Activities Reflection:
- Field Trip: I must admit that I was pretty overwhelmed with choices when I went out into the field. There are so many engineering feats accomplished by living things that I had a hard time picking which one to stick with. I am not sure if we had to pretend we did not have any ideas about the chemistry/physics concepts behind the observation (like a one of our students) or if we were to rely on our own scientific knowledge as we explored the field. What I wound up choosing were observations made in the field that paired with something I have covered in class with my own students so that I might make a connection here that I can use in my class this upcoming school year. I am very happy to see some of the same TED Talks videos and you tube links that I used in my own classroom; I hope that my students will benefit from reinforcing the idea that biology is truly an exercise in application of the basic principles of physics and chemistry. I know that some of my classmates in this program know that my high school is a physics first classroom. This means that my biology students, who will mostly juniors and a few seniors, will have already had chemistry and physics; in some cases the juniors will have had AP physics and AP chemistry. This course is really going to help me tie in the principles they of physics and chemistry to the field of biology by providing SPECIFIC EXAMPLES that demonstrate the physics and chemistry component.
- Bioinspriation Glossary: I am having a little bit of trouble deciding whether an innovation is biomimetic or inspiration. The only product so far that seems to be biomimetic is the velcro. Even this does not utilize recyclable material so I am stuck deciding if ANY products discussed so far could be classified as truly biomimetic!! I hope to incorporate these examples in my own classroom.
- What an introduction!! So much information. I could blog forever here but I will limit my summary to those articles/videos that truly impacted me.
- The Benyus Ted Talks Video: I showed this to my students last year in both AP and Chemistry. Janine is an excellent speaker and she is able to simplify explanations and tie in both chemistry and physics concepts to the lay person very effectively. The course interview questions asked us if we had any experience with biomimetics/ect. I said I read her book "Biomimicry" I am wondering if anyone else did. I highly recommend that all science teachers read this book. I obtained so many cool examples to share with my students during class discussion that came directly from her book. Another great read I recommend is "Design in Nature" by Adrian Bejan. Great books for class ideas.
- The Medina Article: "The Pursuit of Creativity in Biology." OMG!! I loved this article perhaps more than any of the assigned readings...Medina address the need to convert our classrooms from rote exercises in knowledge gathering and stresses the need to engage our students. I LOVED THIS ARTICLE.."the phrase that caught my attention from the article: Creativity cannot be taught, but can indeed be obstructed/ blocked or stimulated. Although society applauds the signs of creative genius a posteriori, unfortunately it usually does favour it upon first appearance...." is spot on with my thinking. I believe our kids are so over-tested in a way that does not reflect depth of understanding. This is an article I plan on sharing with my colleagues and department supervisor.
- The You tube video below is from TED TALKS. A chemistry teacher discusses how a life-threatening situation in his life resulted in a change in the way he teaches from the old "PLUG AND CHUG" to an entirely new approach that encourages student creative thought. Wouldn't it be nice if all teachers were allowed this type of freedom in our classrooms!!
- The article on "Field Notes on Science and Nature" by Michael Canfield was cool. He discussed how so many scientists in the field have absolutely no training in artistic expression..this is a problem when it comes to accurately illustrating direct observations. This made me think about WHOLE NEW FIELDS of jobs that could be made available to the interested and trained science student who is also skilled in the arts, both hand-done and graphically executed. I have one student who is pursuing a career in graphics arts and the biological science at the same time. THERE IS A DEMAND for science trained artists who can produce excellent animations like those we see published by the NIH, HHMI, ect.