My students need basic dissection kits (tools and pans) and specimens (owl pellets and earthworms) that cover the variety of units covered in their Biology class.
Before every success come many failures. My students have had a school experience full of failures which have left them credit deficient and disillusioned with the whole educational process. My job is to create a learning environment that inspires the desire to learn again.
My students are juniors and seniors at a continuation high school.
They come from all walks of life and their reasons behind their journey to our school vary. Some have experienced burn-out from too much homework and class lessons that are based more on quantity than quality. Some have had family issues that have affected their school life so deeply that their academic lives suffered. Others are just apathetic, having not ever made any real connections to school and learning. The common thread is they are all in need to catch up academically and to reconnect with their purpose in life. Many of them are beginning to, or have already written off, the educational process and want to just finish to move on with their lives. Those lives that sadly hold very few employment options. However, many of them, with the right lessons, can have their curiosities rekindled and future plans altered to include a type of higher learning once they leave high school.
My Project
Many of my students come to me with considerable animosity towards science. They see it as a boring tedious subject. Because of this, many of them are very unaware of the ins and outs of the body. I find it essential for them to learn basic body systems, which in turn will help them understand the effects of their lifestyles on their bodies. Exposing them to a variety of different systems from different species and then having them compare what they've learned to their own body systems will hopefully inspire them to make wiser and healthier choices and maybe even become so interested that they might pursue further education on the subject.
In order to meet this mission, I've decided to start small. We have very limited space and the "gross" factor runs very high with my students. I've chosen the owl pellet, earthworm and grasshopper labs for this reason. I feel these specimens will be a good starting point to future labs involving more sophisticated specimens, such as frogs and fetal pigs.
Over the years, I have noticed that whenever science topics revolve around the them and the life around them, the students' interests are piqued.
I have heard many of them express an interest in becoming an EMT, nurse, medical assistant, and some even as far as a doctor. Even though many of my students may not act like it, they are still searching for what truly inspires them. Hopefully, with the right tools and lessons they can get one step closer to getting on the right, life fulfilling path.
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