Renee Hashimoto
Konawaena High School
HI

Genetics

Fri, May 04, 2012 4:06 PM
Great collection of resources

The curriculum map included is a good outline for first time teachers to follow. There are useful links provided. One of the best links is to the University of Utah Genetics Learning Center, under the Biotechnology theme. This link covers concepts from all three of the major themes in the Genetics SciGuide. This resource offers lesson plans for teachers and presents valuable information for students. Labs and activities that engage students can be used with online content or in place of it. Learn.Genetics also provides virtual labs for students if you do not have resources or materials available. Overall a great collection of resources for teachers that correlates to benchmarks.

Atomic Structure and Chemical Bonding

Wed, Mar 28, 2012 7:26 PM
Great resources

This resource is good for Chemistry as well as Biology teachers. There are useful links under the Interactions of Matter theme that correlate to the life science standards. One of the basic organic chemistry links has some good kitchen labs that can be extended into inquiry. This aligns with the new focus of the Advanced Placement Biology. The explore carbon links connect to ecology and the carbon cycle. One of the websites can be used as a webquest for students. Because each theme is broad in content covered, maybe more than one lesson resource could be shared in the SciGuide.

Coral Reef Ecosystems

Thu, Nov 17, 2011 8:43 PM
Great Ecosystem Resources

This SciGuide was very useful in teaching about ecosystems with a clear focus. Instead of learning in general about populations and dynamics, a specific aquatic ecosystem is used as an example. This is very relevant to any student in Hawaii because of the abundance of coastline and coral reefs. The extension of coral reef conservation is a hot topic due to many of the tourists who visit Hawaii being uninformed about coral reef damage. I could incorporate these concepts to the relevance of my local students’ lifestyles. I would build upon their prior knowledge, based on their daily lives, and hope to add to their education about the shoreline. I believe it will definitely pique their interest by incorporating environments and organisms that dwell in familiar places. A sense of relevance is experienced by conducting hands-on labs with samples of actual material and data, along with mini field trips around campus and the community. I do not have many suggestions in order to improve the SciGuide. I believe the vital concepts were covered with a great deal of supporting evidence and exercises. I enjoyed previewing these SciGuides and gained many ideas that will help me and my students in the future.