Using Visual Analogies to Engage Students Gary Carlin, LLSO January, 2008

Analogies A similarity between like features of two things, on which a comparison may be based: the analogy between the heart and a pump.

Introducing New Ideas Start with Non-Scientific Analogies. Students describe the item, process or experience. Introduce “new idea” and identify the similar components.

What Do You Like? If you could only take one part of the pizza what would it be? Crust Cheese Pepperoni

Make The Connection Niche – is all strategies and adaptations a species uses in its environment – how it meets its specific needs for food and shelter, …

Find the Difference Where does the analogy “fall apart”? Can we modify the analogy or find a new analogy that is more similar?

The Bicycle

Homologies Same Structure Different Function

GLOVES

Darwin’s Finches

Who Remembers?

Listening to Music … Over Time

Evolution of Man

General & Specific

Are Smarties in the Same Color Order?

Gel Electrophoresis

The Changing Coca-Cola Bottle

Succession

How do you arrange the clothes in your dresser?

Food Webs

Metamorphosis

Review Lesson “Reprocessing” of information Students convert information from one form (ie. written passage) to another form (ie. storyboard) Room for students to add in additional information (ie. Predictions, intermediate events, labeling, alternative pathways, additional examples, ect.)

A Written Passage In recent years, the striped bass population in Chesapeake Bay has been decreasing. This is due, in part, to events known as “fish kills,” a large die-off of fish. Fish kills occur when oxygen-consuming processes in the aquatic ecosystem require more oxygen than the plants in the ecosystem produce, thereby reducing the amount of dissolved oxygen available to the fish. One proposed explanation for the increased fish kills in recent years is that human activities have increased the amount of sediment suspended in the water of Chesapeake Bay, largely due to increased erosion into its tributary streams. The sediment acts as a filter for sunlight, which causes a decrease in the intensity of the sunlight that reaches the aquatic plants in the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem.

Initial Organization 1. Collect important information in a “condensed form”. 2. Use a “guided template” to separate or categorize the information. 3. Ready to “re-process” information or Regents Question.

So You Want Me To Read in Science Class, Why? Human Impact Template So You Want Me To Read in Science Class, Why?

The Regents Questions Identify one abiotic factor in the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem involved in the fish kills. [1] Identify the process carried out by organisms that uses oxygen and contributes to the fish kills. [1] State one way humans have contributed to the decrease of the striped bass population in Chesapeake Bay. [1] State how a decrease in the amount of light may be responsible for fish kills in the Chesapeake Bay area. [1]

A Graph

Graphing Skills First Title Graph Area Display X-axis and Y-axis Name, scale, range, units, max, min, optimum The Relationship between X and Y

Looking at Graphs Template

The Regents Questions State how nitrate pollution in the brook changed after the brook flowed through the deforested area. [1] Explain how deforestation contributed to this change. [1]

A Diagram

Understand the Diagram Step-by-Step (multiple pathways) Information: Known/Unknown Identify the Process(es) Add in information

Object Process Brainstorm

The Questions Molecule A contains the (1) starch necessary for ribosome synthesis in the cytoplasm (2) organic substance that is broken down into molecules B, C, and D (3) proteins that form the ribosome in the cytoplasm (4) directions for the synthesis of molecules B, C, and D Molecules B, C, and D are similar in that they are usually (1) composed of genetic information (2) involved in the synthesis of antibiotics (3) composed of amino acids (4) involved in the diffusion of oxygen into the cell

Review Lesson Structure 1. Start by Modeling a method (steps) by which a Regents question should be “processed” (In a selected topic). 2. Provide 2-4 Regents questions (same topic) students can practice the method. 3. Mini-Lesson – on same topic 4. Extended processing activity based on a Regents question. 5. Student Presentations 6. Summary – Regents Challenge Question