Concrete+Lesson+Assignment

The purpose of this assignment is for you to create a lesson that allows the student have a concrete experience with your assigned abstract biological concept. Be sure to use the BSC 307 lesson plan template provided and to consult the rubric provided if you have questions about grading.

If you run into problems with the lesson plan template, consult this sample lesson plan.

In case you need any of the content presented in class, review the in-class presentation.

Reflection Instructions:
In writing your reflection on this lesson, please address the following items...

1. What challenges did you run into when designing this lesson? 2. What comments did your peers make about your lesson that made you rethink your strategies? What changes might you make and why? 3. What will you keep the same about this lesson after reading your peers' feedback? 4. What comments did your peers make about your presentation? Are there changes you need to make? What and why?

Bring a hard copy of your reflection to class next week to turn in to Mrs. Palmer - do not post it on the WIKI. = = =Concrete Lessons:=

[[file:The Mystery of Reebops.doc]] Mystery of Reebop Genetics - Mrs. Palmer
==The purpose of this lesson is to help students discover the exceptions to Mendel's Laws that occur during genetics transmission. Students create baby Reebops and discover 6 common exceptions in Mendelian genetics patterns. This lesson is originally based on Patti Sodergberg's "Reebops: A model "organism" for teaching genetics concepts". This adaptation takes Reebops to another level in illustrating not just the transmission of traits, but higher level concepts in genetic transmission. Additional Resources:==

[[file:male chromosomes.pdf]]
Swetha Singari Concrete lesson on water cycle : The purpose of this lesson is to refresh the various processes in water cycle and introduce the abstract concept of surface tension. Once students learn about surface tension they will determine how surface tension is used in water cycle processes. For the activity students will observe how surface tension can float a heavy object on water and factors that affect surface tension and fill out a worksheet. The questions and worksheet are included in the water cycle diagram.


 * Dipti Hattangady**[[file:Dipti- Fluid mosaic model concrete lesson revised..doc]]
 * The purpose of this lesson is to help students understand the functions of the plasma membrane (and its components) and relate that to the fluid mosaic model by building a cell membrane online. This lesson will also lead into the topic of and aid their understanding of osmosis. Handouts and attachments to the lesson are in the document.**


 * Jennifer Nichols** Concrete lesson on adaptation lesson plan
 * This lesson and lab should be used to help explain to students the different plant adaptations that occur in many plant species. It helps the students understand why these adaptations might occur and the many different forms one adaptation might take. This lesson was originally adapted from Anne Bettendorph's lab on plant adaptation. This lab requires many different types of plants or plants can be substituted for clear pictures. The lesson coveres standards**
 * stage 12 B 1. It also can reinforce plant anatomy knowledge and lead into lessons on environmental changes.**




 * Ashley Morgan** This lesson was designed to help students visualize the lock and key concept of enzymes. Students will use foam cut-outs to demonstrate the substrate binding to the active site of the enzyme. The cut-out of the substrate allows the shape of the substrate to fit into the cut-out of the active site of the enzyme so that students can visually see that the shape of the substrate and active site must fit together. This lesson also allows students to familiarize themselves with key terms by labeling the parts of the enzyme-substrate complex and demonstrate what kind of products are produced with different kinds of enzyme reactions. [[file:BSC 307 Concrete Lesson Enzymes.doc]]

Joe Armour Concrete Lesson on Evolution/Natural Selection

Joe Armour Evolution Concrete Lesson plan on natural selection

Alexander Chapman Concrete lesson plan on DNA This lesson was designed to bring the abstract concept of DNA/RNA and make it a concrete one. In this lesson I used red and black twizzlers along with Mike and Ike candies to build a DNA molecule. After building the molecule I used the model to explain how the bases paired up and how DNA replication was performed. I also used the model to possibly introduce the next section, which could be mutations and other concepts that go along with DNA. I feel that this lesson was simple but answered a lot of questions students could have.


 * Jamal Jordan** Concrete lesson plan on Niches [[file:BSC+307+Concrete+Lesson+Niches.doc]]

===**This activity was created to help the students obtain an understanding on the concepts of diffusion and osmosis. The activity involves the students physically initiating the two processes, recording what they observe, and ends with questions to further probe the student mind on these processes and asks for further examples and applications.**===
 * Matt Tunno** [[file:Tunno Concrete osmosis diffusion lecture.pptx]][[file:Tunno Concrete Lesson Osmosis Diffusion.doc]] <-updated
 * Sam Boyer** - [[file:Mitosis - Concrete Lesson Template.doc]]The purpose of this activity is to give students a concrete visual of a cell undergoing mitosis. Students can struggle with the concept of a cell and what it looks like when it is dividing so in this activity they will be looking at cells under the microscope. Using the microscope will enable them to see actual real-life cells in the process of mitosis. Students will then have to create a picture with labels in poster format of what they saw under the microscope.

The purpose of this lesson is to give students a real life example of how energy is transferred from one tropic level to another. The activity allows the student to make their own example so they are constructing their own knowledge about the energy transfer. The activity shows the students how the energy is transferred numerically as well and implements some math. It is a really good lesson to take something abstract like energy transfer and make it concrete.
 * Curt Dedic** - **C**oncrete lesson plan on energy transfer.

The purpose of this lab is to enhance the students understanding of traits and heredity. The students create populations of change and conduct breeding experiments. The students will see the relationship of genes and traits and how they are passed from a parent to the offspring. This activity not only familiarizes students with heredity but also genotypes, phenotypes, mutation, dominance.
 * Tim Edison** - Heredity Lesson Plan [[file:Heredity Lesson Plan.doc]]

David Blackburn- Concrete lesson plan- Carbon/Oxygen Cycle In this activity the students will become familiar with the carbon-oxygen cycle. They will be able to follow each molecule as it makes its way through photosynthesis, respiration, etc. and by creating their own custom cycle using props and their own imagination. This activity will allow the students to grasp the topic using concrete ideas.

Lori Livas: Concrete lesson plan for Nitrogen Cycle In this activity the students become a nitrogen molecule traveling through the atmosphere. It gets the students out of their seats and moving through the classroom with the use of some station signs and dice. This activity allows for the students to create their own cycle instead of being given a picture of one to try to memorize. This is a link to a printable nitrogen cycle: [] revised copy of lesson

Jennifer Olin: Concrete lesson plan for Cellular Respiration The purpose of this activity is to help students get a visualization of how glucose is broken up during cellular respiration to form the products. The students will create their own diagrams that show the products in each step of respiration. This hands on activity will allow students to create a concrete visual of an abstract concept.

Jennifer Richardson: Concrete Lesson Plan for Mutation Students create a sequence of RNA from a given sequence of DNA that codes for insulin for a human and for a cow. Using the given chart, students identify what amino acids are used to make insulin. Following this, students will answer questions on the worksheet that address the role of genetic mutations.

Mitch Staroscik : Concrete plan for Translation (organic compounds)



Alex Weiss : Concrete plan for the Cell Cycle