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Curriculum - Biology (Burke)
Posted by Daniel D Burke on 12/18/2005
In Reply To:Curriculum - Biology (Burke) Posted by John Heinbokel on 12/7/2004
My replies are intended in John's text.
Dan
Dan (and others),
I’m sorry to be so delayed in responding to your note (copied below) - first Thanksgiving, then another commitment, and frankly some curiosity to see what sort of response the K-12 List might produce. As we’ve been chatting about curricular ideas within the CLE, the idea of “Trojan Horses” has been a central theme, that is, to use SD to help address topics and motivations (like high stakes disciplinary testing!) that already exist. Essentially that would be to “sneak up” with the more general SD stuff under the cover of materials that meet other needs in terms of state/nat’l standards or high stakes testing. Your concern/requirement in this project that SD be secondary to biology benefits is completely consistent with that view.
Of course that also presents some interesting limits, in that, without that explicit SD focus, we are unlikely to be working with teachers with the foundation for actively and creatively guiding SD applications; the exercises will have to be largely self-contained and self-directing. Not an insurmountable problem, but a significant constraining challenge!
>>>>>>> I agree that the material would need to be self contained, but good teachers will use the material creatively to help students learn and in turn, I think, will be captured and go deeper into SD. I think a positive feedback loop can be developed.
Now to address your basic inquiry and begin to tie it to the objectives of the CLE in the curricular domain:
-- I’d love to see us begin to develop/adapt/utilize a set of exercises to augment basic biology learning at the high school level.
>>>>>>>Sue Ragan has some very nice exercises from the MDVHS that we could start with. She and I have started to discuss how to collaborate on this if the teachers I work with want to go forward. Like you I am sure that there are folks on the list with more good material to use.
What I hear in your initial inquiry is a need or opportunity that must be replicated at lots of schools and not just to support performance goals of minority students (OTHERS LURKING ON THIS LIST * IS THAT AN ACCURATE ASSUMPTION?). As such, investments made for this specific setting would pay off more broadly, including application of, at least some of, the components at middle-school or post-secondary levels.
>>>>>>>>I agree that the material should be useful in all schools, but I am doing the Willy Sutton thing and starting where the greatest need and where there is the highest leverage for use.
-- I think the opportunity that your connection and interest provides and the support that the CLE/EME can provide are necessary but not sufficient elements to make this project work.
What would also be needed is clear guidance on what topics need to be addressed and covered with such exercises and what enhanced, test-measured improvements need to be supported by such self-contained SD units. This seems like it will be interesting to the participants and a valuable component of their program ONLY if we successfully “teach to the test.” The guidance I anticipate needing would need to come, at least partly, from the teachers in the school(s) you’ve identified; other support could come from members of this List-serve who have both a fundamental knowledge of/appreciation for SD and experience in the biology or science classroom. The latter is a limitation in my credentials, despite (perhaps because of) some years of teaching biology at the college level.
>>>>>I am going to discuss this in January with the teachers I am working with to get their ideas. Again, certainly folks on the list will have many ideas. Finally, as part of my work I have been asked to rewrite the state’s biology standards in plain language (whatever that means) so I should get a good idea of needs.
Logistic questions come to mind (directed at anyone with insights and suggestions, not just at Dan!):
-- How quickly do we have to get off the dime on this?
-- How many exercises would constitute a sufficient first contribution?
-- In what specific areas of the biology curriculum would they be needed? Are there simulations in those areas ‘out there,’ but not (yet?!) in the CLE collection, that members of the ListServe could help make available, either for immediate use or for adaptation?
Are there significant technology/software constraints (e.g. is STELLA available?)?
>>>>>From my personal perspective there are exercise available I can use to start and then I would like to see some in the area of organismal biology available for early spring. I think that 2-3 good exercises in areas such as ecology, cell and molecular biology, organismal biology, physiology, genetics and population biology would make a very nice library.
Is there currently, or might there be in the future, funding support for this activity? Is this likely to grow into a project that will exceed the capacity of those funds to support? If so, we should begin looking for that support. CLE’s resources are largely limited to the relatively small amount of time that Jeff Potash and I can contribute; that won’t go too far, especially if this in one of several curricular projects underway!
>>>>>>The Dept. of Ed might be a source of support but they are very focused on random assignment, controlled studies so any proposal that goes to them has to have this as a central theme. I have a lot experience putting together grant proposals and would be happy to carry a lot of the load if a D.ED opportunity arises. I would need someone with expertise in design of random assignment in schools and folks with good SD and bio backgrounds to work with me. NSF may be a possibility. I worked in education there for seven years so I could sound out folks if we were to go forward. Local and/or regional foundations might be a possibility. They would be good in the sense that once we develop a proposal the same one could be used in many different locations.
-- What else am I missing that could be critical?
One final inquiry for you, Dan. You specifically mentioned performance problems with ‘minority’ students (and, no * that didn’t surprise me J). Do you anticipate that these tools would be specifically provided to those needful students, or to a wider audience with the idea that a “rising tide will float all boats”?
>>>>>As I said above, I believe a rising tide will float all boats, but taking advantage of the need to close the gap between minority and other students is a good point at which to enter many schools. One thing I have seen in schools is that if something works smart principals and teachers want to reproduce it in their school.
All for now from me. Again, I’m sorry for the delay and hope we (and lots of folks out there in ListServe Land) can continue the conversation.
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