I assess student learning by asking questions as I am teaching. I feel that as I do this I can get a feel for how much the students are retaining. It also helps to gauge whether or not I can more on to other topics. I also like to use rubrics to assess student learning. I like rubrics or checklists, because if I give a copy of the project rubric to the student at the beginning of the assignment, they will have a clear idea of what is expected of them. I also feel that rubrics are a great way to get the students involved in their own assessment. They know what is expected of them and can gauge their performance on the project accordingly to reach the goals that they have set for themselves. When the students work in groups, I like for them to complete a peer evaluation of the progress that their team made. Knowing that they are accountable to their peers seems to keep all of the group members on task.

I can use the internet to help me support my teaching and student learning by encouraging research projects. Also, students can collaborate on the group projects that they are involved in through a Wiki. I think that another good idea is to post a survey before beginning a chapter to assess what knowledge the students are bringing to the subjuect.

I can monitor appropriate use of the internet by providing a hot list of appropriate websites that the students should restrict their research to.

I am thinking about creating a survey that the students can take at the beginning of my unit concerning nutrition, healthy habits, calorie intake and the use of calories in the body. After the students have taken this survey and received the correct answers, I will show them my project example, which is a brochure. The brochure will talk about nutrition, healthy habits, calorie intack and the use of calories in the body. This, along with a rubric, will hopefully help the students form an idea of how they can present the same information to the class through their presentations.

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?

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.