Think About It, Then Talk About It: Content Driven Inquiry Leading to CER Strategies in Science

This grant has been designed around multiple investigations in which students will focus on core concepts of Cell Biology. First they will discover patterns of diffusion, which results from the random movement of molecules and other small particles. Diffusion is essential to the life of a cell. Many nutrients enter a cell by diffusion, and the same process discharges waste products. Diffusion occurs rapidly over short distances but more slowly over longer distances. In this STEM activity, students will use agar cell models to observe the results of diffusion over a period of 10 min. Students then reinforce the results by using calculations to explore the relationship between diffusion rates and cell size and the importance of the ratio of a cell’s surface area to its volume. As a result students will be able to write a formal claim and use their evidence from the lab to justify their responses.
As a second tier to Students will also use dialysis tubing and numerous solutions to to examine and explain the semipermeable nature of a cell membrane. It will be open inquiry as far as design goes and will allow them to determine their own experimental design. In return they will write a claim about the movement of iodine and startch particles across a semipermeable (dialysis tubing) membrane. Finally, I have designed an activities that will allow students to use our class set of microscopes. They will work to predict and generate claims about patterns and common trends in cellular division (microscope lab). They will also get to analyze differences in types of cells using the bacterial cell types slides.