Strategies
The content in the following section will be covered in a variety of ways. Because this is an advanced course, much of the information will presented in lecture using Power Point, supplemented with diagrams, videos, examples, and animations. These additions to the presentations will help visualize the information for students. I feel this is particularly beneficial when dealing with concepts on a cellular or molecular level, as it is hard to imagine processes that cannot be seen. I always encourage my students to ask questions, and anticipate many in this unit since eating is something that everyone consciously does each day.
I have students take notes in the Cornell style to ensure that they go back through their notes at least once and think about what they are learning. When taking Cornell notes, students draw a line a third of the way from the left side of the paper and leave this section blank. At the conclusion of the lecture, students go back through their notes and add questions that can be answered by the information present. For example, if a student wrote "all carbohydrates are constructed by small units called monosaccharides (simple sugars)," they could write "what are the building blocks of carbohydrates?" or "what are monosaccharides?" as well as several other questions. This forces them to go back through their notes and analyze the information covered, and in addition, gives them a useful study tool to use (they may cover the notes and ask themselves the questions).
In addition to lectures, students will learn information through supplemental and textbook reading assignments, classroom discussions and group/pair sharing. Labs are also an important part of any science curriculum, and these are listed in the classroom activities section that follows. There will be a major activity or lab for each of the five sections of content. These laboratory exercises will allow students to explore and practice the concepts that they learn in lecture. They are additionally valuable because they challenge students to be investigative and creatively apply their science skills. One of the labs is designed to be an open inquiry lab, meaning that students are given a general concept (in this case, digestion) and asked to design a procedure that will yield results confirming or expanding upon the concept at hand.
At the conclusion of the unit, after having learned about the long term effects of nutrition, students will select an effect (such as diabetes), research it, and prepare a webpage presenting information on what nutrition choices cause that condition, how it can be prevented and treated, and the effect on the body. These webpages will then be linked to the class webpage, which is used to maintain communication with parents as well as students.
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