Project Overview: Each student writes a story about themself or their life in which 2 quantities vary in relationship to one another. Students then draw a matching graph that accurately reflects the story’s changes.
Lesson Overview: These slides contain short profiles of young and diverse Biologists doing biological research involving genetics. A teacher could integrate these slides into a broader lesson regarding genetics, current research, etc.
This 2-3 day lesson includes activities and written reflection, some of which use data for interpretation. It begins with exercises about exclusion and leads to a lesson about the impact of students using the phrase “that’s so gay.” Specifically, students examine data about suicide and depression rates among LGBTQ youth. As a social studies lesson, it would fit well in a unit on Japanese Exclusion and the Holocaust. Click here for slides.
Activity Overview: Introduce your family to the class -- in Japanese!
Activity: Explore the diversity of family structures by looking at works of art from a photography exhibit at the MFA called “(un)expected families.” Next, pick someone from your own life who makes you feel a sense of family to honor. Turn a photo of this person or people in a type of print called a collagraph.
Activity: How the human species evolve to have such a wide and beautiful array of skin tones? Is skin tone an inherited trait? Is racial identity an inherited trait? After reading this article and/or watching this video and this animation, students will consider a range of different questions. Finally, a class could use this activity, article, and/or other materials to discuss the relationship (if any) between genetics, skin tone, and race.
Student Reflection:
“I enjoyed it because it was a subtle way of doing it. We didn't solely discuss racial identity, because this is a biology course. But it was integrated with the science in a way that while fulfilling the scientific purpose of the course, we also learned about racial identity. I liked reading the article the most because I found the basis of why skin tones emerged very interesting, and something I never really knew before.” Activity: Design a shoe that reveals 10 things your classmates and teacher would never know about you... unless we walked in your shoes.
Activity: One of the themes of the graphic novel American Born Chinese is that connecting to your roots can give you power. This short story assignment asks students to connect to their own roots by researching a character from the mythology, religion, or literature of their culture(s) and then bringing this character to life in their own, original short stories -- just like Gene Luen Yang did with the Monkey King in his graphic novel.
Student Reflection:
"I liked learning about an aspect of my culture I didn't even know existed and being able to make it my own!" Activity Overview: Make a quick video in which you tell me all about your name. Here are some possible talking points:
Variations of the Activity:
Teacher Reflection: This activity was a happy accident that I will intentionally repeat in the future! I found that students spoke more freely on camera and shared more about themselves than I would have thought to ask. |
AuthorsThe content showcased here is very much the work of a large, diverse group of BHS teachers. Categories
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