I'm generalizing. But I think I'm doing a pretty good generalization. A lot of these 8th grade boys will be challenged, especially when they see the possibilities in front of them. The next assignment is to go and triple their score. If they're way down low, they'll go crazy. It's a good challenge. Occasionally, they'll come in with something just as worse as their first attempt. That's when you start working with the individual and trying to find out how they learn and what they want to learn. The 2nd assignment is to double or triple your score and so they do. But they have to do it at the same place. They can't do it in a different place. They can't go to a richer place. They have to go back to the same place and struggle with that place. They come in the next day expecting that I'm going to have them switch books. But now I have them switch books with someone not sitting at their table. Now, we're getting to a peer assessment that's getting a little bit more risky, a little bit more challenging. So, they try to pick their next best friend, I guess. Then, I work up to doing peer evaluations on a random basis. Sometimes I even pick. I challenge the kids who are maybe opposite kinds of thinkers.

From the beginning, you're involving them with the development of standards.

... And I want them to think about that, where they're at, and how they're going to measure ... ultimately, what would make me happy if they came up with a thousand points or something. The point scale is so dubious "The 3rd assignment is to think about a place in your neighborhood that you could get to easily twice a week. If you live in South Quincy don't pick Squanto because you're not going to be there a lot even thought it might be a nice place because over the next 3 weeks, you're going to have to visit this place at least 6 times. So, don't pick it too far away. Included your parents in this." I start involving the parents right from the beginning. The parents get involved in this project as much as the kids do, which is nice because I can come in at 7:30 in the morning when we start setting up tanks and there'll be as many parents as kids carrying stuff up the stairs. I apologize to them on parents' night, but I like to involve the parents. I think it's important. So, the 3rd assignment is find a place that you can visit, that you'd like to study, like to take a look at and go out, and now do the same assignment. Only now I don't want you to spend 15 minutes on it. I want you to spend 25? minutes on it not quarter of an hour. I really want you to tear that place apart. And so they do. I usually give them the weekend. We usually start on a Wednesday so, I'll give the assignment on a Thursday and it's not due until Monday. So, they have 2-3 days to work on it. They come back and they expect another peer review. Uh-oh. Self-assessment. This goes along with reflection because probably by now, like you said, started to bring us in, started to take in that this it's me that I'm really working for here, not for somebody else. So, I want them to do a self-assessment right away. We use the same scale, but I tell them. "Do your own self assessment. Know what your score is. And I want you to write underneath your score your impressions. I think, the first or the second day both days I have them write when they get their notebooks back, I have them write some sort of reflection. You know, "How do you feel about your first score? How do you feel about your second score?" So then, I have them do a little self-assessment. From there, we build into "This is our environment." I'll probably form small groups and have them look for similarities; compare and contrast their environments. From there, we build into, "Well, let's try to make a plan. How can we bring a piece of this environment into the classroom and keep it viable. Can we bring in everything that exemplifies what is out there? I've got a maple tree and how do I bring that in? How do we bring it in?" So, the class discussion you could bring in a piece of the bark. You could cut off a limb.

You've engaged them in developing standards and they've gotten to know each other in this process of peer assessments ... and they're developing observation skills and assessment skills. And they also have a growing body of experience to develop their investigation. And you're doing that all in the first week.

I think that's what it's all about, and then, we just talk about the spiral. Keep spiraling off of that. I think about the 3rd week

You've begun to develop the community through that. They're developing a common language. It's not a capricious, "what the teacher wants" language, but a language that they're all developing.

It's more what can we develop together because I catch myself sometimes saying one thing in one class that hasn't been discussed. And I have to back up and say, "I'm sorry we discussed this in A2 this morning. Let me tell you what we said." Because each class is sort of in a different place. So, it's difficult for the teacher sometimes kind of going back and forth. It also becomes a language very organic ...

What resources do you have for them in the classroom to find out what they don't know.

B: Something like "abiotic" they can get out of the standard dictionary. I actually forbid them to use the textbook. I say, "Don't go to Grolier's. I don't want you doing that. We're writing our own textbook. We're going to develop our own textbook. If we don't know what scientist's call something, then we'll invent another word for it. We're using a common word for it and we'll find out later. That is actually the homework assignment I give them the night before I give them the standardized test. I give them the text book and tell them to learn the vocabulary. I don't say learn the processes because we've already gone through that. So, that's their homework assignment. If I challenged them with something, now, my classroom is filled with books, it's more like the Burroughs book that we're looking at today. But there are a couple of standard books there like Principles of Ecology that we have definitions of abiotic. I tell them to stay away from books. We're writing our own book here. I'd be more impressed if they tried to invent things themselves.

It's risky.

Yes, it is. Like I said, it's been 20 years, so I've become comfortable with it because I know even when it doesn't work, we're going to pick it up a day or two later. I know that if it doesn't work for a couple of kids, there's so many possibilities in the classroom that I can make something work. Reflection, I had a student who was absolutely aghast at the possibility of working with living things. I slowly talked her into working with plants. Like we're going to set up a terrarium. She refused to bring in animals. I said, "Hire some kids in your neighborhood." Little kids are always good at catching that kind of stuff. She said, "She wouldn't even carry them." One day I went into the men's room and there's this big silverfish, you know, silverfish with about a thousand legs on it, in the sink. So, I picked the silverfish up on my way back into the classroom. Without anybody knowing, I put it in her tank and pulled the cover on it. Next morning, "Look what I got in here (inaudible)". "I don't know. Where did it come from?" So, I guess teachers can lie. I play dumb. What happened was, I don't know if it was intuition or not, she absolutely fell in love with this creature. It was the experience. She got a chance to get closer. She was familiar with her tank. It was just a whim. It just happened to be there. There are so many possibilities like that. Once you have a classroom with 80 tanks and all of this stuff going on. If somebody's tank doesn't work, like a lot of the seashore tanks will not work. Tons of opportunities are there. We can always have them work with another person in another tank. They all have to do their own. They cannot work in groups. But there is a lot of group work and there is a lot of sharing. And a lot of the peer assessments goes to somebody else's tank and describe that.

Do the students make obvious connections between the way that they are developing measurement standards in the class and the way that their own progress as students is measured?

Some of them. I'd say the majority know. But some do, which again is a nice thing about the classroom and the set up because when we come back, I'd say about once every other day, we will get back together and do some kind of reflective activity. It might just be a free-for-all, let's talk about this. And some of the kids will mention that the what I'm doing here is really showing me how I'm progressing, which is really a measurement. That's where we need the video camera on the wall and just let it go because I can't remember specifics, there are always things that come up in the classroom and say, "Yeah, got it." It's great because this one person has it, but the others have experienced it and have just not assimilated it yet. Here's one person who has. How, you just have to plant that seed and then a lot of the kids get it.

It's contagious.

It's contagious and it's one of the nice things about having an informal classroom. And yet, at the same time, still have all these goals. We end up by doing the cycles, the oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, and water. We start with the water. But just yesterday, here we are in May I said, "Open the tab #28" which we did in November- the carbon cycle, but now we talked about it after we've done photosynthesis. And what does it mean now. In the oxygen cycle, the O, oxygen doesn't come from the carbon dioxide that the plants spit out. It comes from water. Now, we're making even more connections. So, the basic plant teaches the basic concepts of ecology. Twenty years ago, when I first started it didn't, I didn't know what the basic I just knew I wanted to do this. It evolved and it wasn't even a whole term; it was more like 5 or 6 weeks. So, it took 20 years I'd say it took about 10 years to get to the point where I could say that the standards of ecology are being met by this culturing unit. There's a lot of experimentation.

How long do you actually have in the classroom everyday?

It's usually one period a day. A double period a week, every 6 days ...45 minutes [per period] but the classroom opens at 7 in the morning and the bell rings at 8:15. And even though I do teach in another building in the afternoon, the kids will stay behind and the science teachers who are there will supervise them. So that, before and after school, there's a lot of working.

There's great openness in your classroom, but there is a lot of structure behind it. From what you're saying, there's more structure as the years have gone on.

That's something that I had to struggle with a lot because I started with the openness, which is a very scary thing, and is threatening to every teacher to just open it up and say go. The open classroom is really a challenging environment to be in. Over the years, you develop these little things like the assessment. I didn't always have a peer assessment. Once I put it in the first couple of days, then it became a standard thing. The kids always know that this peer assessment could come up tomorrow if I keep my notebook. You never know what Mr. McWeeny is going to call on next. That in itself is a structure that leads to the open classroom. It's an attitude. It's part of the ecology of the classroom that I better stay on task here.

It seems that there is a lot of accountability to themselves and to each other. In this openness ... There's a requirement to be purposeful and intentional in what you're doing.

Exactly. One of my pet peeves is when somebody abuses that. I give the students a lot of respect and leeway. I think more than anything else, the thing that gets to me when somebody abuses that. I have a pretty even temper, but my voice changes and the kids know it and I know it when something is not just clicking. It's okay if you go to your friend and you say, "Will you take me to the dance Friday night" or something like that in the lab situation. That's part of normal stuff. But if you go in the corner and just talk about whatever in the corner for 20 minutes and neglect some of the other things that are going on. That's what really gets me because I expect the kids to be self-learners. I let them know it right from the beginning. I'm going to facilitate. I'm not going to throw stuff at you. I'm going to challenge you with things. You take up the challenge. You do it. You can do it.

So, what happens when they don't?
Then, I pull out the firm voice. It starts with the firm voice. I can get to situations where I actually require the students to "stay in your seat and complete this. When you complete this, bring it to me, and I'll sign it." So, that can happen. I don't send very many warnings the first term because the only warning slip I would have to send home would be if they didn't have a certain amount of work in their notebooks. Because we're checking the notebooks 2-3 times a week, it's there. There's work ... So, it's rare that I would give a warning slip.

How do you work the rest of the year?

At the end of the first term, oh, I forgot to mention that I personally grade their notebooks. Assessing, I should say, three times a term. After about the first three weeks, I collect their notebooks. Read through the dozen or so assignments. Have some standards in my head. I don't make a rubric out for this. In my head, I have some standards of completion and trying. I'm looking for attempts, I'm not looking for brilliance at this point. Are they trying? Are they getting in to it? Are they engaging? I will read through each assignment and then the front of their notebook I will put: tab #1- excellent, tab#2- you didn't finish what you said you were going to do, tab #3- I will make a little note about each of the tabs. It's time-consuming, but when you think about for the first 3 weeks I wasn't really bringing home a lot of work over a period of time. I psych myself. I know, probably the first rainy weekend, I spread it out. I take one division a night. So, I don't try to do them all.

 

 

You're giving them a lot of information about organizing and presenting.

Absolutely in writing. I tell them that what I expect them to do. I give them a score out of the 10, a 9.5, and 8.5, a 7.0 to give them an idea of where they're headed. The second time I'm going to be much more difficult. "Like when I get your notebook the second time and I'm going to base it on what we said the first time." So I said, "Try to write more of your feelings, your opinions." Sixth sense. I really want them to get that in there. Everyday, I'd like them to write about their feelings. Or try to do this or try to do that. Then when I collect their notebooks a second time, I'm looking more at content and have they done some of the things that I suggested. I'll always suggest "challenge." One thing, even if it's a 10.0 and I never give a 10.0, even if it's a perfect notebook, I will still challenge that. I say, "Why don't you read this chapter of John Burroughs and relate this to tab #10." I try to challenge every student no matter what level they are. I look to see if they took the challenge, #1, and, #2, are they getting the content out of it. Because by the second notebook check, we're going into natural history of animals, how they eat, how they move, how they react to the environment, measurements of things growing. So, there's more content area in that. So, I can look at how they're doing. Of course, it shouldn't be a surprise because we're been doing peer reviews and self-assessments all the way along. For the final notebook check, I do a rubric. I have a big rubric. I spend about a week correcting them all about 15 minutes for each notebook. I pick certain tabs to take a look at. I don't look at everyone. But I pick a few at the beginning, a few in the middle and a lot in the end. By the end, there's the real meaty assignments in there. I do a rubric and at the bottom of the rubric, I do a lot of comments, how I thought they did. I always try to start with the positive comments and, if necessary, I will come up with some kind of criticism or suggestion. That's how the assessment is done and that's where I get the grade from. By the time the grades come out, very few kids say. "Why did I get this grade?" I can't remember the last time it happened for that first term.

Do you show the rubric to the students before you do the assessment for the final evaluation?

No, I haven't as yet, and I know from current articles and theories and talking to people that the way to do it is to let them know the standards on the rubric. I guess the answer is that I do let them know the standards on the rubric but I don't actually let them see the physical set up that I'm going to use, but through the peer assessments and self-assessments and probably through my writing assessments on the first two, they understand what areas are going to be looked at. Now, with other rubrics, I do. I give them the rubric up front for different things. They do a creative project. The family tree, I verbally tell them the areas on the rubric that I use for the family tree assessment. At the end of the year, there's a rubric that I use for their senior projects. I tell them the standards on that. I don't know why. I like to have some surprises. It seems more effective to me to imply things that to surprise them. Most of the surprises are positive.

 

 

You often talked about your standards of assessment that it's impossible to capture in a rubric.

Absolutely, that's the question, how do you get to know the students? One of the things that happens in the first term and it's nice. It sets a tone for the rest of the year is that I do get to know the students in other ways than doing your homework, doing well on a test. It's like can I deal with keeping my area clean. What do I think about reading these certain things? What's my conversation with Mr. McWeeny when he comes to my tank. What's the conversation? What's it about? Is it about strictly science? Does something else come into it? You know, "When I was down at the beach Mr. McWeeny, I saw all this pollution. Do you think we can clean it up next spring?" It tells you a lot about the student and it wasn't something you were looking for.

The second term, for about 3-4 weeks of the second term, I give them a textbook. I actually gave it to them to do the ecology test. But I don't count that test. I think I tell them, "If you want to the test to count. I'll let it count."the kids will get A's So, I give them a textbook. We do 2-3 depending on what can fit in all the constraints of the middle school. Two or three standard chapters about genetics We start with the historical Mendelian genetics. We go through the concepts that Mendel discovered. I like to put the history of science in there. I like to try to put things in perspective. When Mendel lived a little over a hundred years ago and without getting into everything, I bring in Burroughs into it who was living at the time. Later on in the year, we'll, when we're doing genetics, talk about Darwin. He was living at the time. What was going on at the time? Industrial revolution and how that led into better lens crafting, microscopes and no wonder why they discovered chromosomes 30 years after Mendel's life because they didn't have the correct equipment to discover it until then. But then they put 2 and 2 together within a year. In 1901, they knew chromosomes were Mendel's factors. So, I like to get into the history and try to connect it into their world. I use America a lot because the industrialization happened a lot in America. And give them a couple of standard type tests. Although they're not as standard as you would think. They're not in a publisher's test. I'll make them more essay kind of test and handwritten by myself 3-4 pages long. They have to do Punnett Squares, how figure out things, and they have to explain concepts. Explain how Mendel figured out that there were two factors not one. So that's an essay. It's kind of like an AMCAS? thing.

In your class, your textbook is a resource; it's not the course.

No, it's not the course. I would say, I probably use the textbook 15 weeks out of the 38 weeks we're in session for assignments here and there. It's that 20 years development ... And you do get comfortable with it because you get feedback that let's you know that things are working or not. So, I have them apply this by actually making a family tree of their own family. Some of them are quite extensive because some of them have lots of aunts and uncles. We do the family out to the side. We don't go back a lot because we want to collect real data, like present real data. So, then I have them pick 3 traits. I give them a list of 40-50 human traits. We've got a little bit of everything to double-jointedness to diabetes. They have to pick 3 traits and 1 of them has to be a contrasting trait like right- or left-handed. Or they can pick some complex traits, too, like height. Height in humans is a multiple allele trait, which gives you all sorts of possibilities. It's harder to decipher. They go out and collect information. And the assignment is given purposely over the holiday break around the end of the year so they're probably going to see a lot of relatives or be on the phone and calling relatives. They call up and find out who has attached ears or who's got double-joints. They put the 3 pieces of information beside every person that they can. When they come back from the holiday break is I immediately challenge them. "Okay, you have this information. Now, figure out what's dominant." "How can we do that?" "Well, use Mendel's rules." I usually turn this into a little lecture because it might take some kids a long time, and time is precious. I usually turn it into a lecture where we put a generic family tree on the blackboard. We just use guinea pigs, black guinea pigs, white guinea pigs, and we show that there are certain places on the family tree where 2 parents have the same trait and a child ended up with an opposite trait. That opposite trait had to be a hidden trait. There's no way it could be a dominant trait. Once we go through the generic tree, we have to go through their real data and look for 2 parents with the same trait and a child with a different trait. If they don't have it in their family tree, there's 79 other family trees around with probably a lot of ... Well, it if it's true for one human being, what would Mendel say? Well, it's true for all of them. You don't have the proof of the double-jointedness in your family tree, but Chris might have the proof in his family tree. So, they have to write the proof out in a sentence. They can't just say, "Chris has to prove it." They have so say, "Chris' aunt and uncle have double-joints. Chris' aunt and uncle's son does not have double joints. Therefore, if Chris' aunt and uncle's son doesn't have the double joint, it must be a hidden trait. Because if it wasn't a hidden trait, the aunt and uncle would have all recessive and there's no way that they could have the son." In other words, they have to use a certain amount of logic. This has to be written out 3 times in the tree. Once they figure that out they make symbols and put what they think the actual genotype is for each individual. Then, I give them the final assignment, which is a whole bunch of Punnett squares to figure out a whole bunch of chances. So, what their chance of them being them was The final assignment is to figure out a whole bunch of chances, of them being them was and their cousin being what he was together. In which case, they have to figure out that they have to multiply chances and not add chances. We do a probability thing at the end. There's a lot of learning and challenges. Then, they have to put the whole thing together.

They have to put the whole thing together into a final (showing example) You can imagine me assessing 80 of these. I put a big table in my living room. I go crazy correcting these for two weeks. They have their family tree. They have all of the traits that they've collected. Then they have the genotypes here. Somewhere on the map somewhere on their family tree proof of dominance they explain in words, in a sentence they prove dominance. Then, they have to do some simple Punnett squares to figure out their chances of what they were could be themselves. This person actually reproduced some of the family tree over here, which helped my correct it. So, I didn't need to go back and forth. Then, I have them do some double crosses and bigger Punnett squares and I have 4 or 5 assignments. I don't know if it happens to be here. Here are some double crosses done much like a double Punnett square. I challenge them for extra credit to do triple crosses. Each Punnett square gets bigger, but the simplest one is 4 boxes, double cross is 16 boxes, a triple cross is 64 boxes, and the possibilities increase exponentially, too. Here's the rubric that I use. The rubric has five areas of assessment which the presentation, the research done, which is collecting the data and making the tree, the predictions made from the simple Punnett squares, the knowing, which is knowing how to do double crosses and triple crosses, the complex Punnett squares, and the thinking which is actually trying to explain what's dominant and trying to figure out how to put together two separate chances, which is actually by multiplication and not addition. So, there's a lot That's not the end of the second term that about They respect me. They've given me some play ? for it. It's a shame that that has to be. The other side of it is, is that for every dollar spent like that, you probably get five dollars worth of work on the reality scale.

What was your experience with the MCAS testing?

When the kids were taking the MCAS test the other day, I read over the science questions and took some notes for myself. So, I filled up the page with ideas about science questions. Interestingly enough, the first question was about photosynthesis. It's a biggie in science. What I'm going to say is that by reading over that test I actually reinforced and confirmed what I've been doing in the classroom. I would say more that 90% of the answers have been somewhat presented, not just in my classroom, but over the 3 years at Central, knowing the staff and what they do. In other words, there were only a couple of questions that I found that we didn't address and, you know what? We knew it because it was about electricity. We knew it because electricity is done in the elementary school and we don't revisit it. We probably should. It really reinforced what we were doing. It hit the mark. That was really nice. Having said that, we'll see what the results are in October because just because we visit these places doesn't mean they sink in. So, we'll see what happens.

 

What happens in the third term?

The third term, this is easy because I repeat the second term for the new classes that I get. I get a whole new bunch of kids the third term. And my students go and take a chemistry course. It brings them up to the point where they can write a balanced equation. They start with atomic models that they have been introduced to before. It brings them right up to balancing equations and actually doing some stoic chemistry where x amount goes into this reactant and how much product can be produced ... It's just a better situation because I was trained in Biology and the other teacher is trained in Chemistry. He's got some fantastic chemistry labs and he does a better job than I do. So, why not let the kids experience him? And the kids that I get in the third term have already experienced the chemistry part. Now, they come and experience the Cell Play and the body systems with me. The whole 8th grade gets that whole Cell Play and body system. If I'm lucky, I can do some photosynthesis with the other kids. So, the end result with the chemistry is they actually end up with a very good understanding of chemistry so that they can balance an equation. And not only that, they can use that equation and predict how much product So, they come back to me for the 4th term. First assignment, "Write the balanced equation for photosynthesis", not glucose, sucrose, or they have to do some research now. Most balanced equations in books is the simple one using glucose. But I have them use C11H22O11, which is sucrose, which is a little bit more complex, but just to make sure that they can balance an equation. They usually come back in with the equation. Second assignment, "If a maple leaf uses 2g of water per hour, how many grams of sucrose does it produce per hour?" So, they have to apply the chemistry that they learned in the 3rd term to the real situation at hand which is our study of photosynthesis and actually make some predictions. Here comes my leaf thing again, "Now, that you've predicted that, how many grams of sugar is does the average maple tree produce in an hour?" So now, they have to think about maple trees again and estimate how many leaves are in a maple tree.

 

They've come a long way in their assignments from their observation notebooks in the first term.

That's right. We're constantly asking them to apply more and more now and try to challenge them in higher and higher levels. So, from there, this year I took a new tack, I usually give them a lecture, which Chris video taped last week. So, I won't say much on that. But it's basically on the light and dark reactions. My standard assignment would be to give them another essay similar to the cell essay. Instead of saying, "How does the cell produce protein?" Now, it is, "How does the process of photosynthesis produce molecules of glucose?"

Up to this point have they had many lectures?

Not a lot. This is probably the first time I've given them a lecture that's lasted a whole period. Most of the lectures have been mini-lectures, which are 10-15 minute blurbs here and there. There are a lot of half-class lectures especially during genetics and the end of the culturing unit where were discussing cycles. So, I would ask them to produce an essay based on my lecture and some standard homework assignment answering questions about the light and dark reaction out of their textbook. Using the basis of 2 photons coming down to earth and we'll talk about the photons in a very factual way or if you want to personify them go ahead and make a story out of it. This year, I said, "I want you to tell the story of photosynthesis any way you want."

Pictures of Practice Contents Introduction The Colonial Biography Unit (7th Grade History) A Year of Seventh Grade English A Year of Eighth Grade Science The Jazz Unit Snapshot Using the CCDT to Develop Generative Topics