The Blind Boat Maker - A Story About Failure.

Hello readers so today at mentorship my mentor, Mr. Pittman and I were talking about different topics related to what he is teaching in his class at the moment. We eventually got into a talk about genes and Mr. Pittman talked to me about a book called the "The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins the book goes into depth on what evolution is. The story that Mr. Pittman brought up was the Blind Watchmaker but instead of going in depth on the story he said that he didn't like the way the story describes evolution. So he decided to change it to The Blind Boat Maker. The story basically goes like this. There was once a Blind man on an island who had the ability to build boats. He grabs random parts and constructs a boat. After the boat was finished he pushed the boat out to the ocean. If the boat was a success it floated on the sea but if it was a failure it skunked to the bottom of the sea.  One day a boat visited the island and seen all the wonderful boats floating on the sea but didn't see the failures that sunk to the bottom of the sea while because they are failures. They aren't meant to be seen is the point. So the connection to Evolution is that nature creates Biodiversity by giving a different genetic code to every single organism through many different processes. The cool thing I thought about this story is that it can teach everyone a story about life and continuing on with your life after failure. So my readers remember that your  failures will always sinks but your successes will always float on my friends.

How do I study for my Biology test?

Hello readers so sense for my independent component I dissected a section in a book and made a lesson plan and started making a test from scratch.  While making my test I wondered how if I was student studying for this test how would I do it so I started think how I personally how I  studied for my 10th grade Biology test and how can a teacher do little extra things to help the student. I remember personally that Biology tests required me to constantly read the information repeatedly and go through worksheets and notes I did all throughout the unit. Below are my personally top three study methods.

Guided Notes
Guided Notes are amazing. My Mentor ,Mr. Pittman uses them and I remember using something like them in my 9th and 10th grade Biology experience but also in my 10th and 11th history experience. Why are guided notes so great simple they require the student to listen to key words in a teacher's lecture but also once completed a student can cover up the answers and try to fill in the blanks while studying.

Essay Questions
Another awesome thing I remember what my mentor Mr. Pittman did at the beginning of my mentorship was making his students make rubrics for Essay questions. This is a great way to study a student can ask a teacher for essay questions or simply do a google search for questions. How does a rubric help a student simple it makes the student think okay if I was a  teacher grading this question what would I look for. Knowing what a teacher may want can help the student study more on topics that they think they need more help on.

Question Flash cards
This method I got from my sister's Biology teacher and that is making question based flash cards. A student get questions from a book, worksheet etc. and answer them, a note to take into consideration is a student could check answer with either a teacher,a fellow student or even the book. Once the Flash cards are made the student go through each question and answer it. This helps the student become go over questions repeatedly when they make and go through the flash cards again.

I personally used only one of these methods when I was in 10th grade Biology but if i knew about the other two methods i think I could have done way much better my 10th grade Biology tests all throughout the year. This actually will lead me to start getting research for information for my second answer which has something to do with teaching a student good study habits.

Awesome Research Sources From My Mentor

Hello Readers so today at mentorship I got a couple of awesome Sources to add to my Research Notebook and some just to look at and have a basic knowledge of what an AP Biology Teacher must teach there students.

 I Got Three paper resources today. (From Left to Right) An AP Biology Equation and Formula chart, the AP Biology Big Ideas, and last Mr. Pittman's AP Biology Audit. 

 A book about the life of Karl Popper a great man who approach science and life the same way. The book talks about  Karl's views of science in general, Philosophy, and Life 

 A Journal from the California Science Teachers Association. This Books deals with how a teach should approach inquiry labs.

This Book talks about how a teacher should manage their class and talk about different ways of teaching.

Fun with Science, a mentorship update

Hello readers with the first day of December is tomorrow, and I think now would be a great time to fill everybody what I have been doing with my mentor the past three weeks. Just a little background info for those who don't know my mentor is an AP Biology and Anatomy teacher at Ayala High School. I always come to his 6th period class which is Biology but ask about what he's doing in his anatomy class.

The first class I mentored with him. He was preparing his class for a test the next day. He gave groups of student questions relevant to the test the next day but also the questions were taken from AP biology exams from the 1970s to now. He told them to choose in their opinion the hardest one to answer and make a grading rubric, a guideline of what has to be mention in the answer to get a certain full or partial credit. The same session he showed me his practical exam for his anatomy class. My mentor said practical exams are test involving the student doing some kind of hands on approach to answer a question. His test was for the bones of the human body student got the chance to pick up the bones and examine them and name the bone and major landmarks on the bone.

The next session with my mentor his class was taking a test so he decided to go over what common core standards are and what he is responsible for teaching to his students at an AP level. He also showed me how to write out an AP syllabus to get approved by the college board.

The third session was when I actually got to see  his class doing an experiment. My mentors next topic on his agenda was to teach his students diffusion osmosis and water potential. He decided to do three experiments two on the Monday and one on Wednesday and in between each session talk about what they did. The first day he wanted his students to see how a solution passes through a membrane through diffusion by  measuring the conductivity of water surrounding the membrane containing the solution. After that we did another experiment after class that he was going to do with his anatomy class the next day. My mentor asked a student if she would like to do an experiment with us and be our guinea pig. He put a positive electrode on her right temple, a negative electrode in between her nose and right eye and finally a ground above her right eye. We measured electrical potential in the eye and told me the responses that the electrodes gave to us would be something he would tell his students to dissect and describe each individual spike and drop and they can seance he already showed them how.

The next session he made his class do a qualitative lab he gives them a question and as little information as possible and the students in groups must think what is the best way to answer it. They had the choice to choose as many time they will take data, how they set up their experiment and how long they want to take data for. My Mentor said theses labs are great because it makes them recall past knowledge and think what in their opinion is the best way to answer the question.

The last session I went to he asked me to write down what are his teaching methods. I notice that he like the students to try to figure out the problem themselves by recalling past knowledge. He wants me to now if to try to write out a lesson plan on any topic in Biology and try to use the techniques he use but also come up with some of my own.

On that note it seems that I have came to the end of my mentorship sessions. In total I have done 7 and half hours and learned so much more on my topic and ways to teach Biology.

Topic Change and what to come.

Hello readers so i have some exciting news so my senior topic going into the year was "Clinical Laboratory Technician" and I was experiencing some problems with that topic. The first of many was that it was super hard for me to find a mentor, my dad knew someone at Quest Diagnostics but due to legal reasons and confidentially issues i couldn't mentor at their lab. Then the next problem was research for the topic was hard to find and due to most lab processes and techniques being not available for the general public.

So what is my new topic If you couldn't tell from the change of scenery and a new header on top of my page that my topic is " Teaching Biology at a High School Level." I chose this topic because I love biology and i wonder how is teaching Biology different from learning Biology. An Added bonus with this topic is that i knew many people who are Biology teachers and could help me find research and possibly mentor me. Speaking of Mentor I actually already have a mentor his name is Anthony Pittman. I met him during the hike  on Big bear and by the last name most people can deduct that he is Mrs. Pittman husband. He teaches AP Biology at Ayala High School in Chino Hills. I plan to mentor him twice a week for about an 1 and half a day.

So whats next simple research I have Three topics that i would like to go more in depth on. The first is how to teach teenagers and how their brains work. The second topic is Teaching Techniques and the last topic i want to research is common core standards and how are schools integrating to fit these standards.

Medical Laboratory Importance and Roles

What is the first thing you think of a medical lab well for me it was a place were blood and other biological samples are analyse. Now from this first month of senior project behind me I have gained knowledge that I will like to share with you. So back to the first question I ask at the beginning of this post but let me add to my answer the month of research i have done. I have learned that a lab is an amazing place were the lab workers have an equal  role of importance compared to a Doctor. In a lab the workers analyse samples ordered from a clients doctor they file their findings in a lab report then finally send the results back to the doctors to decide what should be done to help client.

The nest question I will like you to ponder on is, What are the many different roles do you think people in a lab will have. There are many different specialty roles like a phlebotomist specialist or a microbiology specialist but in every labs there are three main important roles that each have their own individual roles in a sense like the group roles given for projects at iPoly. The roles are stated below.

Lab Director - A lab director responsibility is that they must direct orders given to all workers of a lab. they must keep the lab in task and make sure everyone in the lab understands what they need and give help to anyone who needs it. A lab director must make sure the lab is running its full potential. This role is similar to the Facilitator role in class in a sense both roles make sure that their co-workers understands what they are analyzing

Lab Scientist - A lab scientist responsibility is they must analyse the analyst and write reports to give to the doctor. This role is similar to the Reporter role in that both roles look at the data given and organize the groups report.

Lab Technician - A lab technician  responsibility is that they must make sure all lab devices work and then us the devices to gather information for the lab scientist to write their lab report. They are responsibility is also they must make sure the lab scientist understands what he is giving them to analyse. This role is similar to the Research Manager both roles get data for the group to look over and draw the details to write a good report.

Lab Assistant - A lab assistant responsibility is to listen to the need of all other lab workers and make sure that everybody in the lab is working at their full potential. The lab assistant also is the person who get specimens from clients they must have good people skills and must be able to report everything important in the client's record to better help the client later. Their role is similar to the Harmonizer role both must make sure the lab gets consensus an be an active listener to the other workers of the lab

So now you know how each role learned at iPoly has been preparing us for the real world in which we must take up one of these roles for actual pay. You have also learned the importance of a lab tech and the process in which specimens are processed