Class Organization

How I Organize the Semester

I begin with the four units of review-oceanography, adaptations, food webs/ecology, and taxonomy. I don't do all those in a row-I break the reviews up with marine biology videos (see sample worksheet in taxonomy section) and article critiques (read, analyze and discuss an article). I also require the students to do an oral report on a current events topic in marine biology in the third quarter and I allow time to work on them in class. So the "review" would take the whole third quarter, (maybe plus a week or two) to accomplish. At this point the two trips would come back to back, with two weeks in between to discuss the activities they did and will do. I would also allow them time to work on their trip journals. Basically, I have to get all of this in by Easter Break, which is when we go to Catalina Island. When we get back, they have a comparison/contrast discussion about the two ecologies and I allow them time to finish their field journals. The last three or four weeks of the semester are spent working on original independent research of the students' choice.

Class Schedules

Our school operates with a block schedule, so I meet with my class for 90 minutes twice a week and 45 minutes once a week. However, to avoid confusion when I provided the timelines for this booklet, I organized the activities into five 45-minute class period days per week. So for example, when the timeline says to do an activity in two days, I could accomplish it in one 90-minute period. What the timeline says to accomplish in five days, I get done in three.

Student Evaluations

Student evaluations have played an important role in the development of this unit. I have included two sample evaluation forms that I give to my students, one for specific activities and the other evaluating the semester as a whole. (The activity evaluation form may look specific, but is actually somewhat generalized-take the words "food web activity" out and put in whatever activity you would like feedback on).

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Overview

Rationale

- How I organize the Semester