Jim's USF Tech Cert Blog

Hello class, For this module I decided to switch gears and talk about the most important unit in my biology class, genetics.  Really, everything I teach in biology is rooted in genetics and understanding basic DNA structure and function is critical to understanding the entire course.  When searching for an Open-Educational Resource for genetics that met my needs for our districts curriculum I stumbled upon this website: http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/ The website is from the University of Utah's Genetic Science Learning Center and might be one of the best ready-made online resource I have ever stumbled across.  When evaluating an online resource the most important criteria it must meet for me is how closely it matches the performance expectations for our unit.  As part of the district curriculum writing team, we chose to use the new Next Gen Science Standards (NGSS) to write our new curriculum.  This one website does an excellent j...

https://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=mtkzmzy5mapdjg Hello Class, Sorry for the late discussion post, just got back yesterday from a great week+ road trip to the east coast with the family. - One thing that I have really been working on in my Anatomy class for the past 2 years is to try and make it more authentic to the students.  Sure, we do 5-6 dissection labs and get the opportunity to go to Loyola and Midwestern University for human cadaver experiences, but unfortunately the nature of an anatomy class is a lot of "sit and get".  One way I have attempted to get around this is by using patient simulations as a means of an authentic assessment of their knowledge.  The students see a number of patients that have issues with the specific system we are studying by viewing their patient files. These files are available online at my google site.  After viewing these files they can use their notes and medical journal articles provided to do...

Hello Class, As I mentioned before, I teach Co-taught biology at Waubonsie Valley High School.  What you might not know is that all freshmen at our school take biology.  My classroom typically has 12-15 students with IEP's and then another 15+ regular ed students.  Because of this, my classroom is most likely the most diverse classroom in the whole building.  I have students that read at a second grade level, and students sitting in the same class that are in multiple honors classes and even AP classes.  This is why differentiation with the lessons and understanding learning styles is so important.  For this module I am going to focus on a typical student with an IEP in my classroom in terms of how they deal with lessons that rely highly on technology.  We are always told that this generation of students is so tech savvy that they might be able to teach us how to use the programs.  I've actually found this to be far from true.  Yes, they ...

Module 1: Engaging and Effective Learning Hello Class, After viewing the resources provided I clicked over to a website that I was very familiar with, Ted Ed.  I use these lecture presentations a lot in anatomy as well as biology because I can often find authentic examples of how their curriculum is utilized in real life.  If you find a video that shows application of the content, and at the same time has a good speaker, they don't always unfortunately, you can really grab the kids' attention.  In reviewing the website as far as how engaging and effective it is as a teaching tool, I have to give it pretty high marks.  One of the tools I read about in this module was triggering prior knowledge.  I utilize this tool often in my classroom as I think it is critical to engage students.  Ted Ed does an amazing job of this when used as a curriculum enhancement tool.  One example of this is the Ted Ed on David Blaine breaking the "holding your ...

Hello class, My name is Jim Nielsen and I teach Biology and Anatomy at Waubonsie Valley High School. Teaching was a 3rd career change for me as I worked previously as a zookeeper at Brookfield Zoo, and did medical research at University of Chicago for 5 years as well.  I just completed my 11th year of teaching and truly get excited to come to work everyday and spend time talking about the study of Life with young adults.  The two courses I teach are extremely diverse in learning levels as I teach freshman co-taught biology and Senior Anatomy.  It really creates a fun challenge to create material that works for all learning levels.  Because of this challenge, and our districts move to 1:1 instruction next year, I decided to enroll in the Educational Technology courses at St. Francis. When students leave my classroom I want them to have a deeper appreciation for the natural world.  I also want them to understand that they are the caretakers of their one and on...