Sample Lesson Plans And Examples of Student Work
"Safe & Educated Experiences"
https://teachsex.weebly.com/ is a website I created for the sex-ed curriculum program I developed during my masters program. This curricular package serves to meet the gap that currently exists in sex education as it seeks to provide a comprehensive, unbiased sexual education that is rooted in both the biological background and the sociological background of sex ed. At the end of this curriculum, students should have a greater understanding of the human reproductive system, the biological nature of the menstrual cycle, the importance of voicing and waiting for consent in a relationship, the differences between various birth control methods, and an awareness of different sexually transmitted infections and diseases. The goal of this curriculum is to equip the students with an ability to practice, or abstain from, sexual relationships responsibly.
Examples of Student Work:
Here are a few examples of the lessons I have created for my students and the amazing work they were able to produce:
Water InvestigationAs an introduction to the relationship between social justice and access to a healthy environment, also known as Environmental Racism, I created an interdisciplinary lesson for the students in which they were all citizens of a city experiencing a health crisis, inspired by the water quality crisis in Flint. I gave the students each a role and a specific "experience" in the town, as well as a brief description of the town.
As an interdisciplinary lesson, the humanities teacher acted as the "Town Historian", my Cooperating Teacher acted as the "Town Mayor", and I acted as the "Town Scientist". I provided the town historian with a history of Flint up to the start of the water crisis, the mayor with a description of the political climate and how the true mayor of Flint behaved during the beginnings of this crisis, and I myself had a list of the different types of research that had been performed at the time. The students were tasked to determine the source of the illness spreading through the city, with the ability to ask the town historian, mayor, and scientist for information, as well as to work together and share their own experiences. This activity then culminated in a "town hall meeting" in which the "citizens" shared their discoveries and hypotheses for the cause of the crisis. As the town scientist, I then debriefed the students on the true cause coupled with a brief comparison between the students' experience and the experience of those who live in Flint. Pokemon CladogramsKnowing the popularity of Pokemon and Pokemon Go right now, I led a project where we constructed cladograms (evolutionary trees) of pokemon species, and at the end of each tree, students were challenged to create a final "super evolution" which encompassed all the environmental needs of the pokemon. With each pokemon on the cladogram, they were challenged to write a description of the pokemon's niche. At the intersections on the cladogram, they were to focus on the evolutionary differences between each evolution and to determine a reason why that pokemon evolved, making a reference to the four principles of natural selection.
On the right are some examples of the cladograms students assembled: |
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Floral CoevolutionIn another example, students were taught about the coevolution between pollinators and flowers and were encouraged to create their own pollinator-flower pair, creating the "perfect flower" for the pollinator they were assigned. Their flower was meant to consider the following aspects of their pollinator: can they smell, what smells are they attracted to, can they see colors and are certain colors preferred, how is their mouth/proboscis shaped, how do they move around, what environment type they prefer, do they prefer certain textures/shape/size of flowers, do they prefer flowers in bunches or individual, and are there any other special characteristics to mention.
Below are some examples of the flowers that students created: |
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Strawberry DNA Extraction |
Unit Plan |
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