Strategies
This unit incorporates content from several disciplines including economics, demography and statistics, medical sciences, and engineering, and is anchored in the phenomenon of the Wealth-Health Paradigm, as described above. In order to satisfactorily integrate this content into meaningful lessons designed to improve student understanding of the wealth-health paradigm and its underlying causes, students engage in a number of NGSS Scientific and Engineering Practices (SEPs). To that end, students use numerous Learning Focused strategies (LFS) and higher order thinking (HOT) strategies.
NGSS SEPs
In order to instill in students as understanding that science is not merely a body of isolated facts but a systematic process for acquiring new knowledge, we as teachers must incorporate real aspects of the scientific process into the classroom. The National Research Council (NRC) lays out a framework for how to ensure that--under NGSS--students have authentic scientific experiences in their classrooms even as they learn the bodies of knowledge of the specific sciences. When implemented properly, this framework of SEPs “supports a better understanding of how scientific knowledge is produced and how engineering solutions are produced…help[ing] students become more critical consumers of scientific information.”28 This focus on process, according to the NRC, improves upon previous practices that reduced scientific procedures to isolated aims of instruction, rather than a vehicle for developing a meaningful understanding of the true scientific concept. Additionally, the process of discovering scientific truths allows students to engage in the types of critical thinking necessary to understand why the right is answer is right, and perhaps more importantly, why the wrong answer is wrong. This emphasis on argumentation from a strong evidence foundation supports student understanding of fundamentals of scientific truths instead of asking for rote memorization of facts.
The NRC developed eight explicit practices essential to K-12 science education. These practices can be found in the NRC framework document referenced above. In this unit, students explicitly engage in the following SEPs: asking questions and defining problems, analyzing and interpreting data, obtaining, evaluating and communicating information, and using mathematics and computational thinking. Because of the three-dimensional model espoused by NGSS (the other dimensions being Disciplinary Core Ideas, known as DCIs, and Crosscutting Concepts, known as CCCs), the above SEPs were chosen as the best vehicles to make use of the CCCs with the goal of satisfying the DCIs. Three-dimensional assessment tools are used in order accurately assess students mastery of content at the end of the unit. Specific CCCs and DCIs are presented in the Appendix entitled “Implementing District Standards.”
Using LFS to Support SEPs
In order to satisfactorily carry out the SEPs, students are expected to complete all assigned readings and take guided reading notes. Prior to beginning the unit in the classroom setting, students use a strategy of close reading. Close reading is a strategy whereby students engage in a thoughtful critical analysis of a text by focusing on specific details or patterns. This allows them to develop a deeper, more precise understanding of the text. The benefit of having students employ this strategy is not limited to success on the unit; it also prepares them for the AP exam, on which they must critically evaluate text excerpts before crafting an answer to a free response question (FRQ). They then use a graphic organizer in order to create contextual meaning for the critical vocabulary of the unit. As part of the activation strategy for each day of unit, students are challenged to ask meaningful questions after engaging-in KWLs and Think-Pair-Shares. In a KWL, students create a chart with three columns: the first column is what they currently know, the second column is what they wonder, and the third and final column is what they want to learn. This strategy encourages students to take ownership of their learning and allows for differentiation and strategic grouping. In a Think-Pair-Share, students are given a statement, question, or graph and asked to think of a response. They then pair with a partner and discuss their response before sharing out with the entire group. This strategy allows time for students to process and distill information before sharing with the group, reducing the stigma of being wrong. It also encourages participation from all students instead of calling on the first few students to raise their hands. Both of these activating strategies support the SEPs identified above. Specifically, in the KWL, students engage in the practice of asking questions (this occurs in the wonder section). Because these questions help students focus their attention to the most critical information, I guide them through this process. In the Think-Pair-Share students obtain, evaluate, and communicate information, and depending on the initial type of information (question, statement, or graph), they may be asked to analyze and interpret information.
Students analyze and interpret several maps in the beginning of the unit in connection with the activating described above. This is critical because the AP exam consistently asks students to analyze maps, graphs, or other visuals before answering series of multiple choice questions. Additionally, at least one FRQ requires analysis of visuals. The bulk of analysis and interpretation centers on cause of death data from the WHO and economic data from the World Bank, UN, and other available resources to discover the Wealth-Health Paradigm. This requires the use of HOT strategies such is identifying patterns, establishing connections between concepts, and using graphic organizers to categorize and establish relationships, such as that between GDP and mortality. To ensure that students truly understand the Wealth-Health Paradigm on a deep and meaningful level, they are grouped strategically so that they must share key findings in order to form a complete picture of the topic. This strategic grouping is often termed a Jigsaw, and is informed by the students’ completion of the KWL during the activation strategy. In such a grouping strategy, students are part of two groups; their home group and their specialist group. Students in the home group may work on different aspects of the same problem, while they work with a separate, specialist group on the same aspect of the problem. After returning from the specialist group, the home group integrates the knowledge from all the specialists into a coherent understanding. This allows students to practice effective communication since they must share their acquired knowledge on several occasions. Furthermore, it allows for both depth and breadth of content knowledge without taking inordinate amounts of time.
Finally, when thinking about how biomedical engineers can help alter the Wealth-Health Paradigm, students need to think computationally by decomposing the problem, recognizing any emergent patterns, generalizing those patterns, and identifying/designing potential solutions for use. For example, students may consider whether a vaccine could be a more effective preventative measure for a certain disease impacting LDCs than potentially lower cost education and lifestyle modifications. I employ a Multiple Text Analysis (MTA) strategy during this portion of the unit in which students participate in a discussion board. Like the KWL, using the MTA in a discussion board setting serves multiple purposes: it trains students to integrate knowledge from several sources when crafting a response and building content knowledge, and prepares students for the increasing online nature of many college courses.
Throughout the unit students engage in distributive summarizing strategies as a way of monitoring their progress in the unit. Students also engage in several Think-Pair-Shares throughout the unit as frequent checks for understanding. In order to gather more formal assessments of student understanding, I also use the Think-Ink-Share strategy. This is a variation on the Think-Pair-Share where students have time to process information, then write a response, and share in small group settings before discussing with the class. Students also engage in Quick-Writes, a strategy where students develop thoughtful, written responses to open-ended questions in a given amount of time (typically 2-10 minutes). Like the Close Reading strategy, this allows students to practice skills critical for success in the high-stakes timed FRQ section of the AP exam. Each of these offers an opportunity for informal assessment of student progress and identification of any common misunderstandings needing correction while also moving students towards mastery of the unit.
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