IGCSE: Active Listening
IGCSE students are learning about conservation and how bees are a vital part of a healthy ecosystem. As such, our department decided to show the film entitled: Vanishing Bees a documentary investigating the economical impact of the world wide loss of bees. Below students are practicing their active listening skills by implementing graphic recording. See some images below.
Building a Mesocosm
IB1 students were asked to construct a mesocosm, which is a closed ecosystem that allows for variables to be controlled. Ours students used five bottles, 1 aquatic plant, some distilled water, coal, soil, cat poop (this was left in one of our student’s sunflower pot, which happened to be their individual investigation, so we decided to make use of it in our mesocosm), 3 earth worms, cress seeds, and rocks and some compost. The mesocosm is thriving near a window in our room and has been growing for several months now. We look forward to examining it next academic year.
Below are some photos. Enjoy.
Augmented Reality in the Garden
IB1 students were each given a learning objective covering Topic 9.3 that they had to learn and teach to their peers. They were instructed to do two things:
- Create a video teaching their learning objective
- Create an Aura using the Aurasma app
Feedback from students was excellent! They absolutely loved being in the garden and using their iPads to learn about plants. This is a great way to get kids up out of their seat. Using augmented reality also increases overall engagement and makes learning a bit more exciting than the traditional teacher centered approach.
Plasticine Bites
IGCSE Y10 students were asked to create an annotated model of a tooth. Here are some fantastic examples of their work below. Enjoy.
Making Models -A Delicious Way to Learn
IB1 students were asked to construct an edible cell membrane model made from Oreo cookies and gummy candy. This tactile activity helped to solidify students understanding of the cell membrane structure and was deliciously enjoyable!
Using Bioviewers in IB Biology
IB1 were asked to use Bioviewers to examine and practice drawing the structure of prokaryotes.
Edible Kreb’s Cycle Models
In order to increase understanding and comprehension, Year 13 IB Biology (HL) students were asked to create edible Kreb’s Cycle models, which were absolutely fantastic and of course delicious! I’m so impressed with their projects! 
CGB Year 12 Memories of 2014-2015
This was the first time that I have had the opportunity to teach an all girl group, and I have to say that I absolutely adore these group of girls! We had such a wonderful time in Biology HL this year as we made models, creating biology music videos, design digestion t-shirts, created iBook stories about biotechnology, and incorporated augmented reality project when learning about defense against diseases. Overall, it has been an amazing year with these group of girls and this video highlights and celebrates their success.
CGB Year 7 Memories of 2014-2015
I have had so much fun with this group of students – they truly have made teaching an absolute joy! They are true inquirers, comical and have a willingness to learn that makes teaching truly fabulous! This video is a collage of their hard work from our year together!
# I wish my teacher knew
I am inspired by primary teacher Kyle Schwartz who posed the question: ‘I wish my teacher knew’? Obviously her students felt safe to be completely transparent about their ‘wishes’, and I think that speaks volumes about the type of safe learning environment that she has created for her students. See video below. I will pose this question to my Year 12 tutor group and ask them to create a video log of their response ( to be uploaded shortly – stay tuned).
