Warm Up Question

Wednesday: Warm Up Question In a randomly breeding population of mice, 640 had black fur and 360 had brown fur. Black fur is dominant to brown fur. The Hardy-Weinberg Principle (p2 + 2pq + q2 = 1) can be used to calculate allele and phenotypic frequencies. Calculate the frequency of the recessive allele. Calculate the number of homozygous black mice in the sample.

Activity: Dialysis Tubing, Starch, Iodine and Agar with Dye Activity: Diffusion Activity with Agar and Various Dyes

Activity: Dialysis Tubing Starch & Iodine Fill the dialysis tubing with different solutions of starch, iodine, and water and place the tubes into beakers with different solutions of starch, iodine, and water. Formulate a hypothesis about what you think will happen when you drop the dialysis bag into the solution.

Activity: Dialysis Tubing Starch & Iodine In what ways can you relate this to the curriculum? In what ways can you related this to your students’ every day lives?

Activity: Agar and Dye With your agar plate and a cork borer, core out six evenly spaced holes in the agar and fill them with the dyes as quickly as you can. If you have trouble removing the agar cores, use a toothpick, but take care not to tear the agar. Let the dyes diffuse for approximately 45 minutes (or a couple of hours). When finished, we will mark the edges of the dye with a sharpie and measure in mm. Keep track of your time in seconds.

The Exam

AP Biology Exam Design Section Information: Item Types & Weight Question Types and Distribution Timing Multiple Choice + Grid-ins (50% of exam weight) 63 multiple choice 6 grid-in questions (New type: mathematical manipulation/calculation. Students will write and bubble in numerated answer.) 90m Ten Minutes Required Reading Time in Advance of the Free-Response Section Free Response 2 multi-part questions, 1 of which connects to the lab experience (25% of exam weight) 80 minutes + 10-minute reading period 6 single-part questions Chapter 2: The exam While the revised AP Biology Exam will still consist of multiple choice and free response questions, the number of multiple-choice questions will be reduced to 63.   All of the items on the new exam will be directly tied to the Learning Objectives. There will be no more guesswork about what will be tested on the AP Biology Exam. In a few minutes, you’ll see some sample questions, including some new question types. You will see how the new questions focus on student understandings of Big Ideas, Enduring Understandings, and Essential Questions – and do not demand memorization of facts.

The Exam Breakdown: Total test time is 180 minutes. 90 minutes for: 63 Multiple Choice--choose the correct answer based on the information presented. 6 Grid-in questions--mathematical calculations, then bubble in the answer. 80 minutes + a 10 minute reading period for: 8 free response questions: 2 multi-part-related to the lab experience = 25% of grade Questions 1 & 2: 10 points each--multi-part, related to the lab experience. 6 single-part-general biology stuff. Questions 3,4 & 5: 4-points each Questions 6,7, & 8: 3-points each

The Exam Breakdown: Turn to page 365 of your Workshop Handbok. This version has 63 MC questions and is a sample test released before the 2013 exam. If your course is registered with the College Board, you will have access to all the exams. Do NOT share these or post them electronically. https://www.collegeboard.org/

The Exam Breakdown: The 2013 version and beyond are actual operational exams and only have 53 multiple choice questions and 5 grid-ins. This is because not all of them count; ETS uses them for other purposes that they don’t explain to us--most likely they are for test development. All FRQ’s are used and have been released. https://www.collegeboard.org/

The Exam Breakdown: Historically, students have had difficulty articulating their arguments and explaining the evidence--writing! “Explain,” “describe,” and “justify” content knowledge posed difficulty for students. Power Commands. Students also have had difficulty using math--low scores on the grid-in questions. Some of this may be due to the difficulty understanding what to do--how to fill in the answer.

The Exam: Students are permitted to use 4 function calculators on the exam. Have them practice with these on things you do in class--don’t let them use their graphing calculators. Can get them at the dollar store.

The Exam: The formula sheet is included for the students. It is in the front of the practice exam. Copy this and give it to your students for use on every test so they get familiar with it.

The Exam: Read and answer the first 10 questions (starting on page 365) of the practice exam. Then turn to page 30 of your Workshop Workbook and read the directions. When you are finished, answer the questions on pages 31-33.

The Exam: Turn to page 221 of your Workshop Handbook. Notice there are also some grid-in style questions that will appear on the exam (they are not on the 2012 released practice exam). Try to design some practice types of question that give kids some experience with this. It’s easy, they just need to familiarize themselves with it.

Activity: Collect the Data from your Diffusion Activities.

Activity: The Exam MC and Grid-in Questions

The Exam: Now turn to page 426 of your Workshop Handbook. Notice that this is the answer key for the exam you just looked at. Examine the answers and notice the Essential Knowledge, Science Practice, and Learning Objective associated with each question. By paying attention to these things when designing your assessments, you will become more familiar with the Curriculum Framework, and it should help guide your teaching and syllabus development.

Activity: The Exam Free-Response Questions

The Exam: Free-Response Questions Let’s look at some of the Free Response Questions (on pages 429-422). Read through questions 1, 4, and 7 and provide a skeleton of an answer of what you think the key points should be. Turn to pages 34 through 38 and answer the questions. Decide whether or not you think you are covering the content in enough depth to enable your students to answer these questions successfully. Next, look at the scoring guidelines (pg. 462) associated with these questions. Do you cover the material thoroughly enough to allow your students to construct answers to these questions?

The Exam: Grading the short answer questions is one of the drawbacks to giving students practice with them. The key to grading them is to do it distraction free. Spend a few minutes with the key, and then grade! I can usually grade 60 tests in about 45-60 minutes. Don’t get bogged down on how bad it is! Hide out!

Formative Vs. Summative Assessment: Do you know the difference? Do you use these effectively in your class? Do you feel as though you have to grade everything you assign? Some assessments can be used by the students as they grade each other. You can give guidance to them as you go through some of the answers to the assessments with them. Give them participation points!

Activity: Graphing the Dye Diffusion Data

Using Excel Write your measurement data from the dye diffusion activity on the board. Using your computer, enter the data into Excel to allow you to analyze the data. When finished, await further instructions for calculating averages, standard deviations, standard errors of the means, and for putting error bars onto your graph. You will use this analysis to support or refute your null hypothesis. Do the different dyes move at different rates through the agar?

Activity: Syllabus Development

Look at Your Syllabus Spend some time discussing this with your fellow participants. Find out what they’ve done to develop theirs and begin working on yours. Refine yours (if necessary) if you’ve already taught the course for a while.

Some Useful Websites Go here to become a member of the Teacher Community List Serve: http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/homepage/4340.ht ml To access other useful information, go here: http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/home For information about the course audit http://www.collegeboard.com/html/apcourseaudit/courses/biology .html For information about the new course and exam http://advancesinap.collegeboard.org