Mutualism and Co-evolution
A study of Flowering Plants and their Pollinators
with a focus on

Form and Function

by Megan Chandler

Overview

Introduction

Welcome to marine biology in a semester! This unit has developed as a result of my love for marine biology and out of a need at our school. (I teach biology and chemistry at a private Christian high school in Tucson, Arizona). In 1994, the state universities began requiring graduates to take three years of science. Our third science was physics, which I was sure was not going to meet the needs of a good deal of our students. So I developed an advanced biology, inquiry-driven course incorporating botany for the first semester and marine biology for the second. No notes, no lecture—just lots of projects and experiments and a trip to Catalina Island. It has become a satisfying teaching experience, and I am sure a valuable learning experience for my students.

Organization of the Unit

What you know have in your hand is three years of classroom testing and some new creativity thrown in. I now include a Rocky Point (Puerto Peñasco, Sonora, Mexico) unit and I have developed a few more learning activities for my review units. This unit book is organized into:

You may or may not notice that I don’t include any activities on the habitats within the marine environment. I purposely do this because I let the habitats speak for themselves on the trips. (If you can’t go on the trips, you could have the students research and build dioramas, for example—a much more boring, yet enlightening alternative).

Each unit gives a teacher background section with student behavioral objectives, teacher notes on the topic, possible discussion questions, activity handouts, evaluation rubrics and timelines. The types of lessons used are constructivist in nature, such as concept maps, learning cycles and other open-ended activities. All labs use an inquiry approach, allowing the students to answer questions for themselves. (I try to have one of these labs at least once per unit).

Timeline

Teacher's Section

Lesson Plans

Visuals/ Overheads

Field Trips

Evaluations

Photos

Materials List

Resources List

The University of Arizona
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics
General Biology Program for Secondary Teachers
warder@email.arizona.edu