{"id":4085,"date":"2013-02-22T11:37:17","date_gmt":"2013-02-22T17:37:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kabt.org\/?p=4085"},"modified":"2013-02-22T11:37:17","modified_gmt":"2013-02-22T17:37:17","slug":"new-ap-bio-it-works","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kabt.org\/?p=4085","title":{"rendered":"New AP Bio – It works!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Who Knew?<\/p>\n

The change in the AP Biology curriculum brought fear and trepidation into the hearts of many an AP teacher.\u00a0 Okay, maybe that\u2019s a bit melodramatic, but the truth is, many of us that have been in the trenches a year or two \u2013 and probably some newbies as well – have had at least one or two sleepless nights about changes in pacing and shifts in lab methodology.<\/p>\n

I would like to share with you the beginning of what I feel sure is going to be a success story. \u2013 one that affirms the positiveness of the change to the AP program.<\/p>\n

I teach on a true block schedule so I just got my AP kiddos in January.\u00a0 Being the rule follower that I am, I dutifully started our semester with the Wisconsin Fast Plant lab, asking my students to identify one quantifiable trait that we could manipulate to cause a directional shift in the population. (I start with evolution)<\/p>\n

That went all fine and well, but what\u2019s cool is what came out of that lab.\u00a0 As my students discussed various traits, they began to develop some independent questions that were \u2013 gasp! \u2013 testable.\u00a0 Admittedly, I was a little slow on the uptake.\u00a0 I was so focused on the first part of the lab that I ALMOST let those questions drift into cyber-land somewhere.\u00a0 As I was thinking about it one night, it dawned on me \u2013 there are our semester research projects!<\/p>\n

So, I announced to the class that that\u2019s exactly what we would be doing, and lets go!\u00a0 Do the research, write the procedure, set up the lab\u2026\u2026they better get busy.\u00a0 They were excited\u2026..well, until they hit their first road block, which was immediately.\u00a0 Small stall \u2013 maybe Mrs. R would forget about this project \u2026.\u00a0 Rats! Procedure due by the end of the week.\u00a0 Okay.\u00a0 Work through problem, do some research, hit the next problem.\u00a0 And it continues\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n

Honestly, it is a beautiful thing to watch.\u00a0 These kids have taken ownership and are running their own investigations.\u00a0 They\u2019re learning that research is tougher and more time consuming than they thought.\u00a0 They\u2019re worried they might not get good data (which they probably won\u2019t) and then what?\u00a0 They\u2019re losing plants because of poor watering system design, they\u2019re confused on how to mix chemical solutions, they don\u2019t know how long to expose seeds to UV light, they don\u2019t know how to hold temperature constant\u2026\u2026\u2026well, you get the idea.<\/p>\n

And yet, they\u2019re doing it!\u00a0 They\u2019re making their own mistakes, and then figuring out how to fix them.\u00a0 They\u2019re working in teams and participating in a collaborative effort.\u00a0 I essentially sit in the lab with them and watch them work.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if their data will be good enough to draw valid conclusions, but I DO know the experience is worthwhile and valuable \u2013 better than any perfect results from a cookbook lab.\u00a0 I love it!!<\/p>\n

Stay tuned\u2026\u2026I will report as the semester continues!<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Who Knew? The change in the AP Biology curriculum brought fear and trepidation into the hearts of many an AP teacher.\u00a0 Okay, maybe that\u2019s a bit melodramatic, but the truth is, many of us that have been in the trenches a year or two \u2013 and probably some newbies as well – have had at
+ Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5671,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes","_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-labs","category-student-research-ideas"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kabt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kabt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kabt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kabt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5671"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kabt.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4085"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.kabt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4100,"href":"https:\/\/www.kabt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4085\/revisions\/4100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kabt.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kabt.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kabt.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}