EDVANCED- Education Advanced

Lesson Focus: Students in the IBDP Environmental Systems and Societies (ESS) course explored the following questions through peer assessment as a tool for assessment for learning: Outline how land bridges affect speciation and biodiversity. Outline how Earth's movement of tectonic plates can lead to speciation. Lesson Activities: Understanding Command Terms and Keywords: Students were divided into groups to write their responses. They unpacked the command term "outline" and key concepts such as "speciation," "biodiversity," "land bridges," and "tectonic plates." Contextual Examples: Students incorporated contextual examples from their own backgrounds like Ram Setu , isthmus of panama and Bering land bridge and ethnicities, enhancing their connection to the learned concepts. Peer Review Process: Groups moved around the classroom to review others' responses. They identified commonalities, shared their questions, looked for ...

Protein synthesis is a critical piece forming the basis of molecular biology. Given the intricate nature of protein synthesis, what could have been a better way of engaging the students and creative way to know what do they value the most as a part of their journey in IB. This let us to identifying the need to create bracelets on various themes. They decided on the theme and whom to gift the bracelet. Act Now Bracelet: represents enzymes, proteins that catalyze chemical reactions in our cells.  Support Bracelet: represents keratin, a protein that gives structure or support to our nails.  Breathe Bracelet: represents haemoglobin, which transports oxygen throughout our body.  Health Bracelet: represents antibodies, proteins that help the body fight off disease.  Journey Well Bracelet: this bracelet represents hormones, proteins that travel through our body to help regulate metabolism. Strength Bracelet: this bracelet represents actin which is a protein that helps muscl...

I had an opportunity to attend a Serious Play Lego workshop at Campus UWCSEA East. As much as the name is misleading , it was purely a democratic and active engagement session.  I have a Lego fan at home, my son and have always been awed by his inquistiveness to make a model, break it and transform into something completely new with his imagination and influences of choices he makes on a daily basis. The workshop just allowed me to bridge the gap of ideas to expression, allowing for enhanced metacognitive skills and deeper desire of using this in my classroom. One of the key take away from the workshop was building models using LEGO blocks and sharing stories and insights using metaphors. One of the questions I had in cue card was to use 5 brick model to represent 'The symbol of success?'. Here is what I did in the process. With a 40 minute experience, I thought of giving this process the very first try at home with my son. As the LEGO serious play open guide states, "The ...

Part One : Performance Under Pressure or Over Pressure. Recently I heard a conversation where a young student asked a famous cricketer 'How do you deal and perform under Pressure?','What are your coping mechanisms and how do you manage to succeed most of the times even with enormous pressure of performance, pride at stake and personal image?' 'Can you give me some tips how to deal with pressure of studying, doing well in exams and with the fear of failing and not succeeding.' The Cricketer's reply was simple yet sensible. 'If you have prepared well for that situation, nothing will change in a day. And if you haven't prepared well enough for it, again nothing will change in one day." I have often heard people saying 'I perform better under pressure'. I like to think this as a complex response that could be broken into 'I', 'perform better' and 'under pressure'.Perhaps the very beginning of the phrase is daunting fo...

Great joy comes when we humans can employ both, brain and hands to any work. This is what I witnessed when my students of Year 9 had to model the structure of Villi using the Modelling clay and using stop motion frames to explain a scientific concept. As they explored with a complex scientific process, they started engaging with their groups in explaining and justifying how their model should look ? This activity was centralised around the idea of fun learning and recall for later. As the students investigated into manipulating with hands to create physical model of their learning and analysing the role of structure, the real learning took place. As the students were planning to show a process and role of villi in the small intestine, they used critical thinking skills to sequence the order. Structure of a Villi This activity allowed to students to build their own representation model of the concept and create meaningful reflections. The groups engaged in interaction during the unfoldi...

This pillow recently made a way to my Home. And you ask how do I feel?. Well, I am not a big fan of Pineapples. A sweet tropical fruit is notorious to slice, requires some sharp tools and a sharp mind. So if you are one of those people who like to eat Pineapples, it's a great fruit loaded with some proven benefits for the skin. But the problem is, if you are able to make your way past that ugly looking fruit, you are going to end up eating a lot more than intended. The more you eat, the sore and irritated your tongue and throat will get. So what's the deal? "Be a pineapple: Stand tall, wear a crown, and be  sweet on the inside."                                                                                                       ...