Howard – Visit #2
Intern Observation Record
November 3, 2014
Chelsea Howard
School/Coop – Johnson Collegiate/Paul Gullacher
Course Taught – Biology 30 Period 4 afternoon
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Time to talk before class. Lesson on Photosynthesis – lesson plan was sent in
advance. Class not as academic as might be expected for Biology 30 – only 8
students in class at the beginning. 10-12 showed up.
Paper distributed for an answer to a question. In pre-conference this was
mentioned. Want to make a connection between respiration and photosynthesis.
Really wants to find what they remembered from Friday – when photosynthesis
was begun. Took about 5 minutes. Reminder about the Web Quest carried out on
Friday. Students always want more time. Class is quiet.
(1:23) - Distributed a booklet on Photosynthesis for note taking. Phone call nicely
interrupts the class (Rule #10). Short video on the details of photosynthesis. A bit
technical to learn much – perhaps a reasonable summary of some concepts.
Bonds store energy – do they? Bond breaking is always endothermic (requires
energy – easy to show with any model of a bond); Bond formation then is always
exothermic – that is energy is given off as bonds from. Reactions are the result of
many bonds forming and breaking. So photosynthesis endothermic (overall)
because it needs the sun’s energy to function. What bonds in CO2 and H20 form,
what bonds are broken and which ones form? We say that energy is stored in ATP,
but taking apart an ATP requires energy – so where does it come from because we
talk about ATP as being a high energy chemical? Just one of those questions that
comes up when you are trying to understand.
Why are plants green? Can we actually answer this question? They reflect green
light that hits from the sun – so they don’t really need green light to
photosynthesis. Objects are the color of the light that they reflect. Is there a
place here for a prism – to show that white light is made up of colors? Do they
really know that white light is a range of colors? They have been told but have
they ever seen it?
1:40 – continued with the lecture. “Are we all good?” Does this question actually
tell you much? Next you talked with a student who talked about black as the
absence of light (as you said – it reflects no light in the visible range.)
Things like colors making up white are not easy to see, but can be demonstrated
with prisms. Don’t assume that they really know what you are talking about when
such things arise. They are clear to you, but may not be to students. First hand
experience is always better than reading in a book, or seeing a video.
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Howard – Visit #2
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1:48 – how much are you expecting them to write on their booklets? They seem to
be having trouble filling in the pages – so how can you deal with this in your next
lecture?
So what is a high energy bond? One that has a lot of energy – or something else?
Can you imagine a different way to teach this lesson on photosynthesis? How can
you have students more engaged in learning about photosynthesis? They are
copying notes but how much are they understanding? How will they come to
understand the details that you want them to learn? They clearly have to do more
than just take these notes. You are not expecting them to know the material until
they do some studying and rereading.
Maple Leafs are red in the fall as the chlorophyll decomposes and allows the red
pigment to show – so does this mean maple leafs reflect red light as well? How
could you find out? Or, does the red pigment only form near the end of summer –
perhaps in response to the ending of the chlorophyll? Not an easy question to
answer.
1:50 – nearing an end. Much detail provided here. Hard for students to master the
process without some other aids in learning. Otherwise you may only achieve
getting them to memorize. Does this make sense? Again you are not really finding
out much about what they have learned.
Review video shown at the end to review content of lecture.