The Biology Journal is a project that Terry Yamamoto has undertaken this year with the students in her freshman Biology course. Here is the set of instructions she gave to her students for several of the journal assignments. Sample responses are included as links below...
Your Biology Journal will be a place for you to extend your
thinking (and your brain!) into some new and different directions.
You may not be used to going on these types of paths in a typical
Science class, so I'm asking that you give it a try to see what
happens. I'd like your Biology Journal to be a place that you explore
topics we've discussed in closs from new perspectives. For example, I
may ask that you think about what we've studied in the past week and
represent that concept artistically, visually, or in a different type
of writing.
Some ways you could express your ideas are:
•Draw or sketch life forms we have studied
• Find drawings or visuals (from Internet, magazines, etc). that
represent a certain concept
• Write a story, poem, or song about a specific biology
topic
• Take a photograph of something in your environment/ life that
is connected to something we have studied recently
• Write a short commentary or letter to someone expressing your
personal views on a topic
Questions To Ponder
After each Journal Entry, I'd like you to pose a question at the
bottom of the page, pertaining to that
specific topic (or soniething we've studied in that past cycle).
You will be asked to do approximately one entry per cycle. You
may also include any other entries and visuals you may come across
that remind you of something we've discussed in class. I will collect
your Biology Journals towards the end of each quarter.
As a follow up to the video you saw titled" The Private Life of Plants" and an introduction to our unit on Photosynthesis, I would like you to explore plants in a "new way". Specifically, I'd like you to do 2 things:
1) Plant Artistry (on the left side of the page) Draw or find & paste pictures of flowers, trees, ferns, vines, leaves, etc.. The main criteria are:
• the entire art piece should be in color, with lots of green!• the art piece should take up the full page.
2) Creative Writing (on the right side of the page) Explore in one full page (minimum) of writing, the "secrets" plants hold and/or their significance on this earth. Some options are:
• write from an insect's point of view about plants/your forest home..., much like the insect perspective we saw in the "Microcosmos" video where we were "down in the grass with them". What do you see? What do you eat? Where do you hide? What do you do all day?• write or tell a myth/story about a specific kind of plant. This can be a myth you know about such as "The Legend of Taro" or "The Legend of Naupaka" or a story that you create.
• write from the point of view of a plant (such as a venus fly trap). What is life like? What is important to you? What affects your life?
• write about/ plan your ideal garden. What flowers, fruits, plants would you grow and why?
• write about the issue of deforestation/ destruction of rain forests. What are the facts? What consequences could arise from this human activity? How will this impact animals and us?
• write about the importance of plants in your life. Maybe they play a role in a craft, such as lei making and hula. Maybe someone in your family gardens or cultivates taro. Or maybe you live near a forest and find solitude by hiking there.
Sample Student Entries
Journal Entry #5: Respond to a News Article shared with or by your classmatesSample Student Entries