Texts and Resources

Facilitators will be using "Students and Research, Practical Strategies for Science Classrooms and Competitions" Third Edition by Cothron, Giese Rezba. In addition Facilitators will be using the HSTA Teacher Facilitator Guide and the web sites for, SASinschool; Genetic Science Learning Center; and Healthyhearts4kids; to complete the required assignments.

Syllabus

HSTA Fall Course

Texts and Resources

Instructor:Cathy Morton-McSwain cathymmc@yahoo.com 304-847-2372

Students and Research Third edition, Rezba et al

Teacher Facilitator Guide fall 2005

SAS in School site

http://www.sasinschool.com/

Genetic Science Learning Center Site

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/

Healthyhearts4kids Cardiac site

http://www.healthyhearts4kids.com/

Objectives: To prepare and train teachers to facilitate community based club meetings that are meaningful and aligned with the National Science Education Standards and meet the goals of the HSTA program.

Each Teacher will build a meeting with the components listed in each assignment. All activities and components will be attached to the Assignment templates.

Assignment 1

Discovery activity

Organizational meeting using Teacher Facilitator Guide

Ground rules

e-mail data and schedules

Assignment 2

Discovery activity

Red Book Investigation 1 p 3-6 Hypothesis, identifying variables, constants

Practice activity p 11

Assignment 3

Discovery activity

Red Book Investigation Chapter 2 Applying Basic Concepts

Checking the experimental design p13-14 Use Checking the Experimental Design activity on p 14-16

Assignment 4

Discovery activity

Lesson from SAS in schools

*Biology Evolution Natural selection

Use the SAS in school site and the Natural Selection activity with students

Your HSTA login for SAS is facilitator and your pw is milit. HSTA students sign on using scholasticus

Attach the lessons by copying them onto the template along with the necessary forms and background items if called for.

List any modifications you will make.

Assignment 5

Discovery Activity

SASinschool.

*Biology Survival of the Fittest

Use the SAS in School site and the activity Survival of the fittest. Attach the lesson,via copying into word charts and hand outs and modifications here

Assignment 6

Discovery Activity

Use GSLC site http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/ You must register as a teacher.

Use the Genetic Science Learning Center site and have the students use the program on the web “Using Family History to Improve Your Health. Choose one follow-up activity and Attach the lesson and activities and follow up questions

Assignment 7

Discovery Activity

Use Cardiac 4kids site

Take students to the site and divide up the activities. Have the students critique the activities and modify to their age appropriate level. List the objectives and activites you will use from this site here.

Assignment 8

Discovery Activity

Nutrition Lesson from NIH curriculum
case study

Use the attached case study and design your club meeting around it. Attach the activities and the questions here

Assignment 9

Discovery Activity

Plan a guest speaker to attend your meeting and prepare students to come up with questions that would be appropriate to the speaker

Suggestions: EMT and ambulance tour. ,RHEP students, Cardiac Team, American Heart Association.

Guest Speaker

Assignment Template

Name

Assignment

Discovery Activity

Business Meeting : Secretary records

Attendance taken and recorded on line using form from wv-hsta.org

Meeting activity summary also put in on-line form

E-mailed to FSC.

Investigation:

Focus Questions :

Notebook Entry :

 

 

Assignment Template (Example)

Name __Cathy Morton-McSwain

Assignment # Example

Discovery Activity : How can paper burn without any damage?

Materials: Beaker isopropyl alcohol, water, tongs, different types of paper, cut into strips approx the size of a dollar bill. Mix alcohol and water together before students arrive.

First, I take paper money from a student and ask them if they mind if I use it but I will give it back. The larger the bill the better.

I then put it in a beaker of 50/50 isopropyl alcohol and water, holding it with tongs. Lift it out and away from the beaker and then set it on fire.

Ask why didn't the paper burn?

Is it the type of paper?

How do we know?

Give me a hypothesis?

And go from there… Students will usually want to try other types of paper.

Answer
The alcohol burns and the paper does not because of the protection provided by the water

Business Meeting : Secretary records

Attendance taken and recorded on line using forms at wv-hsta.org

Meeting activity summary put on line in on-line form

Investigation: SASinschool-Ecology

Food Chains and Biological Magnification

Overview
In this classroom activity, students will do the following.

• Portray members of a food chain and track energy loss from the ecosystem.
• Illustrate the effects of biological magnification by passing a "toxin" through the food chain.

Purpose
To explore the energy dynamics of an ecosystem and to determine the implications of toxin accumulation within a food chain

Duration
One class period

Objectives
Students will

• Recognize basic ecological terminology
• Determine the energy loss that occurs within a food chain
• Examine the effects of a toxin on a food chain, especially at its higher levels

Materials and Resources

Plastic poker chips, coins, cardboard cutouts, etc. (anything to represent "energy" and "toxins" in an ecosystem)
Plastic sandwich bag
Paper or chalkboard on which to record data

Teacher Procedures

• Determine the number of students that will be assigned to each food chain role. In general, you should designate about 65% of the students as herbivores (primary consumers), 20% as secondary consumers, 10% as tertiary consumers, and 5% as quaternary. You will need about five times as many "energy chips" as there are herbivores in the class.
• Assign students to their roles.
• Review the meaning of the following ecological terms with students: herbivores , carnivores , producers , consumers .
• Facilitate the activities and discussions described in the Steps. Students should understand that food chains themselves, along with the propensity for chemicals to remain in organisms and not be lost, contribute to the biological magnification of these chemicals in the higher levels of the food chain. Finally, students should recognize that the basic trophic structure of an ecosystem contributes to both energy loss and biological magnification.
• For Step 1, guide students to relate the populations of trophic groups to the energy dynamics of the ecosystem.
• For Step 13, guide students in understanding that, at lower levels of the food chain, the effects of the toxin may not be felt, but at higher levels of the food chain, the toxins may accumulate, causing a biologically significant effect.
• As a result of classroom discussions that take place both during and after the activity, students should recognize that the continual loss of energy from a food chain contributes to the food chain's structure (many herbivores, fewer top carnivores). Energy must continually enter the system because energy is always leaving the system. In nature, the energy transfers are far worse than were simulated in this activity, and organisms often eat at multiple trophic levels, so the study of energy transfer in a real ecosystem is generally more complicated than the activity portrays.

Student Procedures

1. Stand with the other members of your assigned trophic group. As a class, discuss why there are so many herbivores, but so few quaternary consumers.
2. Spread out the "energy chips" on the floor; count and record the initial number of chips. These chips represent the energy that the ecosystem's plants have produced. Plants are able to produce energy by harnessing the energy of the sun, although most of the sun's energy is never captured.
3. Herbivores: Move about the area where the energy chips are located. You need to collect four energy chips and place them in your plastic bag. These chips represent the energy that the herbivores obtain when they consume plants. Record the total number of energy chips captured by the herbivores.
4. Secondary consumers: Enter the ecosystem and "tag" a herbivore. This tag represents the herbivore's death and the transfer of energy from the herbivore to the carnivore. There is energy loss associated with this transfer, however, so you can only obtain, at most, three energy chips from the herbivore. If you are a tagged herbivore, give three of your energy chips to the carnivore (secondary consumer). If you are a carnivore, place these chips in your bag. Each secondary consumer may eat up to three herbivores. Record the total number of energy chips held by this level of the ecosystem (secondary consumers), once the predation cycle is complete.
5. Tertiary consumers: "Eat" the secondary consumers. However, you can obtain only two energy chips from each secondary consumer. Each tertiary consumer can eat two secondary consumers. Record the total number of energy chips at this level, once predation has ended.
6. Quaternary consumer(s): Eat the tertiary consumers and obtain one energy chip from each tertiary consumer. Record the number of energy chips at this level.
7. Now examine the data. As a class, explain why all of the energy was not transferred from one level to the next, when an organism was eaten. In addition, explain why so many herbivores, but so few quaternary consumers, existed in this ecosystem.
8. Return all of the chips to the floor. The chips no longer represent energy, but rather a toxin (e.g., DDT) that was sprayed in the ecosystem. As a class, hypothesize what will happen: Will the toxin get more dilute as it moves up the food chain, or will it become more concentrated?
9. Herbivores: Begin picking up chips, as before (Step #3), but remember that the chips now represent toxin exposure and not energy. Record the number of toxins per organism.
10. Secondary consumers: Enter the ecosystem and "consume" three herbivores. Now, the herbivores must give you all of their toxin chips. All of the toxin chips are transferred, unlike the energy chips, because some toxins exhibit the tendency to remain in an ecosystem, rather than being lost. Record the number of toxins per organism.
11. Tertiary consumers: Eat two secondary consumers. Each must give you all of their toxin chips. Record the number of toxins per organism.
12. Quaternary consumer(s): Eat the tertiary consumers and acquire their toxin chips.
13. As a class, analyze the data and explain why the food chain contributes to the phenomenon of biological magnification.

Focus Questions :

• Use the questions in the Teacher Procedures as you complete the activity.
• Stress the simplicity of the activity and how in real life it is much more complex.
• Have students think about beef and mad-cow disease and relate how the toxins travel through the food chain.

Notebook entry : Students will place the data sheet in their notebooks with today's date so they have a visual reference for the meeting.

 

Academic Integrity/Dishonesty

The academic development of students and the overall integrity of the institution are primary responsibilities of WVU. Academic dishonesty is condemned at all levels of life, indication an inablility to meet and face issues and creating an atmosphere of mistrust, disrespect, and insecurity. In addition, it is essential in an academic community that grades accurately reflect the attainment of the individual student. Faculty, students, and administrators have shared responsibilities in maintaining the academic integrity essential for the University to accomplish its mission.

Students should act to prevent opportunities for academic dishonesty from happening, and in such a manner to discourage any type of academic dishonesty.

Faculty members are expected to remove opportunities for cheating, whether related to test construction, test confidentiality, test administration, or test grading. This same professional care should be exercised with regard to oral and written reports, laboratory assignments, and grade books.

Deans and department chairpersons are expected to acquaint all faculty with expected professional behavior regarding academic integrity, and continue to remind them of their responsibility. Deans and department chairpersons shall assist faculty members and students in handling first offense cheating allegations at the lowest possible level in the University, and with discretion to prevent damage to the reputation of any person who has not been found guilty in the prescribed manner.

Each member of the teaching faculty and all other WVU employees, including but not limited to assistants, proctors, office personnel, custodians, and public safety officers, shall promptly report each known case of academic dishonesty to the appropriate supervisor, department chairperson or dean of the college or school concerned, and to the office of Judicial Programs, Office of Student Life.

Social Justice Statement

West Virginia University is committed to social justice. I concur with that commitment and expect to maintain a positive learning environment based upon open communication, mutual respect, and non discrimination. Our University does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, age, disability, veteran status, religion, sexual orientation, color or national origin. Any suggestions as to how to further such a positive and open environment in this class will be appreciated and given serious consideration. If you are a person with a disability and anticipate needing any type of accommodation in order to participate in this class, please advise me and make appropriate arrangements with Disability Services (293-6700)