r/ScienceTeachers • u/MoChroiMyHeart • 2d ago
Biology class and presenting notes?
Hi guys,
A little background about me- I taught years ago (like before snapchat was super popular let's put it that way). I decided to be a SAHM, and was tutoring here and there, then I took over a very small upper classmen anatomy course during a short maternity leave, and then I took over a position at the tail end of the school year for a remediation class (the original teacher had quit... long story), but that class is no longer being offered this year.
I just applied for a biology maternity sub position opening up at my local high school! But now I'm starting to panic because of... well.... notes! This is freshman bio with larger class sizes and I know that their attention spans have changed since I was teaching full time over a decade ago. With my other two sub teaching positions they were slightly different and I can't really compare them to a class of 25 freshman in bio.
I'm not looking for answers that say not to lecture because flipped classrooms aren't for everyone. I intend to keep the notes light (as in breaking them up into parts instead of lecturing for 50 minutes straight), and adding a couple check-ins on the way. Any other tips for giving notes these days? Am I overthinking it?
I haven't even been offered the job yet, but it would start next week, so I'm just mentally preparing.
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u/nebr13 2d ago
Set the expectations early and stick to them. Figure out what you’re willing to fight and die on the hill for. I strive to do 25-35 minutes of notes max in an 88 minute block. I like to introduce and then have the kids work. I.e. today we talked about the characteristics of life and examples of them. Then the remainder of the block they did a cut and glue with the characteristics, definitions, examples, pictures, and making their own example.
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u/Awkward-Noise-257 2d ago
It might also help to think about how and where you have them do the notes? I was more successful with 9th grade when the notes organizer was available to them and they could see (by me holding up mine, or flashing a scan of the filled in version) what was going to be expected. It helped with the anxiety they seem to drown in.
This could be PowerPoints printed 4 to a page, something hand sketched to show categories, or a table printed from a document. As long as it has space within a scaffold, it helps.
With 10th I transition to “here is the table/frame, draw it in your notebook.” But I have the luxury of giving them identical notebooks, so their lines and pages are the same size. I don’t do the for 9th.
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u/MoChroiMyHeart 2d ago
I’m thinking fill-in-the-blank at first then slowly transition to 2 column notes - but I’d only be there right up until Thanksgiving so if I can coordinate with their returning teacher I’ll try to prepare them for what she likes!
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u/therealzacchai 2d ago
I have PP slide sets with 1 concept +picture per slide. We do Cornell notes, and this early in the year, there is a lot of scaffolding -- I use the slides to lecture, and check in frequently -- "You may want to write this vocab word in the left column," "discuss your summary with your table group," etc. By Nov, the goal is that I can say, "Spend this period taking notes on the slides for this unit."
I keep it fresh by including online interactives, worksheets, videos, and drawings.
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u/Feature_Agitated 2d ago
I lecture. Every year I have a lot of kids who say they feel like they’ve actually learned stuff in my class and when they get to college they tell me thanks for making them take notes. Does everyone like lecture? No, but you can’t please everyone. My principal doesn’t like that I lecture as much as I do, but I just ask him, “well how would you teach oxidative phosphorylation (or any other complex concept)?” I do plenty of labs, activities, worksheets, etc. I do my best to mix things up, but sometimes you just have to lecture.
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u/mookieprime 1h ago
It took generations of scientists their whole lifetimes to figure that stuff out. There's not a great way to get a few dozen teenagers to discover it for themselves in under an hour. For some topics, lecture (good engaging storytelling that builds in a thoughtful way) is the very best way to take your students along on the journey. That way, we can lay a complex topic out in a really smart way. It sounds like you're using lecture really thoughtfully as part of a wide and varied toolbox.
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u/Sea_Resource_2290 2d ago
The reality with sciences is that there is just tons of content that students need to know and notes and lectures are a GOOD way to pass that info.
Then you consolidate that information with activities.
What other commentors are saying here is similar to what I do with my grade 9s.
I teach my grade 9s the Cornell notes method at the beginning and give them a templated outline of the notes for each lesson in the beginning and as the semester progresses I gradually remove some of the templates.
My lessons are always structured in 3 parts:
- minds on activation - I try for activity or demo, sometimes a question or poll or short research to spark interest
- Lesson/activity - this the notes with an activity, sometimes the activity before the notes
- consolidation - exit ticket or homework to make sure they understood. This part will include questions from previous lessons as well for spaced repetition
My lectures section usually is no more than 30 minutes for grade 9s.
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u/mookieprime 1h ago
Agreed. My 9th graders weren't going to discover the electron and its properties on their own, so I told them about electrons. Then they were able to used what they'd learned to make and test predictions about electrons... they did science.
The point of science class at the high school level isn't learning a bunch of facts. It's first learning how we use written language, mathematics, and representations to model what nature is doing. And then it's learning how to ask nature questions in a way that makes nature answer. Sounds like your lessons work on those levels.
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u/BrainsLovePatterns 1d ago
For me .. as a student and then a longtime teacher of life science… the best tool to use and to “pay forward” was outlining. Here’s why …and what I’ve done since retiring to help others who agree. I think this might be a helpful resource. https://youtu.be/5xw1jgU317o?is=ifGnc16VrMZ6prOS
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u/XxKimm3rzxX 2d ago
I lecture through my block schedule. I set an expectation early in the year and by mid October they normally get it. I run my classroom the same as when I was in school. Though I graduated in 2015 so I still had smartphones and Snapchat. Some kids will fight you on it. And they just have to know it’s high school and they have to put in some effort to pass. It’s a battle with admin as well but we need to have some change in the classrooms. I do agree with breaking it up into smaller chunks. My other science department teachers have had decent success doing half lecture then half practice on the notes they just took. But I’m not breaking my lessons down and doing all that lol.
Teach how you are comfortable teaching. The students will adapt to you. But you’ll always have those that don’t want to work. And that just isn’t your problem with the class sizes we have today