Date

Biology Institute

Lesson Study

Sunday

 7-13-03

On our own! 

Monday

7-14-03

Off to the American Museum of Natural History.

AMNH Tour---Totally Awesome Day!

All three presentations were awesome! 

The Tree of Life display was also memorable.  It will be neat to figure out a way to model this on a smaller scale in our classrooms and bring the LIFE back into Biology I

Dr. Robert DeSalle, Genomic and Systematics Lab, American Museum of Natural History, New York, New York

Work on Blender Skit

Tuesday

7-15-03

Today we meet  with our Mentor group to discuss the research we will be conducting with aquatic bacteria

Dr. Mike Lemke, Microbiologist at the University of Illinois, Springfield, IL is our mentor.  Mike’s specialty is Environmental Microbiology. 

Mike made a group presentation on the background of microbial diversity and helped our group focus on potential research plans

Mike shared his experiences and expertise with the group.  Here are the notes from that session including links to one of the classroom ideas Mike shared with us.

Bacterial Diversity and Winogradsky Columns

Panel Discussion--

The panel discussion included a principal and a teacher from an elementary school in New Jersey that is involved in Lesson Study.  Also, the panel included Patsy Wang-Iverson, Senior Associate, RBS and Makoto Yoshida from Research for Better Schools. They shared the finding of the TIMSS Report with us as well as their experiences implementing Lesson Study.  Lesson Study involves the kind of reflection many of us have been doing in isolation but can be a powerful force as a collaborative effort.  Lesson Study is a different approach from what is often the model of staff development in our districts because many of the teachers and administrators are looking for a quick fix, increased test scores, and a fast payback for time and money invested.  We are impatient as a society and want change without investment.  Lesson study is a long term staff development process

Lesson Study

Wednesday 7-16-03

Off to the shore!  Today we went to Island Beach State Park in NJ our goals were:

• Collect aquatic samples from the bay side, ocean side and a marsh pond for analysis of diversity
• Collect data on the parameters of each site.  Specifically:  DO, Nitrate, pH, Phosphate, Temperature.
• Nitrate and Phosphate Testing Protocol
• Visit the BEACH and Boardwalk

Skit night “Blenders”

Thursday

7-17-03

Today we began isolation of DNA from aquatic samples

• Filtering and Isolation Protocol

Blackboard

Dr. Mike Lemke demonstrates his blackboard technique for group six

Friday

7-18-03

Today we began PCR reactions

• Details of PCR Protocol

AP Luncheon with Kevin Mattingly

• Kevin Mattingly of The Lawrenceville School Science Department was the moderator of the AP Biology and Environmental Science panel discussion. This was very helpful and the future of the AP biology program was discussed.  This is the age old question—Depth or Breadth?  Inquiry or Cook-book.  We were struggling with the aspect of volume vs conceptual understanding.  Kevin shared with the group a book written by the National Research Council a subsidiary of the National Academy of Sciences.  Lawrenceville is currently phasing AP programming and replacing it with advanced programs in
• Cell and Molecular
• Ecology and Evolutionary
• Science Research
• Physiology

Kevin reminded us that “The taught curriculum is not the learned curriculum”

Night OFF

Saturday

7-19-03

Today we studied our PCR reactions and they are GREAT!!!  So we were able to move on to transformation.

Night at Princeton