Transcript Using Visual Analogies to Engage Students

Using Visual Analogies
to Engage Students
Gary Carlin,
LLSO
January,
2008
Analogies
A similarity between like features of two
things, on which a comparison may be
based: the analogy between the heart and a
pump.
Introducing New Ideas
• Start with Non-Scientific Analogies.
• Students describe the item, process or
experience.
• Introduce “new idea” and identify the
similar components.
What Do You Like?
• If you could only
take one part of
the pizza what
would it be?
• Crust
• Cheese
• Pepperoni
Make The Connection
• Niche – is all
strategies and
adaptations a
species uses in
its environment
– how it meets
its specific
needs for food
and shelter, …
Find the Difference
• Where does the analogy “fall apart”?
• Can we modify the analogy or find a new
analogy that is more similar?
The Bicycle
Homologies
Same
Structure
Different
Function
GLOVES
Darwin’s Finches
Who Remembers?
Listening to Music … Over Time
Evolution of Man
General & Specific
Are Smarties in the Same Color Order?
Gel Electrophoresis
The Changing Coca-Cola Bottle
Succession
How do you arrange the clothes
in your dresser?
Food Webs
Metamorphosis
Review Lesson
• “Reprocessing” of information
• Students convert information from one
form (ie. written passage) to another form
(ie. storyboard)
• Room for students to add in additional
information (ie. Predictions, intermediate
events, labeling, alternative pathways,
additional examples, ect.)
A Written Passage
• In recent years, the striped bass population in Chesapeake
Bay has been decreasing. This is due, in part, to events
known as “fish kills,” a large die-off of fish. Fish kills occur
when oxygen-consuming processes in the aquatic
ecosystem require more oxygen than the plants in the
ecosystem produce, thereby reducing the amount of
dissolved oxygen available to the fish. One proposed
explanation for the increased fish kills in recent years is
that human activities have increased the amount of
sediment suspended in the water of Chesapeake Bay,
largely due to increased erosion into its tributary streams.
The sediment acts as a filter for sunlight, which causes a
decrease in the intensity of the sunlight that reaches the
aquatic plants in the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem.
Initial Organization
• 1. Collect important information in a
“condensed form”.
• 2. Use a “guided template” to separate or
categorize the information.
• 3. Ready to “re-process” information or
Regents Question.
Human Impact Template
So You Want Me To Read
in Science Class, Why?
The Regents Questions
• Identify one abiotic factor in the Chesapeake Bay
ecosystem involved in the fish kills. [1]
• Identify the process carried out by organisms that
uses oxygen and contributes to the fish kills. [1]
• State one way humans have contributed to the
decrease of the striped bass population in
Chesapeake Bay. [1]
• State how a decrease in the amount of light may
be responsible for fish kills in the Chesapeake
Bay area. [1]
A Graph
Graphing Skills First
• Title
• Graph Area Display
• X-axis and Y-axis
– Name, scale, range, units, max, min, optimum
• The Relationship between X and Y
Looking at Graphs
Template
The Regents Questions
• State how nitrate pollution in the brook
changed after the brook flowed through
the deforested area. [1]
• Explain how deforestation contributed to
this change. [1]
A Diagram
Understand the Diagram
• Step-by-Step (multiple pathways)
• Information: Known/Unknown
• Identify the Process(es)
• Add in information
Object Process
Brainstorm
The Questions
Molecule A contains the
(1) starch necessary for ribosome synthesis in the cytoplasm
(2) organic substance that is broken down into molecules B,
C, and D
(3) proteins that form the ribosome in the cytoplasm
(4) directions for the synthesis of molecules B, C, and D
Molecules B, C, and D are similar in that they are usually
(1) composed of genetic information
(2) involved in the synthesis of antibiotics
(3) composed of amino acids
(4) involved in the diffusion of oxygen into the cell
Review Lesson Structure
• 1. Start by Modeling a method (steps) by
which a Regents question should be
“processed” (In a selected topic).
• 2. Provide 2-4 Regents questions (same
topic) students can practice the method.
• 3. Mini-Lesson – on same topic
• 4. Extended processing activity based on a
Regents question.
• 5. Student Presentations
• 6. Summary – Regents Challenge Question