Scaffolds to Support Student Learning
Specific content areas where students are likely to have difficulty
Plans and materials for Scaffolds
Planned (and extra) activities are designed to address many of the anticipated difficulties that the students will have when starting this project. For example, the “How small is small?” activity and the scale down web page are designed to help students understand the nanoscale when compared to the microscale and the macroscale. When students are not able to see the size particles that are on the nanoscale, it will be critical that they can relate the minute sizes to items that they can see and touch. In addition, the videos about nanotechnology will start to introduce the students to the physical properties at the nanoscale and how they may be different from the elemental properties at the micro- and macro-scales.
Posthole activities have been provided to fill in gaps in the students’ knowledge in physics and chemistry. These are available for students who will require more information on electromagnetic forces and protein interactions, for example.
Just in time activities may be used to scaffold topics that continue to prove to be difficult. Examples of just in time lessons are ratio and proportion and various topics already covered in biology (i.e., cell division, DNA/RNA replication, protein synthesis)
Detailed description of plan for when scaffolds will likely be used and how they will be removed as students no longer need them.
As students demonstrate their understanding of the identified areas of difficulty, either through exit tickets, participation in class discussions, or group interactions, the scaffolding can be removed, or no longer supplied, and the students can continue with their project. We should also see evidence of conceptual understanding in the final product.
List of specific areas where students are likely to have misconceptions
Specific examples, with sample materials, of how you will address misconceptions.
- Nanotechnology
- Size and scale
- Surface area to volume ratios (SA:V)
- Why physical properties change at the nanoscale
- Physics of atoms
- Conservation of mass
- Nature of the chemical bond
- Biochemistry details of the diseases
- How proteins interact
Plans and materials for Scaffolds
Planned (and extra) activities are designed to address many of the anticipated difficulties that the students will have when starting this project. For example, the “How small is small?” activity and the scale down web page are designed to help students understand the nanoscale when compared to the microscale and the macroscale. When students are not able to see the size particles that are on the nanoscale, it will be critical that they can relate the minute sizes to items that they can see and touch. In addition, the videos about nanotechnology will start to introduce the students to the physical properties at the nanoscale and how they may be different from the elemental properties at the micro- and macro-scales.
Posthole activities have been provided to fill in gaps in the students’ knowledge in physics and chemistry. These are available for students who will require more information on electromagnetic forces and protein interactions, for example.
Just in time activities may be used to scaffold topics that continue to prove to be difficult. Examples of just in time lessons are ratio and proportion and various topics already covered in biology (i.e., cell division, DNA/RNA replication, protein synthesis)
Detailed description of plan for when scaffolds will likely be used and how they will be removed as students no longer need them.
As students demonstrate their understanding of the identified areas of difficulty, either through exit tickets, participation in class discussions, or group interactions, the scaffolding can be removed, or no longer supplied, and the students can continue with their project. We should also see evidence of conceptual understanding in the final product.
List of specific areas where students are likely to have misconceptions
- Disease transmission.
- Concept that all bacteria is dangerous and harmful.
- All mutation is bad or harmful.
- How to locate appropriate and reliable sites on the internet.
- How matter interacts at the atomic level.
Specific examples, with sample materials, of how you will address misconceptions.
- Disease Transmission Entry Event - This will allow students to see how diseases can be transmitted from one person to the other. It is important in this entry event that the students are guided to questions that reflect how the disease was transmitted. A teacher can have set questions to use as soft scaffolds during their whiteboard presentations that they can ask specific groups of students that would lead them to see the differences in disease transmission as well as hit the concepts that not all bacteria or mutation are harmful. The questions that could be asked throughout the activity and presented on the whiteboard include:
- What type of disease is HIV? (if using another disease this can be adjusted)
- How did HIV get transmitted?
- Could HIV be passed on from a pregnant mother to their child? How exactly does that work? (Is it genetic or infectious?)
- Is this the only way disease can be transmitted? What are some other examples of disease transmission? (Should include infectious and inherited)
- Are all bacteria harmful? How do you know?
- Posthole- How to locate appropriate and reliable sites on the Internet. Students will be given articles and conduct a mini webquest on how to search the Internet appropriately. This will only be given to groups where teacher has seen that they are using google search or an alternate search engine inappropriately. Such inappropriate use could include:
- Typing in questions word for word into browser.
- Only using wikipedia, wiki answers, etc. to search.
- Link to webquest in which students could learn how to use the web appropriately.
- Link to articles that teachers could use for students to read about how to use the web appropriately.
- How matter interacts at atomic level.