Online Teaching Reflections: Day 31

This a quick post just to emphasize (as I have written about before) how much I LOVE using hypothetical medical case studies as inquiry entry points in my Biology classes. Positioning students in a scenario where they have to diagnosis a "patient" given minimal information, if done correctly, tunnels them into the a subsequent lecture so well.

In lieu of the ability to do wet labs, student feedback has indicated that case study analysis is a great use of time in the distance learning setting. Today's case study was designed to simultaneously serve as an inquiry entry point for a discussion on enzymes and enzyme kinetics and a review of previous information learned last week about hemoglobin and protein structure.

Click here for the form where students read the scenario and submitted their answers. Click here for the output form with their answers. Click here for the slide show, communicated via Zoom, where I revealed their diagnosis. The entire process took 2 hours and concluded with a nice lecture on Enzymes to spackle in missing information from the their diagnostic research. 

I encourage any teachers out there who are starving for something engaging to do with their Bio students to c consider positioning content in the form of a Case Study. Diabetes to introduce Cellular Respiration, etc. It really helps frame the content for the kiddos. My two cents.