Collaboration

It is important to join forces with colleagues and other seasoned professionals to advance student learning.

Debbie Kimbrough - a retired AP Biology teacher and curriculum specialist

Debbie kindly taught an entire lesson for my 2nd period Biology 1 students which introduced me to the idea of using manipulatives with analysis questions. She showed me how to maintain rigor while still meeting the needs of my students. 

Here are the analysis questions to get students to think critically about mitosis and meiosis.

Here are the flash cards that students must organize according to each stage of mitosis and meiosis.

Fellow Biology teacher 
We came together to plan an interactive lab for our Biology 1 students so they could apply the scientific method and see osmosis in action with eggs.

This is the science behind our experiment. Water diffuses from areas of low solute concentration to high solute concentration. We usually talk about water either entering or leaving a cell via osmosis.

Here we have an egg in saline solution and an egg in water about midway through the experiment.

The end result -- an egg placed in saline (left) vs an egg placed in water (right)

Planning Field Trips and Sharing Resources

Here I am sharing resources with a fellow teacher so that she can review the materials and give me her feedback.

I worked with another teacher in my department to plan 3 field trips for both of our classes during the 2014-2015 school year.