Today we scored the four written sections of the EOC practice exam, with students using rubrics to score and revise their own exams. The rubrics are available in the practice exam posted yesterday.
Category Archives: End of Course
Mitosis: Biology EOC practice exam scoring – Day 1
Today we reviewed the multiple choice answers to the EOC practice exam, along with all of the other multiple choice questions on the ful version of the exam. The full version, along with the correct answers, of the 2014 Biology EOC Practice Exam (Washington State) can be downloaded by clicking here.
Mitosis: Jeopardy! game – review of units 1-5
Before we begin our next unit (mitosis), we took a step back to review how far we’ve come during our first five units of biology this year. To review, we played a PowerPoint version of Jeopardy! It was a lot of fun watching students work in small groups to arrive at their responses to the questions. The game template was provided to me by another teacher and may be used and/or modified as desired by any interested users.
Tomorrow, students will be taking a practice biology end-of-course exam designed to introduce them to the rigor of a full exam but within the time constraints of a class period. The real exam does not have the same time constraints. Students will not be able to use any other resources while taking the practice exam. They will receive participation credit for taking the exam, not for how well they do. In fact, students will identify themselves by student number, an identifier that provides anonymity during the scoring phase of the exam. While some level of test anxiety is inevitable, I want to emphasize that this exam is solely for practice and self-assessment purposes. Students should come away with a deeper understanding of their current level of knowledge about biology, gaps in knowledge, appreciation for EOC test structure, and a plan to fill knowledge gaps. Please get a good night’s sleep, eat breakfast, bring a snack if needed, and come prepared and focused. We will score the exams on Wednesday and then launch the mitosis unit on Thursday.
Central Dogma: Procedure Quiz
Students had the opportunity to demonstrate proficiency in the skill of writing a Procedure. They were provided with an EOC-style procedure writing task directly related to the strawberry DNA extraction experiment from yesterday. During the last 15 minutes of class, students watched the Stranger Visions video to learn how their human DNA can be used to construct 3-D printed models of faces.
Energy, Matter, and Organization: Writing a Scientific Conclusion – Day 2
Lots of writing today. We began class with an entry task in which students were instructed to describe the trends in the data found in the graph on page 2 of yesterday’s case study. Students were provided with the sentence frame:
Plants grown in _____ hours of light increased/decreased in height over _____ weeks.
After some private think/write time, students shared their work with their table partner. Students selected at random were asked to publicly share their learning by writing an assigned trend sentence on one of the class white boards. After we reviewed the example trend sentences for plants grown in 0, 12, 17, or 24 hours of light, students were provided with an EOC-style conclusion worksheet (page 2). Students had 20-30 minutes of silent write time, and students who finished early were encouraged to exchange papers with a friend and look for the 5 elements on pages 4-5 of the conclusion worksheet packet.
Energy, Matter, and Organization: Writing a Scientific Conclusion – Day 1
Welcome to second semester! It was nice to see everyone, and I look forward to a second half of the year equally as full of learning as the first half. Today we turned our sights to the Conclusion section of a scientific lab report. Writing a conclusion statement requires higher-level analysis and is a skill all students should master. Additionally, the Biology End-of-Course Exam will test the ability of students to write a scientific conclusion statement.
After starting off the lesson with a nuts-and-bolts slide, students read through a fictional scientific experiment case study. I had the opportunity to read through student lab reports from the Baggie Garden experiment this weekend, and there were a few common recurring items that required addressing. The case study was written to include the following:
- An incorrectly written research question
- A hypothesis statement not directly connected with the research question
- Many clearly defined controlled variables
- A graph with data that conflicts with students’ experience from class
After reading through the case study, students publicly identified the research question (bottom of page 1), the hypothesis (first paragraph of page 2), and the experimental variables (manipulated, responding, and at least three controlled). We will continue our work tomorrow, with students using their learning to write a conclusion statement.
Biology EOC Exam Prep
The season of end-of-course (EOC) exams is upon us! This week, students have EOC exams in Geometry (Wednesday) and Algebra (Thursday). The Biology EOC exam is scheduled for next Friday, June 6. Biology students taking the Biology EOC took a practice exam during class today. We will walk through the exam step-by-step during the next class to ensure students have a strong understanding both of the content and of how the exam will be scored. For additional 2013 Biology EOC exam information, visit the Washington State OSPI website.
Science with Swart 