Today in honors biology we took about 15 minutes and looked at the Winogradsky columns. It has been 4 weeks and the layering of the bacteria is awesome. We definitely have cyanobacteria, iron reducing and sulfur reducing bacteria and hopefully the stratification will get even better in the next 4 weeks.
We also began a biome activity where the learning groups pick a biome, research the basics, create a climatograph, and read a case study on an environmental impact in that biome. They then will whiteboard and explain the biome to their peers. Totally formative, assessing two learning objectives.
In AP biology we started a slick case study debate from the National Center for Case Studies (University of Buffalo) on the origins of life. In day one, kids are broken into two groups and learned about either the metabolism first origin or the replication first origin. Then they went back to their quad groups and taught each other. Tomorrow they will divide again and get conflicting information and consider how their new refutation information fits into their original idea.
