This week I conducted the Bio Roundtable discussions in place of a traditional Ecology test.<\/p>\n
So far I\u2019ve sat in on 4 hours of discussion and it has been a great experience. Students are engaged and I\u2019ve heard talk of bio topics spill out into the hall, which is always a great sign.<\/p>\n
For this assignment, I was looking for them to make connections between real world issues around the following five areas, to what we learned in class and in other courses:<\/p>\n
Students start off with a short 7 min presentation on their topic of choice, based on a reading selected from over 65 articles I\u2019ve selected. They cite their sources and refer to other research material to make a case regarding an issue facing our planet. Students were also asked to present a Canadian perspective on the issue. \u00a0Then they lead a 10 min. discussion\u00a0eliciting\u00a0responses from the class on a variety of prepared questions.<\/p>\n
We have had lively debates about China\u2019s one child policy, our obsession with meat, and the balance between sustainability and economic growth. \u00a0Students are drawing on resources from Geography & Economics class to work out these issues.<\/p>\n
I have been so impressed by their wealth of knowledge and their ability to synthesize information into cohesive arguments on the fly. \u00a0I\u2019m so proud of them.<\/p>\n
I think at the end of our discussions, I will have students join in groups and create our own set of\u00a0Millennium\u00a0Development Goals. Consolidating what they consider to be the\u00a0top\u00a05 things we need to do to ensure a sustainable future for ourselves and the next generation.<\/p>\n
In retrospect, I will\u00a0definitely\u00a0do this project again. Although it takes a lot more time than a 1 period test (I\u2019m spending 3 periods on discussions so everyone has about 13 mins for their presentation), it is a great way for students to showcase critical thinking and develop communication skills in an academic setting.<\/p>\n
Perhaps I can find ways to incorporate more personalized learning in a traditionally fact-heavy subject like Biology afterall.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This week I conducted the Bio Roundtable discussions in place of a traditional Ecology test. So far I\u2019ve sat in on 4 hours of discussion and it has been a great experience. Students are engaged and I\u2019ve heard talk of bio topics spill out into the hall, which is always a great sign. For this … Continue reading “Update – Biology Roundtable success”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[12,13],"class_list":["post-50","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-action-plan","tag-action-plan-2","tag-round-table"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/ritapak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/ritapak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/ritapak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/ritapak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/ritapak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/ritapak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/ritapak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/ritapak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/ritapak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}