Friday, February 20, 2009

My instructional unit topic is “Cellular Respiration: How the Human Body Systems Work Together to Store and Use Energy”. Cellular respiration is the process of creating energy for our bodies out of the food that we eat. This energy is used to drive the workings of all of the systems of the human body. When we were asked to create a unit topic that could encompass many other topics, cellular respiration seemed like a topic that would fit this bill.

My essential question is “What elements are necessary for life?”.

My unit questions are:
1. How is energy used by the human body?
2. Is it true that we are what we eat?

My content questions are:
1. What are the inputs and products of cellular respiration?
2. How are the Respiratory and Digestive systems specifically designed to receive the elements required for cellular respiration?
3. How is the adenosine triphosphate created through cellular respiration used by each of the human body systems?
4. What are the monomers of fat, carbohydrates and proteins?
How are these monomers specifically used by the different human body systems?

Thursday, February 19, 2009

So far in the Intel to the Future class that I am currently taking I have learning the importance of teaching/learning through creating projects. I have learned that by creating projects my students will take ownership of their learning and be able to relate the topics that are covered to real world situations.

I can truly see that broad based questions and inquiry are helpful in relating concepts that underlying in any subject that is taught. I feel that this approach would be helpful and I look forward to implementing some of these practices in my Anatomy & Physiology classroom. One concern I have, however, it the time it will take for my students to come up with and perform these projects. I am pressed to cover all of the systems of the human body in 18 weeks and will have to be very creative with my time management and lesson planning to add these projects in as well.

The 21st Century student should be able to see issues in a broad scope and relate information that they glean in one content area to other content areas. Project based learning can help a student do precisely that. A project assignment that is designed well can encompass more curricula that just from one content area. The curriculum framing questions that are chosen when planning projects are broad based real world questions. The curriculum framing questions enable the student to see a more wide reaching answer to the question presented than how the answer might be relevant solely in the classroom in which it was presented.