Planet Chimera

1
Planet Chimera
2
Basis

• A young Falkan Islander walking along a beach and
  spying a dead dogfish and going to work on it
  with his jacknife has, in a fashion wholly
  unprovided for in modern educational theory, a
  great advantage over the Scarsedale high school
  pupil who finds the dogfish on his laboratory
  desk Walker Percy, The Loss of the Creature (p.
  56)

3
Limitations of Biology Dissection.

• Dissection Exercise is usually conducted as a
  reversal of the natural learning process in which
  the answers are provided before the questions
  Schank and Cleary, Engines for education (p.5)
• Task is usually reduced to following instructions
  of an operation rather than authentic exploration
  and scientific inquiry.
• Students may have moral objections to animal harm

4
The Solution

• Interactive Online Virtual Dissections have many
  advantages.
• The organisms can be imaginary, and the life
  forms can have unknown organ structures, allowing
  for genuine exploration.
• Minimal resources, maximum access
• Nobody Gets Hurt

5
The Standards

• Science Standard 1. The central purpose of
  Scientific Inquiry is to develop explanations of
  natural phenomena in a continuing, creative
  Program
• Students will be responsible for using empirical
  evidence to contextualize a mystery creatures
  method of survival and interaction with its
  environment

6

• Science Standard 2 Beyond the Use of Reasoning
  and Consensus, inquiry involves the testing of
  proposed explanations involving the use of
  conventional techniques and procedures, and
  usually requiring considerable ingenuity
• Peer Review Process, Tests within Dissection

7

• Science Standard 3 The Observations made while
  testing proposed explanations, when analyzed
  using conventional and invented methods, provide
  new insights onto phenomena.
• Revisions, collaboration, and contextualization

8

• Engineering and Design Standard 1
• Engineering design is an iterative process
  involving modeling and optimization finding the
  best solution within the given constraints which
  is used to develop technological solutions to
  poblems within the given constraints
• Determining which websites are suitable sources
  of information and coming up with a set of
  heuristics to determine suitability of site
  content.

9
PowerPoint as Programming Language

• Hyperlinking
• Teacher Access
• Flexibility
• Not as intimidating/time consuming
• Powerful

10
CONTENT
Links
Teacher Background Information
Powerpoint Applet
Excel
Keyloggers
11
LINKS

• http//curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/frog/Frog2/
  - An Online Frog Dissection
• http//biodidac.bio.uottawa.ca/ - Great
  collection of biology related pictures,
  information, and links
• http//www.biologybase.com/ - Extensive
  information on Different Classifications of
  Animals
• http//www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/ - Paleontology
  (another related group of people exploring
  mysterious animals through limited evidence)
• http//www.epress.com/w3jbio/ - A Peer Reviewed
  Online Biology Journal, could be used to preface
  the peer review exercises

12
Excel

• Students will build an excel spreadsheet based on
  the measurement information obtained from the
  experiment
• Students will construct graphs and charts of this
  information, and compare it to information
  obtained on other life forms in order to attempt
  to make parallel connections.

13
Excel Continued

• This is a hypothetical expirimental design
• Can we use our measurements to predict the types
  of organ etc
• Guide students to construct the exerimental
  design
• Provide them with technical assistance

14
Excel Spreadsheets
Rubric
Measurements
15
Discussion Board/Peer Review

• Students will post their ultimate findings on a
  discussion board, where they will be required to
  read and critically evaluate their colleagues
  findings, challenge each other to suplement their
  findings with additional information, and defend
  or modify their results based on their peers
  feedback

16
Statwin Pro

• Free Download (no infringement concerns)
• Can track students progress through an applet by
  rcording keystrokes and mouse movement
• May need to be approved by internet security
  protocols of the district
• Possible abuse issues?