I have been teaching for so long that I often rediscover things I developed many moons ago. It's kind of like shopping deep in the back of my own closet, only with school stuff. Lately I've had to look back on everything I used to do, mainly because I'm not in a 1:1 classroom anymore and I feel like I'm reinventing an old and very rusty wheel. I am currently getting together a student packet for our upcoming Cell Transport Unit in Biology, and I came across this little gem hiding out in a folder called "Objective packets." As I perused all of the packets in the folder, I remember that I wrote them in order to have content better aligned to our objectives. I also wrote them because textbooks often simply to the point of inaccuracy, and my students would shout out phrases from the book as answers to my questions, fully expecting to be rewarded for "right" answers that they didn't even understand.
I was aiming for understanding and meaning-making rather than words and phrases that helped students accumulate points.
I'm going to use these with my students during this next unit. If you want in on the cell transport goodness, you can access the file above and other packets written about passive transport, cell surface area-to-volume ratio, and cell membrane structure, you can access my folder by clicking here. All I ask is that, if you use them and make them better, you share the bettering you've done back with me. Enjoy!
