Teaching Strategies
Student Audience
This unit is written for students in grade 10, who attend classes together as an advisory. Students have 60-minute class periods three days per week and 50-minute class periods twice weekly. An estimated 85% of the students are enrolled in algebra II, while the remaining students take geometry. The students enrolled in geometry are usually in the same advisory, which typically hastens the pace of the class compared to sections without geometry students. Grade 10 students are also committed to the completion of a personal project, a requirement for finishing the International Baccalaureate (IB) Middle Years Program (MYP).
Developing the Concept
In IB MYP, key concepts are words used to paint a broad picture of learning expectations that can be observed within and across disciplines. Of the three fundamental key concepts recommended by IB (change, relationships, and systems), this unit will focus on the key concept of relationships.
Related concepts are more discipline-specific and allow for exploration of the key concepts in greater detail to cultivate students’ conceptual understanding. The three related concepts selected for this unit’s presentation are balance, form, and identity.
The conceptual phrase is a generic statement that summarizes a concept, is nonspecific, and can be applied across multiple content areas and topics. The conceptual phrase developed for this unit is as follows: Balanced relationships determine form and identity. This conceptual phrase can be translated to topics, such as ion formation, acids and bases, solution chemistry, and redox reactions. Thus, students benefit from learning conceptual phrases because they potentially build continuity between old and new content.
Inquiry-Based Learning
Inquiry questions are provided for students as a guide to their learning expectations. They are not necessarily exam questions, but they ought to provoke students into learning the content. Below are the several examples of inquiry questions that can be used throughout the unit. Other potential questions for inquiry-based learning will be listed in the classroom activities as they are needed.
Factual Questions
- How do intermolecular forces differ from intramolecular forces?
- What does it mean for a molecule to be polar?
Conceptual Questions
- How does the electronegativity of elements determine bond type?
- How do intermolecular forces affect melting and boiling points?
- How do intermolecular forces affect the physical properties of a substance?
- How do the forces in ionic bonds differ from London dispersion forces?
- Explain the distribution of subatomic particles in dispersion forces and dipole-dipole forces.
- How do intermolecular forces and bond types influence protein shape?
- How does CRISPR/Cas9 locate a sequence to replace?
Debatable Questions
- How far will humanity go in its quest to cure diseases?
- Given the endless possibilities of human biology, will we truly be able to implement personalized medicine?
- Should research efforts be focused on finding cures or preventing onset?
- Should gene drive technology be used to enhance humans, prevent disease, or both?
Global Context and Inquiry Statement
The global context is what allows me to connect my content to the real world. The IB program identifies six areas of global context. The context of this unit is in the area of scientific and technical innovation, where students will be challenged to understand the world that they live in and examine the impact that scientific and technological advances have on communities, environments, and human activities in order to meet a specific need. The inquiry statement combines the concept together with the context to clearly point the students in the direction of their learning. Therefore, the inquiry statement of this unit will be: Balancing relationships between different molecules aids in the engineering of targets for treatment and stabilization of genetic disorders.
Assessment Criteria
The IB program identifies four areas of assessment for performance-based learning in science. This unit will primarily focus on two of those criteria. The first is “knowing and understanding”, in which students are required to explain and apply scientific knowledge and understandings while analyzing and evaluating information to make scientifically supported judgments. The other is “reflecting on the impacts of science”, in which students are required to explain, discuss, and evaluate how science is applied and used to address a specific problem or issue while applying scientific language effectively.
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