Understanding genetics and the role of teachers
Genetics is often touted as a complicated subject for most students. This is in part due to the fact that students are expected to understand the broad range of concepts over the span of one year. Firm in the belief that elementary students (specifically fourth graders and above) are capable of learning genetic concepts, the QA team designed a genetics unit. In the Drakos Dilemma unit, students are required to breed drakos, a species of Atlantian dragonfly, in order to combat the plague (Alas, it seems the Ingolstadt plague has found its way to Healthy!). This unit brings together concepts such as phenotype, genotype, dominant and recessive genes, and Punnett Square in an engaging and I dare say, fun way.
In order to breed drakos, students need to understand how the aforementioned concepts relate to one another and apply their knowledge of Punnett Squares in breeding drakos. Students are introduced to a variety of interesting characters, many of whom are best remembered due to their unique personalities.
Between the months of February and March, the Drakos Dilemma unit was introduced to two fourth-grade elementary schools in the Mid-west. Pre and post tests administered demonstrated significant gains for both classes. The results of the implementation indicated that students were indeed able to utilize the concepts effectively, while remaining immersed in the narrative. Students demonstrated a good understanding of how to use single trait Punnett Squares, while most struggle with the two-trait version.
Based on these results, a minor revision of the unit is underway in order to address the gaps in the current curriculum. This revision will include a more engaging narrative, one that we believe will provide students with the impetus to seek the knowledge that they require to achieve the intended goal of the unit. In addition to the teacher-directed unit, we will be releasing a multiplayer version of drakos – students can continue working with drakos once they are done with the classroom version of the Drakos Dilemma. This multiplayer version is less curriculum-focused, emphasizing more on cooperation and allowing more opportunities for play and col production.
Through these two implementations, it is evident that teachers are highly instrumental in fostering understanding of the curricular content. While this factor may seem obvious to many, this aspect is sometimes under-emphasized when educators and policy makers alike tout the benefits of technology in the classroom. Without teachers, the curriculum cannot be fully successful. The designed curriculum can only go so far; while students may very well learn the content, the presence of a teacher is vital is ensuring that students are critically engaged in their learning, engaging in meta-reflexivity of what is being learned. Our designs thus very much depend on our partners; the teachers who share the same vision of nurturing and enhancing the lives of children through personally relevant yet pedagogically sound experiences.
Nice work! I look forward to trying out this genetics unit once I get my training. I am with Full Sail at the moment in Dr. Seigal’s class. Any chance you can create another genetics quest that would include mutations and epigenetics? Fruitflies would be a great target species to use for the quest since so many mutations have been documented on them (Drosophila melanogaster).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drosophila_melanogaster
I am looking forward to working with you and with some kids in Australia. I teach science in Fillmore, California and would love for my students to share info with your students about the California Condor in our backyard and the Channel Islands in Ventura – in exchange for reef ecology or whatever is in your backyard.
Good day,
Laurie Merrill
My congrats to the Drakos designers and researchers. Mt 4th grade class was one of the research sites. Indeed, the teacher is vital and at the same time, the construction of the Drakos world, with its complexities and interactions for breeding dragonflies, was handled by nearly all of the kids in my classroom. Engagement was high, peer teaching was rampant, peer reading help was significant for many of my low readers. The fun aspect, as kids wrote in their debriefing, was catching and breeding dragonflies. I think because there was movement and exploration involved, as well as a task, that the kids lost sight of the difficulties – instead, their perseverance was high and I saw no on give up on a mission. I hope to push this experience a little further by studying the engagement and the academic success that happened with the kids + the acquisition of 21st century skills that the kids were using in doing the mission. — Terry Smith