Microbes Rule!

Introduction

This unit is designed for an AP Biology course composed of junior and senior level students at George Westinghouse College Prep, a selective enrollment high school in Chicago's Garfield Park neighborhood. The course meets once a week for 50-minute class periods. GWCP is the first high school in Chicago Public Schools to offer a dual enrollment opportunity. Students can be accepted into the school by applying through the selective enrollment route, or by applying to one of the College to Careers programs including: Broadcast and Journalism, IT/Oracle, Medical, or Business. GWCP reopened its doors as a selective enrollment school in 2009, adding a class each year and graduating its first group of seniors in 2013. The school draws students from all over the city, representing almost 300 elementary schools and, therefore, serves students from a variety of education backgrounds. ¹ It is not uncommon for students, even in an AP course, to have drastically different background knowledge and skill levels. The demographics represented at GWCP includes some diversity with approximately 64% of students African American, 28% of students Hispanic, 4% of students Asian, 2% of students White, and 1% of students multiracial or multiethnic. ² 81% of students at Westinghouse qualify for free or reduced lunch. Additionally, GWCP is dedicated to preparing students for college, careers, and beyond by exposing every student to a rigorous curriculum and involving them in skills based learning. We hope to remain a school that is accessible to students in the community and view education as a strong platform for social change.

While Westinghouse has become a well-known school in the district, we still face many of the challenges that are seen at most urban, public schools. Budgetary cuts and community struggles result in negative impacts on student learning. As a result, many students experience deficits in science education in elementary school and feel those deficits follow them through their careers in secondary education. The students feel particularly challenged because science requires the integration of literacy and math while incorporating a specific subset of critical thinking skills often termed "scientific thinking skills." On our state achievement exam assessed in April of junior year, science is the only subject area in which GWCP students do not exceed both the state and district percentages of students meeting and exceeding standards. In both 2012 and 2013, 46% of students met or exceeded standards on the science portion of the exam. Based on the ACT benchmarks, only 25% of GWCP students were ready for college coursework in science. These trends are reinforced when students find it acceptable to justify these results by saying they are simply not "science people."

One way that GWCP has begun to increase student achievement is to increase exposure to AP level courses. Since starting AP Biology in the 2012-2013 school year, I have instructed between 40 and 60 students each year. I had the fortune of beginning to teach the course during its first year after the College Board revamped the curriculum to decrease content and increase science practices and mathematical analysis. Each year, I take the opportunity to reflect on lessons and make changes that I know will be best for my students. Still, I continue to find it a challenge to keep students engaged while helping them master the immense amount of content at the required skill level for an AP Biology course.

Rationale & Objectives

The purpose of this unit is to foster the development of literacy, scientific/critical thinking, argumentative, and discussion skills while engaging students in highly relevant content. Even when students are interested in concepts in Biology, the content can easily become overwhelming and inaccessible when vocabulary and skills requirements come into play. By immersing students in the complexities involved in HIV vaccine development, I intend to help students create foundations of understanding of viruses, particularly HIV, the immune system, and vaccines. The way the content will be delivered will also help students form connections to the bigger ideas that drive all concepts in Biology and that are emphasized by the AP Biology curriculum. To help students make these connections, we will address the following essential questions:

• How does our body protect us from disease?
• Why do viruses make us sick and why, if viruses are all around us, are we not sick all the time?
• How do the mammalian immune system and the structure of viruses explain vaccines?
• Why is there no vaccine for HIV?
• What should be the next steps for tackling the AIDS epidemic?
• What ethical considerations must be taken into account when conducting scientific research and making scientific advancements?
• How will the "host-pathogen arms race" impact our future as a species?