Scientific Method Task Cards

Have you tried task cards with your students?

Task cards are a fantastic way to reinforce lessons, review difficult concepts, or provide extra practice for the struggling student.   The student reads each card, performs the task, and records his/her answer on an answer sheet, on notebook paper, or in their lab notebook.

There are many ways to use the task cards. 

1.     As seen in the photo above, punch a hole in the corner and place them on a ring.  Hang them on a pegboard for use throughout the year.  When reviewing for tests or exams, students can select the set of cards from the pegboard for the topic that needs the most review.

2.     Set up a practice/review session by setting the cards up in a lab practical style.  Place one card at each station and have the students rotate through the stations until all stations have been completed.  My students love this format since it allows them to move about the room.  The task cards in this format are a great way to give a quiz or test.

3.     Use the cards in a game format.  Divide the class into teams.  Place the task cards face down in a basket.  A team selects a card at random and must complete the task for a point.

4.     Students can use a set of task cards in small groups and orally review one another for a unit test.

The task cards seen in the photo above are on the scientific method.  The face of science teaching is changing.  Common Core Science Standards, as well as the Next Generation Science Standards, are asking teachers to emphasis scientific concepts, rather than the memorization of large amounts of factual data.  Instrumental to these new standards is teaching the student how to design and implement an experiment of their own.  The first step in teaching the student-designed experiment is to provide the student with a complete and thorough understanding of the scientific method.

Most of the students entering my biology classes at the beginning of the school year can (in a very bored and monotone voice) recite the steps to the scientific method.  What we as teachers need to insure is that the student can actually APPLY the scientific method.  

• Can the student read a passage and determine the independent and the dependent variables in the experiment?
• Can the student identify the control and explain WHY it is the control?
• Can the student look at a set of data and draw a logical conclusion?
• Can the student design and implement an experiment?

I have a free PowerPoint and set of notes that you can use as a starting point in your teaching of the scientific method.  This free product can be viewed and downloaded here.   Once your instruction is complete, you might want to give these task cards a try.  I most often use the cards in a lab practical format.  Students rotate through the various stations and complete the task at each.   An example of one of the task cards is seen below.

 

The set includes 30 task cards.  Some of the "tasks" include:  

• Writing a hypothesis.
• Distinguishing between the experimental and control groups
• Identifying the independent and dependent variables.
• Drawing a conclusion based on given data.

Be sure to follow up your lessons on the scientific method by having your students design and implement an experiment of their own.  You can check out my blog post on student designed experiments by clicking here.

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Analysis of Local Ultraviolet Radiation: An End of the Year Web Quest

Need an end of the year activity that will benefit your students for the rest of their lives?

The dangers of ultraviolet radiation are well known.  The effects of ultraviolet radiation on living organisms should be ingrained in each and every science student passing through our classes. UV radiation is just a small portion of the energy from our sun that bombards the Earth.  Thankfully, the Earth is wrapped in a protective blanket, the ozone layer, that prevents much of the ultraviolet radiation from reaching Earth's surface.

Many of my students arrive in my biology class at the beginning of the school year confused about the differences between ozone destruction and the greenhouse effect.  They know that both involve our atmosphere in some way, and that both are bad for the Earth, but the distinctions between the two concepts are often blurred.

 

Ozone is a molecule composed of three atoms of oxygen.  The ozone layer is found in the upper atmosphere and protects the Earth by absorbing UV radiation from the sun.  Without this protective layer around the Earth, live on Earth would perish. Unfortunately, human activities are reducing the amount of ozone found in the atmosphere.

What effect will this have on the living organisms of Earth?

• An increase in the number of malignant skin cancers.
• An increase in cataracts.
• Changes in plant physiological and developmental processes.  
• Reduced survival rates of phytoplankton in the oceans.

As we send our students off for the summer, let's make sure that they understand the dangers of prolonged exposure to the sun.  At the end of each school year, I do an activity called, "Ouch That Burns!  Analysis of Local Ultraviolet Radiation."  In short, this is a web quest that allows the student to track the UV Index in their area over a period of time.

The EPA maintains a web site in which an individual can look up the ultraviolet radiation index each day for his/her area.  I have prepared several pages of worksheets that students will complete while they are visiting the EPA website.

In this activity students will:

• Determine the UV Index for their local area.
• Record data for the UV index over a period of time.
• Determine the areas of our country that suffer from the highest UV indexes.
• Gather data for UV indexes in their area over a period of one year.
• Plot the data on a graph to show how the UV index changes throughout the year.
• Determine the most dangerous time of year in their local area.
• Determine how the UV Index has changed from years past.
• Compile a list of health hazards to the living organisms on Earth.
• Answer final analysis questions.

The three-page student handout has complete directions, questions, data tables, and graphing grid.  There is an accompanying 2-page teacher answer key.

This is a fun and informative activity that will greatly supplement your lessons on ecology, ozone depletion, and human influences on our delicate biosphere.  And, hopefully, we will teach our students to not only protect the earth, but to protect themselves from the harmful effects of ultraviolet radiation.

I am very passionate in my teaching of ecology and the environment.  All of my ecology-related products can be viewed here.

Have fun teaching!

YIKES!! The AP Biology Exam is Tomorrow!!

I guess I should calm down now.  It is Sunday, Mother's Day, and the day before the AP Biology Exam.  I should calm down, but my nerves are a wreck.  There is nothing more that I can do today to help my students.  I feel out of control because it is no longer in my hands.


I have 81 students who will be sitting for the exam in just about 24 hours from now.  They are a GREAT bunch of kids!!  I have worked them to death this year, and I never heard a single complaint from them.  They are a hard working bunch and they want to do well on the exam.

But who knows exactly what this new AP exam will be like??  We have worked many a math problem and I feel really good about that portion of the exam.   I am a bit (no, a lot!) nervous about only having 63 multiple choice questions, and I sure hope I have adequately prepared my students for the newly revised free response section.

I have a competitive personality.  I know this is not MY exam score, but the student's exam score.  But after working as hard as we have worked this year, I NEED the satisfaction of knowing that all of the hard work has paid off.  I'll be on pins and needles until those scores come in.

We still have 2 weeks of school left after the AP exam.  I really LOVE this time of the year.  My now "old" students will help me pass out books and summer assignments to the "new" students coming in next year.  We will walk up to the pond next to our school and feed the gazillion turtles that live there.  And watching the movie, GATTACA is always a favorite end of the year treat.

Good luck to all of my students on the exam tomorrow!!  Make me proud!!

Population Genetics: The Hardy Weinberg Equation

This fun lab simulation should guarantee that your students understand the Hardy Weinberg Principle!  

(I hope!)

I talk to a lot of biology teachers. Everyday. Some are in my school, some are at other schools in my district, others I know "virtually" from various message boards that I read and post to.  Through these communications, I have come to realize that many biology teachers do not include the Hardy-Weinberg Principle in their lesson planning.

I know that all biology teachers have their own "order of events" but for me a unit on genetics, followed by my unit on evolution is perfect.  In fact, I would be hard pressed to do it any other way.  The Hardy-Weinberg Principle is the link between genetics and evolution.  It is the proof that we offer to our students that populations are constantly changing and evolving.  It allows us to mathematically show that the frequency of a particular allele in a population can change over time.

Simply put:  Evolution is any change in the frequency of alleles in a population.  Evolution is the result of changes in the gene pool.  Two men, G. H. Hardy and W. Weinberg, proposed a mathematical model for detecting changes in the gene pool.

The Hardy-Weinberg Principle states:  “In the absence of mutation, migration, and natural selection, and in a population that is sufficiently large, the frequencies of alleles will remain the same.”  

The Hardy-Weinberg Principle is represented in the equation:

No population is free of these agents of change.  The Hardy-Weinberg equation is used to detect changes in the population from one generation to the next.  Since no population in nature is free of mutations, migrations, and natural selection, and since mating is rarely completely random in nature, of what value is the Hardy Weinberg Principle?  It allows us to detect changes in the gene pool, and therefore, determine that a population is in a state of change....Evolution!

My experience with my own students is that some of them have a little trouble grasping this concept. After introducing the topic and working through quite a few practice problems, I do a simulation lab.

Lab:   Population Genetics,  The Hardy-Weinberg Principle, and Evolution

Purpose:   

1.     To simulate how changes in the gene pool might occur by using the class as a breeding population of  individuals. 

2.     To observe how the Hardy-Weinberg equation is used to detect changes in allele frequencies in a population.

Materials:   PTC test papers,  Calculator,  Allele cards,  Coins, Pencil and paper

Safety Precautions:   None

The student handouts for this lab are numerous.....12 pages!  I usually run off a class set and have students record all of their information on notebook paper.  I use the class set throughout the day, and then I file them away for use the next year.

I have also included an 11-page teacher guide.  The teacher guide has tips and tricks for making the lab successful as well as answers to questions and solutions to problems.  Sample data is included to give you an idea of what to expect in the simulation.

Students begin the lab by determining the frequency of an allele in the class population.  I like to use PTC paper to determine if students are tasters or nontasters. But if PTC paper is not available, you can choose another trait such as the presence or absence of dimples, or the ability to roll the tongue.  From the number of recessive individuals in your class, the value of q can be determined.  From that point, the students will determine what percentage of the class is homozygous dominant and heterozygous for the given trait.

Next, students will run three simulations:  (1) Testing the Hardy-Weinberg Principle, (2) Testing the Hardy-Weinberg for Selection Pressure, and (3) The Heterozygote Advantage.

Students will begin the simulation as heterozygous individuals and will use allele cards to generate offspring. Students proceed through several generations of "mating" and the data is used to test the different conditions of the Hardy-Weinberg Principle.

During each simulation, students will determine the frequency of the dominant and recessive allele and note how the frequency of p and q change in various scenarios. The lab concludes with follow up questions and 8 additional practice problems involving the Hardy-Weinberg equation.  

The end result?  My students have mastered the concept and are able to work problems involving the Hardy-Weinberg equation.

Good luck, and have fun teaching!

Lab:   Population Genetics,  The Hardy-Weinberg Principle, and Evolution