Narrative of Amazing Teaching Moment:
My amazing STEM lesson experience was when I taught the structure and function of the plasma membrane to 9th grade biology students. The goal of this lesson was to deepen understanding of content through student collaboration and engagement. The science practices that were assessed in this lesson were constructing models and engineering to create solutions. At the beginning of this unit, students planned and conducted investigations on how of an egg cell moves substances such as salt, water, and sugar through the plasma membrane in maintaining homeostasis. Students recorded their observations, collected and analyzed data, and formed conclusions. Students enjoyed conducting the investigation due to their fascination with the changes that occurred on the egg cell in the different substances. Teaching this lesson this way did not meet the learning needs of all students especially, visual and kinesthetic learners. I decided to add some enrichment to the lesson by integrating visual and kinesthetic activities. Students were given different materials such as straws, pipe cleaners, toothpicks, play doh, cotton balls, colored pencils, cotton swabs, poster boards, and other items they chose.First, students diagramed and labelled the structure of the plasma membrane on paper, brainstormed on materials to build each part of the model. Students collaborated with each other in selecting materials for constructing their models. Students gave reasons for their choice of materials needed in constructing their models. Their reasons must have related structure of the plasma membrane to its function and must have been correctly labeled. This activity was hands-on and creative because students were allowed to use materials to express their understanding of the structure and function of the plasma membrane. |