Active+Template

=__Active Biology Template__=

What Do You See (WDYS)? What Do You Think (WDYT)?

 * At the beginning of each activity, students are prompted to respond to a picture (typically a cartoon) and a question centered around the concepts and/or the tasks in the activity to assess prior knowledge and illict ideas about the concepts depicted. These prompts are NEVER graded. Students should not be concerned with whether they are right or wrong. The idea of this portion of the activity is to assess, Elicit and Engage.



Investigate

 * This is the laboratory portion of the activity. This section has students doing AND thinking. The investigate section has directions as well as questions throughout to check for student understanding of what they are doing and what it means. This section may also contain background information that students will need in order to proceed with the lab.

Bio Talk

 * This is the content portion of the activity. Here students are connecting what they did in the laboratory to the key ideas we want them to learn in this particular section of the course. While kinethetic learners will benefit from the investigate portion of the activity, visual and auditory learners will benefit from the Bio Talk reading and discussions. This section includes **highlighted** terminology as well as checking up questions to assess student understading of the content they have read and discussed.


 * This is a twist on the original What Do You Think (WDYT) question. The purpose is to revist earlier ideas about the content and assess how those ideas have changed.


 * //What does it mean?//
 * Requires the students to divide and describe the content of the activity on three levels:
 * MACRO
 * Students described what they observed in the activity
 * NANO
 * Students will describe what is happening at the cellular, molecular and/or atomic level (what cannot be seen by the naked eye)
 * SYMBOLIC
 * Students translate what they have observed and learned into a visual representation (formula, graph, model or diagram)
 * //How do you know?//
 * Answering this question requires the student to describe what they did in the activity.
 * //Why do you believe?//
 * Students have to connect what they did in the lab to real world situations
 * //Why should you care?//
 * This requires students to connect the activity to the challenge.

Reflecting on the Activity and the Challenge

 * This is a written prompt that reminds students of the overall goal (the challenge) and apply the knowledge they have gained from the activity to their upcoming challenge.

Bio to Go

 * This section contains additional questions or problem sets for the students to further assess their understanding of the material.

Inquiring Further

 * These are extension activities that can be used to enhance the overall activity.