October 22nd Classroom Visit

October 22nd -- Day 2. In other words, it meant I had my three science classes for the double. Science 8B had me during period 1 and 3, Science 8M during period 5 and 6. and Science 8R during period 4 and 7.

During the first period, my principal came to visit me. He offered me terrific advice, especially in formulating high-order thinking questions for students. As a bit of a background for my lesson plan, I was explaining an activity (growing bacteria) to my students.

I was stumped on how I could create high-order thinking questions, since I was explaining how to perform an activity. Fortunately for me, the second period that I taught that day was a Karate option, thus giving me some time to clear my head before I taught my other two science classes (8M and 8R). During my next science class (period 4 with 8R), I had a sudden brainwave. I used the same presentation as I did for my first class, but when I presented the slide with the agar plates containing discs of antimicrobial chemicals, I asked the following question:

"As you can see here, we have an agar plate. On this plate. you can see that some parts are cloudy, some parts are clear, and there's dark dots spread out throughout the plate. Which of the following would be bacteria?"

credits: http://www.casalab.com.br/images/stories/virtuemart/product/resized/STAPHY_TEST______5227986de1e13.jpg

I knew that we haven't discussed bacteria in great detail, for it's beyond the scope of the curriculum. However, I was interested in seeing how my students would respond to the question. Not surprisingly, most students thought that the dark dots were bacteria. For those who picked the cloudy areas (which is the correct answer), they weren't able to rationalize their answer. "I just guessed" would be the most common answer.

After explaining the process of plating an agar plate for testing antibacterial products, thus essentially explaining what the dot (essentially pieces of paper soaked with antimicrobial products) and the cloudy areas represented, I asked the students what they thought the clear zone represented.

With the knowledge that they just learned, some of the students were able to rationalize that the clear spots represented areas where no bacteria can grow. That happened to be the correct answer! I was surprised and filled with joy. Suspicious that it might just be a fluke, and being a science teacher by nature, I repeated the process with my third class... and got the same response!

That is the beauty of higher level thinking via asking higher level questioning.