"They were anxiously sensing the arrival of midterms and experiencing a combination of anticipation, anxiety, and excitement as they asked to review mitosis, meiosis, DNA replication, and protein synthesis," said the enthusiastic and creative Ms. Josephs. For the past four years, she watched many of her students labor over study guides as they encountered their first cumulative high school exams. But this year was different. In the weeks leading up to midterms, Ms. Josephs decided to shake things up a bit and assign videos for sharing and study. 

Ms. Josephs further described how she conceived of the idea. “Animations and videos can be incredibly useful for visualizing and reinforcing concepts. Over the years, I have found a variety of two-minute clips from the BBC Natural History Unit and TEDEd, which have illuminated ideas and brought biology to life.” Through such videos, her students have peeked into the water-filled world of the tiny Brazilian pygmy gecko and have witnessed the strange behavior of “zombified” bullet ants. While such clips are incredibly useful for inspiring wonder and demonstrating evolutionary and ecological concepts, they do not explicitly articulate the mechanisms students need to understand for the midterm. Videos that would help students reinforce learning would have to be more explanatory and specific to what they learned; like watching a compelling snippet about how water molecules interact and an epic two-minute drama explaining the size and scaling differences between cells and atoms. The students need an examination of proteins, an investigation of enzymes, an visual and memorable example of how materials travel through the cell membrane, and a music video showing mitosis.” Solution? The students would make the videos themselves.

 

Ms. Josephs assigned students into pairs and gave each of them a concept. As they developed scripts and storyboards, she described the energy in the room as “electric.” Once their plans had crystallized, they shot their videos and submitted the finished products on flash drives. In the end, each video was uploaded onto a website, so the students could have access to a compelling conceptual map of their semester.

 

With great pride, Ms. Josephs summarized, “Throughout this whole process, I was continually inspired by my students’ creativity, optimism, tenacity, and willingness to collaborate. I am so proud of their work and imagination and am happy to share it here with the Dalton community." 

Story idea provided by Ms. Molly Josephs