Instructional Strategies 1

Jessica Cornett Education 115 December 11, 2013 Instructional Strategies in A.P. Biology For this semester of Education 115, I observed Ms. Hardings Advanced Placement Biology class. The class consisted of seniors and a few juniors. Due to the fact that the class was an advanced biology class and only upperclassman took the class, the students were used to behaving correctly in the classroom. While I was observing the class, the students were learning about cells, types of respiration, how cells make ATP, cell pathways, cell division, and genetics. What I found most interesting while observing this semester was the different ways that Ms. Harding presented the information to the students. The Smartboard was a prominent teaching tool in Ms. Hardings classroom along with labs, iPads, teaching packets, and case studies. Most biology classes are arranged similar to other science classes where the information is presented in a lecture format with labs used as reinforcement tools. Ms. Harding followed the layout that is so similar to many other science classrooms, but she used labs more heavily than other classes and she integrated other activities, such as case studies, to help the students connect what they were learning to the world around them. Ms. Harding mainly used the Smartboard to present her lesson via PowerPoint slides. The Smartboard allowed her to write additional information on the slides when she felt it would benefit the students. Interactive websites were also used when subjects such as cell division were used. Ms. Harding found a website that showed pictures of the stages of cell division and the students were required to click on the correct answer. A few of the students had the opportunity to use the Smartboard

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for this activity and they truly enjoyed it. One of the students said that it made her feel like she was a teacher. Another piece of technology that Ms. Harding used in the classroom was iPads that were provided by the school. She had the students bring up a forestry website on their iPads during their lesson about photosynthesis and how didnt plants undergo different pathways. The students were able to go outside and use their iPads to identify the different types of vegetation that surrounds the school. The lesson got the students very engaged and interested in what they were doing. I also saw inquiry based learning a lot while I was observing. Ms. Harding would assign a case study for the students to read and questions to answer that went along with the case study. Having the students read passages and then answer questions associated with the reading forces the students to truly think about what they are reading. Many of the case studies were truly teaching the students information that they needed to know about the topic. While every teaching strategy I have stated are important, the most important thing that I observed while in Ms. Hardings classroom was her great use of labs. In science classrooms, labs are the best places to have students make a connection between what they are learning and the world around them. The labs that Ms. Harding had her students perform were not very difficult, but they were interesting and informative and those are the best types of labs. There were only a few days that I observed her class that she didnt have the students do some kind of lab activity. Some examples of labs that Ms. Harding had the students perform include them making root beer to learn about fermentation and placing cells in solutions to see how they react to solutions that were not isotonic.