I need to say something!

As guest blogger, I need to say my thing in regards to the LE regents.

After teaching it for the past 6 years, The recent decision to give back waivers to the Regents exam to the consortium schools puts SOF off the Regents requirement list.

Sure I'm relieved. I get to do my own things. That idea I had about using classroom portfolios awhile back, now I can actually research and implement it. That idea I have about expanding biology as a full two year course, now I can plan! And that idea about start a biotechnology course, gee that might actually happen!

I think a lot of the success I had with my students and the regents was the fact that I was teaching test taking strategies when it comes to the regents. It as drill and kill, I was teaching them to pass. I got frustrated when I had to tell those students who flunked my course and goofed around all year that "yes, you pass the regents". My scores range between 65's to mid 90's, of course I was dealing with a much larger group - 100 tenth graders who spend 2 years with me preparing for the test.

Funny thing though... having the regents there was almost a "safe net" for me in regards to seeing how my kids fit in the larger picture. We took the January 2005 Regents, of the 100 students, 3 failed, and 1 didnt show up. It kept me informed (a little bit) about the standards, and what kids should know in their science career by time X. So when they took my safe net away a few days ago, I didn't know if I should celebrate, or think about whether we just hurt our kids... I mean, now that we dont need to face these exams, are we preparing them for the stressors of the SATs and other standardized exams?

I know that test can be revised to be better. I know that test means well - it does pose some challenging and rigorous questions. But my conclusion is that our students should be assessed based on a number of factors, not simply through one exam. I've made the decision to implement more exams (finals, midterms), in addition to the labs reports, projects and student-centered melodrama that constructivism is so famous for. My exams will be designed correctly, to really assess what they know and need, as well as ways to improve on instruction - pretty much how testing should be used.

NYC LE Scope & Sequence Draft

While the exam is fresh in my mind, I thought I would look more closely at the NYC scope & sequence for regents living environment, scheduled to be implemented this fall. Here's the draft version, which I will post without comment, any thoughts from fellow LE teachers appreciated.

First Term: September - January

Unit 1

Scientific Inquiry (10 days)

The role of scientific inquiry in studying biology

The methods of science

Forensic Science investigations

Problem-based learning

Unit 2

Origin of Life (3 days)

Unit 3

Ecology (22 days)

Relationships

Interactions

Aquaculture

Unit 4

Organization and Patterns in Life (20 days)

Cell structure

Cell Physiology

Cell Chemistry

Photosynthesis

Respiration

Diffusion and Osmosis

Mitosis

Unit 5

Homeostasis and Immunity (25 days)

Body system overview

Homeostasis and feedback systems

Immune response

Second Term - February through June

Unit 6

Reproduction and Development (15 days)

Meiosis

Reproductive systems

Fertilization

Development

Stem cells

Unit 7

Genetics and Biotechnology (25 days)

Mendel overview

DNA/ RNA

Protein synthesis

Diseases

Mutations

Bioengineering

Bioethics

Unit 8

Evolution (15 days)

Natural selection

Evidence

Unit 9

Human Influences on the Environment (15 days)

Positive influences

Negative influences

Review (10 days)

First term topics

Regents exam prep

Note: Scientific Inquiry (e.g. asking questions, making discoveries, gathering data, analyzing explanations, and communication) is an integral component of this course.

Aftershocks

I'm in a true blue funk about the exam results, so I will be writing about it for a while as I try to sort it out and come to grips with what I consider failure on my part. I will likely be posting a lot of shorties as I work through one issue after another, and if time permits I will link them all together.

First Up: The Exam

I've gone through the exam now and I could really only identify a few specific questions that I thought were unrealistic as individual questions. The one I alluded to in the comments of a previous post asked students to explain the role of antigens in an immune response. I still believe this question was designed to confuse and should have been worded differently - a student may well have thought she knew what antigens were, but was convinced by the wording that she must have gotten it backwards, and then screwed up on that question. Now, mind you, that's only one point out of 85, and not a reason to throw out the test. Another question asks students to find analogous structures between some cell organelles and some organs of the human body. The correct answer is the cell membrane and the kidneys. I think that a pretty sophisticated level of understanding is required to answer that one, and I'm not sure it's reasonable.

The difficulty in this test is that almost every question requires a high level of thinking and a lot of distractors - irrelevant information that causes confusion. I know that sounds silly, that I seem to be complaining about a test that requires a lot of thinking, but remember this is a three hour exam for an introductory level biology course for 9th or 10th graders - it's not supposed to be an IQ test. The questions are grammatically and logically complex even for students with strong language skills, and we certainly have our share of students who struggle with reading and writing. They ask about biology concepts in a round-about way. Some have complained, rightly I believe, that the exams have too many items that are designed to show how clever the item writers are. The exam reminds me of the content specialty test (NY State) for biology. That was a grueling 4 hour exam for biology teachers with a pretty high degree of difficulty. I left that exam without a clue whether I had passed or not (I did), and I took the full 4 hours to complete it. Most of my students are far more easily frustrated and prone to giving up under these circumstances.

Still, with proper preparation and LOTS of practice on these kinds of questions, students can do well on the exam. I'm just not sure the state's instructional objectives are aligned with the requirements of the exam.

Update

Test Items by Topic

Ecology - 31 points

Experimental Design - 11 points

Genetics - 10 points

Evolution - 10 points

Reproduction & Development - 9 points

Biochemistry - 8 points

Cell Bio - 8 points

Human Bio - 8 points

Obviously there's a lot of overlap in many of the questions among the topics (numbers do not equal 85 points), and some are open to interpretation, but this is a rough, quick analysis of the breakdown of questions.

Results

Overall about what I expected based on the last month of school. I had surprises in both directions - students I thought would pass didn't, and others I thought didn't stand a chance wound up passing.

Out of 60 students, 11 did not take the exam for various reasons - including one unfortunate soul who left in the middle of the exam very sick - she woke up the morning of the exam with fever & headache. During the exam it progressed to nausea, and she just could not make it through the exam. A real heartbreak, because she was certain to do well and just a great kid all around. Several students did not bother to finish labs or get their binders in order, so they weren't allowed to take the exam. Others were relatively recent additions to the regents classes who missed over half the year, so I exempted them from the exam. So that leaves 49 students and here's how they did (all scores are scaled scores - the one that counts):

Number who passed 38


Number who failed 11


High Score 91


Low Score 46


Average 68.7

So that's about a 77% passing rate for those taking the exam. For my own personal tally, I would calculate in a portion of those students who didn't take the exam - 8 students who failed to finish the lab requirement and I take responsibility for not making sure that the labs were done. So factoring in those students brings it down to about 67% passing rate - which is abysmal.

Let the Hand-Wringing Begin

So what went wrong? There are so many variables, I don't know where to begin. I'll start with myself, since that's the one variable I have some control over. And I'll put this in the format of "what to do better next time" to avoid wallowing in self-recriminations.

1. 
   Work on sequence. A question I struggled with all year, which topics to cover in which order. The city is working on scope & sequence for the regents curriculum for next year (I've seen the draft version), which I will probably follow it to a large extent next year. All my creative tinkering with traditional sequence was for nothing, at least as far as the test goes. I do know that as much as possible the curriculum should be front loaded - cover a lot of material early on, consolidate & review at the end. I definitely had too much material to cover at the end of the year when kids were spent. I didn't plan it that way, which brings up the next point...
   
2. 
   Pacing. I frequently dragged my feet because of the sheer amount of work involved in moving from one topic to another - i.e., putting lessons together, or developing a project, or getting everything set up for a lab. Fact is, I know that this is a personal weakness, partly attributable to burn out from teaching a different subject almost every year I've taught and constantly repeating this nonsense of re-inventing the wheel every year. But partly just because I'm really a little slow and disorganized, which is why I need a some simplicity and continuity in my life. Next year I will have so much already in place that I can move at a faster pace and hopefully, in the process...
   
3. 
   Work on student motivation. I think the pacing definitely affected student interest, which clearly waned as the year went on. I probably did more labs, hands-on activities, & projects than I've ever done in the past, but somehow I wasn't able to find a way to connect it all to the students' interests - biology, of all things, which you might think would require a minimal effort to connect directly to students. Somehow I just didn't pull it off. And when I did find individual topics that seemed to connect (reproduction, human bio in general), it didn't seem to carry over to other topics or the big picture.
   
4. 
   Just plain staying on the kids in an effective way, about keeping up with work and staying focused. Obviously this will be more or less necessary depending on how well the previous issues are worked out, but there will always be times when some students need a little extrinsic motivation in the form of rewards or calling parents or whatever.
   

There. I feel better already. In a separate post I will talk about some issue I have with the curriculum, the test, regents in grade 8.

At least SOMEBODY is panicking

(Besides me)

I usually get around 50-100 hits a day. I don't track this in any organized way: SiteMeter gives me free info that's pretty limited - they want me to be curious enough to pay for more detailed analysis, but I don't need it. I got a little spike in hits recently when I posted a message on a bio teachers listserv about blogging, then a link and a mention from Jenny D. provided a little bump, but here in this past week hits have been through the roof by my standards- around 700 1000 for today. Most are hit and run.

A quick look at the referring URL usually reveals a generic sort of google search for something like "regents living environment," sometimes adding "answers" is a pretty good giveaway that it is a student looking for help here in the final days before the exam. I feel bad that there's not much on this blog to help students, and maybe that's something to consider adding next year, although there are lots of other resources out there. For some reason my blog comes up pretty high on google's results for regents-related searches, so maybe I should add links in the sidebar for students to point them to the right place.

Anticipating the worst...

...and hoping for the best.

A feeling of helplessness creeps in. I've been unable to compete with the overwhelming message my 8th graders get that school is over. This started in late May, with the first "end of year" festivals. They aren't called "end of year" events, but they do in fact signify the end, and why we begin this nonsense in May is beyond me when school runs to the end of June. It affects the entire school, not just grade 8. Spring Concert (chorus, band) was first. Then comes the award ceremony, then Grade 8 exams in Social Studies & Intermediate Level Science, then senior T-shirts (which have to be signed, of course), prom night, graduation rehearsals, yearbooks distribution/signing, graduation itself, report card & diploma distribution. All that and we are still waiting for June 22nd and the Regents Exam. Of course the regents students want to relax & enjoy the festivities like the rest of their grade 8 classmates, but their mean old science teacher won't let them. For an entire month getting time with my students has been hit or miss. I've had to require that they come to class & work on days when other students are signing year books or other activities, the details of which I won't go into ("seniors" get a lot of privileges, let's leave it at that). As a chaperone I joked about "homeostasis" when we were sweating on the cheese bus going to the prom. I won't allow them to get report cards or diplomas until after the exam, when their non-regents classmates are getting all that on Monday - and if they don't show up for the exam (as some have whispered about) then they will have to wait till the last day of school. In the end I've had to resort to threats, and I don't feel good about the whole situation.

I knew the schedule in June would be weird, but I was totally unprepared for the level of active resistance and apathy I've seen in a lot of the kids. One day I threatened half seriously to cancel the exam, hoping to light a fire under them, and instead they cheered - and these are some of the top academic students in the school. In May I was realistically hopeful that only a handful of kids would fail outright. Now after the month of folly, it's looking like 15-20 out of 60 students will likely fail to reach 65. I've got two days to review if they show up - and I fear the ones who need the most help won't even come to the review sessions.

I know I've made mistakes and I'm compiling a list in my head of things to do differently next year, but I'll save that until after the exam - right now I'm not thinking clearly. I probably put too much of the wrong kind of pressure on them at the wrong time, which I will elaborate on later. And who knows, maybe they will surprise me next week and show up ready to get it together.

Search Bar Added

Saturday afternoon putzing around waiting for it to cool off a couple of degrees before going out for a little exercise. I've added site search below. I use google site search because blogger only offers an in-your-face NavBar at the top of your blog, which I find a little more unattractive than the google search box at the bottom of the page. I post links to activities and other websites from time to time and then spend too much time coming back here and looking for them in the archives, month-by-month, so I needed the site search for myself as much as anything.

Biodiversity Lab Set-up

Wow. The state estimates 4 hours to set up this lab the first time. This is my first time. The state is about right. I don't know if I will be able to get the plant specimens, I may have to copy some pictures from the web and show them on the projector, discuss the characteristics as a class. There's still some hope that I may be able to get out this weekend and collect some samples, but that's tricky in NYC - where does one legally go looking for plant specimens? Not in the public parks, and where else is there? So if I can get upstate this weekend, then I'll have some.

The lab:

Examine chemical, morphological, and genetic characteristics of 4 different imaginary plants, and propose a cladogram to represent their evolutionary relationships (phylogeny). Everything is "simulated" in this lab. We use real plant specimens, but a fake names. We use real seeds, but not the seeds of the actual plants we are using. Chemically, there is simulated plant extract which will be examined by chromatography and a test for the presence of a specific enzyme (again, simulated - the extract is a mixture of food colorings and either water or vinegar, the enzyme test is really an acid test w/ baking soda). Morphologically, students compare leaf structure and seed characteristics. Genetically, the students are given a segment of DNA code to figure out its amino acid sequence, and they also do a simulated gel electrophoresis using strips of paper with a genetic sequence, which are cut into fragments of various lengths. Students shade in a chart that simulates a stained gel pattern in electrophoresis.

Here's a nice graphic interactive simulation of gel electrophoresis, suitable for kids.

Tonight is "prom" night - combined with the mini heat wave we are having in the city, this whole week has been an epic battle for student attention. I won't even be able to do this lab till Monday. Today and tomorrow are pretty much wasted days, and next week only gets a little better with "graduation" rehearsal and graduation itself on Thursday.

UPDATE

Eureka! Grocery store herbs for plant specimens. Curley leaf parsley, flat leaf parsley, cilantro, mint. Or some other possibility that my students might not immediately recognize. Thyme. Oregano. Marjoram. Sage. Depends on what's available. Should all dry nicely and I get to cook with the leftovers.

Finished Diffusion Lab

OK. Not to contradict my previous post, but the red onion plasmolysis part of the diffusion/osmosis lab is pretty cool when you do it right.

(Image from Bioschool, which has a number of micrographs free for teachers to use in PowerPoint presentations - this is a good representation of what we were able to see.)

In order to do this well, however you really need a microscope for every child, because it's really nice to observe the whole process without fighting for "eye time." It could conceivably also be done in stations, but that would be difficult given the way the lab is formatted. Of course I don't have a microscope for each child, and there are other problems to solve. I do, however have a FlexCam that I can hook up to a microscope and a Monitor for showing the whole class.

As with other aspects of the diffusion lab, there are some issues with complicated procedures and manual dexterity. The lab calls for cutting an onion into little pieces, then taking a little slice and peeling off the top layer of skin from the onion (not the thin and easily separated layer on the underside). The top layer is where all the purple pigment is concentrated, but it isn't easy for students to peel off the thin skin without taking a thick chunk. Now this piece of skin curls up on itself quite readily, but it needs to be placed flatly against the slide. I think it might help to have pre-moistened fingers, but I didn't try that yet. I tried to flatten the skin with a foreceps, but managed to rupture most of the cells in the process and lose most of the purple pigment - I could see the color leaving the skin. I was nonetheless able to find a few pockets of intact cells and focused on them. On the monitor we were able to see the cytoplasm/cell membrane shrinking away from the cell wall quite nicely when exposed to 10% saltwater solution, then plumping up again in distilled water.

Still a cookbook lab, but under the right circumstances interesting and useful.