nani

task 2

Challenging in teaching biology ... a lot, Biology is an easy subject and yet many not score A .. Why ? Boys dislike reading, thinking and long lecture. Physilogical processes( e.g : electrochemical events in nervous system) and Biochemical processes ( e.g : photosynthesis ) are long processes with many steps, it takes place in the cells, many enzymes and chemicals/ions involved. So, of course the explanation are long and many steps. Beside biology, I must also good in certain area of chemistry and physics. In the class with those boys or girls, everytime, I have to plan very well and be creative enough, in order to make them awake during class, follow the class, participate and can answer the conceptual questions at the end of the class. A long processes should be break into shorter processes, to make it looks easier. students awake and enjoy much, if teacher elaborates step by step on the board, using the best simplified diagrams or mind map, pause many times asking questions ( base on my personal experience). At the end of the topic, combine all the compartments together and show the overview. Then only show the animation using biology interactive coursewares, before giving them worksheets. Teacher must answer the essay question together with them, practice the systematic way of answering and emphasis on the usage of keywords in answers.

I love teaching biology so much, always want my students understand well in every issues and score better grades. Of course I share the knowledge and skill with another bio teachers in school, and once, I've shared with all bio teachers in KL during PPSMI courses in 2003.

nani VI

task 1

F6 biology issues are very wide and deep; Example : Identifying biology structures such as organelles in living cells. There are 14 organelles (listed in the syllabus); as an experience teacher, it is not wise to go through all 14 organelles and spoonfeed those A-level/pre-u students. Based on self-access and project-base-learning approaches, I always ask the students to get into a small groups and each group is responsible to complete a special task, one group entitle to one organelle. Teacher introduces, give the main aspects and the basic concept of organelle only. Then, give clear instruction/ guidelines and provide standard template for everybody. Enough time is given to prepare the hand-out and power point presentation. The task/discussion is controlled within the scopes; indirectly they learned to search and select the information. With proper advice, guidance and planning; surely these activity they enjoyed much - they themselves actively participate, well prepared and share the knowledge among classmates. Finally, much time saved, all students have the diagrams / characteristics / functions of all that 14 organelles. Again, indirectly, I inculcate the interest and encourage scientific communication in the class. Of course, there is a room of improvement, I start with giving 'organelles quizze' before move to the next subtopic.

Hasnani

Task 1

Ilani

Task 1
"Manufactured Substance in industry" is the last topic in form four Chemistry syllabus. By that time students have enough of doing experiments and taking notes.Students wanted something different.I decided to exchange role where students got into groups of four and presented me with powerpoint while l sat at the back and listened. They came out with colourful, well prepared powerpoint presentation and took pride in explaining their presentation.In fact one of the students brought a digital camera to video taped their presentation.There were so much fun as the students were free to question the group that did the presentation.After the presentation i replayed the video for students to see them in action.I believe that at times we must break monotony and let the students show their talent

Task 2
Teaching chemistry to rural students back in the nineties was a real challenge to me because most students were not interested to come to school.It was a chore and chemistry seemed alien to them. So what i did then was to focus on being friendly and most of the time end up telling them stories instead of chemistry. As i gained their trust and confidence i mastered the subject, demonstrated experiments, let them do the experiments again exactly as what i did. At first they were playful but eventually with patience and a lot of advice and coaching students began to see chemistry as a subject that they can excelled.That took me about half a year to realised but it was worth it.Well i think we must also have that human touch in order to attract our students.

Task 1 - Norina

Hi, all of you !

I think this lesson went well and it worked to my students. So, I will share with all of you.

I taught on the topic of ‘ Balance of Nature’ on that time. The aims were to identify the organisms in a food web and the role of food webs in maintaining the balance of nature.

First, I brought the students to the school gardens to look for various organisms such as insects, plants or other living things. They had to list down all the living things that can be found on the field. Then, in the class, they built food webs based on the data that was collected. After that, we had a discussion on how the food webs play the role in maintaining the balance of nature.

The lesson went quite well I guess because the students enjoyed the lesson, happy and loosen up because they were given chance to do outdoor study.

I had tried this method in 2006 when I was teaching Science Form 2 on the topic ‘Plants Classification’. That’s how I get the idea to teach Science Form 5. The students used to study in the classroom or doing experiment in the Science laboratory. That time, they learnt Science outside the classroom. They did Science exploration while they were walking around the school.

The aims were achieved. That means the lesson is a success. The cooperation from the students made the lesson meaningful.

I had learnt something. We should be creative and practice various methods to make teaching and learning ( T & L ) process more effective. Furthermore, T & L should involve hands on and cooperation from students. Students should be motivated too.

The lesson can be improved by :

1. Doing the exploration in the jungle.
2. Completing the task in groups and presenting using MS Powerpoint.

I had shared my experience with other Science panel members.

That’s all for now. Nice to get the feed back from all of you.

task 1 and 2

Task 1



One of my lesson that went very well is on the first chapter : the world through our senses. I pick one of the subtopic in this chapter that is Sense of Sight and light. I stressed on the structure of an eye. It is an experiment on observing the structure and function of the human eye.

The difficulties to memorize and to understand the structure and function of different part of the eye that my student faced make me think of the alternative way to make them understand clearly. So i came out with this experiment from the book and one of the blog. They uploaded their experiment that have been carried out in their classroom in the website.

The experiment that i did with them is dissection of cow's eye. With the help of technology i manage to download the video from this website and i asked my student to carry out this experiment in class. Basically we carry out this experiment with the help of the video that i have downloaded before to make sure they know what they are doing.

What i did is, i divide my students into 6 groups and ask them to bring a cow's eye for each group. Then they will follow the video that i have downloaded as i show it on the screen by using LCD projector. I will paused and play as they did the disection to make sure they are on the correct path.

This was different than other lesson because they have an experience to see the real structure of an eyeball. Humans eyeballs have the same structure as the cows eyeball. So in order to understand the real structure in theoretically they get to feel and see by themselves. This will improved the level of understanding of my students. The reason this lesson successful is because of they get the experienced to see the structure of an eye and relate it with the functions for each part of an eye.


From here, i learned that my students needs a hands on approach with the help of ICT approach to make them understand a certain topics better. This will also make my lesson more interesting .


If i were to improved this lesson i'll make sure i break up my students into a smaller group so that they have the experienced to touch and see the experiment step by step clearly. I hope i will be able to do a virtual dissection with the help of software or through the net one day. It is because my student's faced difficulties of getting cow's eye and also some of them can't do because of religious reasons.

I have shared this experience with my colleague in school. Some of them did try with their class too.





Task 2

Teaching science in english when my students is in the last class and some of them are illeterate is very challenging to me. What i did is i'll make sure that my lesson is as simple as i could and i'll explain by using simple english to make sure they can understand all of it. With the help of technology i will show them all the diagram, videos, pictures, animation and etc so that they could see the process clearly rather that just explaining. I did tell them to stop me if they can't understand and i will explain it again and again.

Their notes are in the diagram formed. They will only asked to write some word just to drill their writing skill. Fifteen minutes before the class end, i will teach them all the simple vocabulary and their meanings that i am going to use for the next lesson to make sure they will not lost track. Sometimes i have to refresh back their ABC's because they are very weak on that too.

From this experience i learn that i should have more skills in entertaining those pupils that are very weak and illiterate. I also learn that to know your students better will make you a better teacher. I did share this experienced with my colleague in school especially language teachers and experienced teachers to get ideas and help from them. They did give a good feedback and help me a lot through out that year.

How to put diagrams in your entry?

Hi everybody,

I think it is good to share this stuff with all of you - just in case you need to put any diagram(s) in your entry as an illustration to your presentation/discussion.

STEPS:
1. Draw your diagram(s) in PowerPoint file
2. View the slide
3. Printscreen the slide view (find for PrtSc/PrintScreen on one of your keyboard buttons -> Press the button
4. Open Paint program (if you do not know how to open it - click Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Paint
5. Paste the prinstscreen of your slide show in Paint
6. Save it as JPEG (File -> Save As -> name the file (File name) -> Save as type: JPEG -> Save
7. Go to your blog -> New Post (or Edit Post, if you have already posted your entry but you want to add some diagrams -> click Add image icon (third icon from right)
8. A new window (Blogger - Upload image) will appear
9. Click Browse - find the file that you saved from Paint -> click Upload Image
10. Once it's done, the picture will be appeared in your posting box - you can easily drag the picture to the place you want it to be or alternatively you can cut the picture and paste it between paragraphs.
11. If you are satisfied with it, as usual click Publish Post.

Below is the example of a 'diagram' which I created using the steps above:



NB: Apart from using Paint, you can also use another application like Photoshop etc, however I choose to use Paint in this example - considering that some of you might not have Photoshop installed in their PC/notebook.