Lesson from Module 2

Lesson Plan- MI and Technology

I need to teach the cell and its organelles to my 9^th grade students. I have worked to make this lesson one that is interesting, fun, and one that will be remembered. Originally, I used a little thing called a Microviewer to let students have a chance to learn about the organelles. A Microviewer is like a little microscope with prepared negative type slides. It showed them various electron microscope photographs of organelles and described their function. Students needed to draw the pictures and answer the questions.

Now, however, I have turned this lesson into more of an experience. I now have students work in groups to create a “cell school”. They must use the internet and their notes to research cell organelles. They must then match up the organelles with similarly functioning school units. For example, the principal may be the nucleus- “brain”, main portion of the school, or the hallways can represent the endoplasmic reticulum which acts as the passageways in a cell. Students then must then create an architectural drawing of their school on a poster and have the choice of creating a PowerPoint presentation justifying their choices or an electronic brochure explaining the choices. This gets presented to the class and the posters get hung up in the hallway. This is one of the few lessons I have that consistently has students fully engaged as they argue over the representations.