Date

Biology Institute

Lesson Study

Saturday

7-26-03

Sequencing reactions did not work, so Mary, Rob, Mike and Jim have been trying to troubleshoot the protocols.   It was finally suggested that the primer should be changed and the precipitation procedures modified.  Rob and Mary ran a new cycle sequence process.  

Met with Tom and our group will complete our lesson study sequence on Tuesday.  The group will finalize the plan this week end and meet again with Tom on Monday.

Sunday

 7-27-03

We have 6 out of 8 sequences through the        sequencer with great results.  We cycle sequenced more samples today and will gene clean and run them through the sequencer later this evening.

Finalized Goals and Objectives for Lesson Study Plan

Monday

7-28-03

Rob DeSalle and Mary Egan loaded more sequences over the weekend and downloaded the files into our group folder. 

Julie, Dennis and Mike became experts at using sequencer software program used to analyze clone sequences.  We all learned how to clean up the gene, remove the vector, and the BLAST the sequence to determine possible bacterial species. 

Our goal is to BLAST all sequences tonight and work with Rob DeSalle on Tuesday to analyze the data.  Paul (group 5) showed us how to remove the vector.  And we became concerned that our samples may have become confused with Group 5’s mouth samples (because three of our sequences identified common oral bacteria during the BLAST of the data) We will follow through on that tomorrow.

Had a great session debating our research lesson for the Lesson Plan. We met with Tom Ritter to conduct a pre-assessment for the research lesson.  Tom made several comments about the process he was observing with our group interactions and said “This is lesson study at its best”.  And that we had several good research hypotheses that the lesson may reveal to us about how kids process and learn information.  We made copies of the plan for the group and for the other observers.  Mrs. Patricia Teague will be the lead teacher for the exercise.   Patty and Sally prepared the student materials for the Lesson Study and completed a dry run through the process.

DNA Templates for Critters

The critters used for this lesson are taken from “Microbe World”  available through NABT at

http://www.nabt.org/sup/publications/microbes.asp

Tuesday

7-29-03

Lesson Study with students from the Honors Summer Program at The Lawrenceville School.  The lesson study involved collaboration by the team to develop a lesson plan and Patricia Teague was selected to present the lesson to the kids.

Tom, Gene, Rob and groups 2 and 3 acted as observers for the lesson study and debriefing

Wednesday 7-30-03

Today we got a chance to act as observers for another lesson study group.  It is an awesome opportunity to see students during the learning process and focus on how a lesson promotes learning.