Ashley Grapes
Kingdom Protista Unit
Rationale
The Chosen Text
High school textbooks are not developed blindly by publishers. Science textbook writers use the standards mandated by the national (National Science Teacher Association Standards, 2003) and state (Virginia Science Standards of Learning) educational departments, which specify grade level and content. Although assessment of standards is highly controversial, most of the educational community recognizes the importance of standards for equal education. The text entitled, “Protists,” (Biggs et. al., 2005) adheres to national and Virginia standards, although it is the California edition.
Out of all the six kingdoms, scientists are least satisfied with the classification of Kingdom Protista. This is because organisms that don’t fit anywhere else are thrown into this “catch-all” kingdom resulting in numerous inconsistencies. Some texts, including the one I chose, split protists up into plant-like, animal-plant, and fungus-like. Although this has little connection to evolutionary relationships, it’s the easiest way to present the information. The text I chose also did an excellent job connecting protists to the student’s lives in the sections on malaria, oil formation, and the red tide.
After evaluating my pool of texts (Raven et. al., 2011; Johnson & Raven, 2004) , I found that Biggs (2005) introduces the Kingdom Protista most effectively for the reasons presented above. The Raven book seemed to discuss irrelevant information to the SOL's, including details of the slime mold lifestyle. The text is also available online, providing easy access for teachers and schools involved with e-books. E-books can easily be downloaded to student nooks to provide easy access.
Kingdom Protista Information
After learning classification, students are introduced to the six kingdoms; Archea, Bacteria, Protista, Fungi, Plantae and Animalia. The unit on protists will generally last a week, and the students will learn the classification, anatomy, general characteristics, reproduction and importance of protists. Although other standards are met (highlighted in red on PDF), the main Virginia SOL addressed is BIO 5:
BIO.5 The student will investigate and understand life functions of archaebacteria, monerans (eubacteria), protists, fungi, plants, and animals including humans. Key concepts include
Challenges in Learning Kingdom Protista
Texts differ greatly in their protist chapters because it is the largest and most diverse of all the kingdoms, making classification non-concrete. If an organism does not fit into another kingdom, scientists throw it into Kingdom Protista and then attempt to organize them in a systematic way. For example, protists may be unicellular, multicellular, autotrophic, heterotrophic, terrestrial, aquatic, mobile, non-mobile, asexual reproducers or sexual reproducers. As a result, chapters on protists end up becoming choppy because the authors jump from characteristic to characteristic and address commonalities followed by a multitude of exceptions. This textbook organizes them into “fungus-like,” “plant-like,” and “animal-like” protists, which is a fantastic way to present the information.
The other major hurdle in teaching protists is the bulk of the information and vocabulary. Wandersee (1988) explains that, “scientists use terminology to precisely communicate their findings to other scientists. Students are taught such terms in order to understand important scientific concepts and principles, to become scientifically literate, or to lay a foundation for further learning in the sciences.” He then goes on to explain that the mass amount of information mixed with a rote learning environment can be daunting for students, and leads to shallow learning and fleeting memory of the material. Incorporating visuals, labs, and hands-on activities is vital for turning a subject of breadth into one of depth.
Rationale of Notebook Sections
Most student’s cannot wait to learn about animals, or their idea of animals; bears, whales, and insects. In biology we call these “flagship species,” or animals that people are generally interested in or drawn to. One of the most important goals of a teacher is to make students interested in all of the subject matter. Instructors can do this by connecting the content to the students’ lives, emphasizing the interconnection of life, and demonstrating the purpose and importance of whatever is being learned.
For my first notebook section, I am choosing to do a relatively open-ended webquest in which the students can explore the importance of protists to the environment, to humanity, and to themselves. This activity will act as an introduction to pique the interests of students to the wonderful world of protists, and get them familiarized with the outline of the chapter. They will be given a personal computer, and asked to find articles, YouTube videos, and sections in the chapter on provided key phrases. These key phrases are “The Red Tide,” “Malaria,” “Algae Biofuel,” “How Oil is Formed,” and “Importance of Plankton.” The students must explain how the heading relates to protists, how “it” works, and why it is important. The students are given an opportunity to draw a picture that will help them remember and recall the information they write below each heading. They will than share their findings with a partner, talking about which heading they found most interesting.
The second notebook section will be diagrams of the most important protists, in which the students will color and label protist anatomy to be assessed. This section will be accompanied by live protists that may be viewed under a microscope. The student will first lean about the amoeba and its important/distinguishable anatomy (pseudopodia, contractile vacuole, endoplasm, etc) in the textbook. They will then color in the diagram and label the parts. Lastly, the students may view the live amoeba and attempt to identify the parts they just labeled on their worksheet. This will be repeated for the paramecium and euglena. In this way, the student will read, color, label, and view in the same class period, allowing for multiple ways to learn the anatomy of the organisms.
The last notebook section will be a concept map, which will act as a review and organizational method of the content. The student will only be able to use their books for this section. It will include all the vocabulary to be assessed on the unit test. If the students are familiar with concept maps, they may be asked to build their own concept maps in pairs with the aid of a vocabulary list. Concept maps, or graphic organizers, are a great visualization technique that scaffolds reading and allows students to pick out key points (Fisher et. al., 2011).
Ultimately, these notebook sections are meant to excite the students, give multiple avenues for learning, and assist in developing independent reading and writing skills.