About Our Class

• Teacher: Gina Smearsoll
• School: Cincinnati Christian Schools
• Grades: High School Students (Grades 9,10,11,12)

What We're Doing

• Planning to Start: 10/05/2020
• Planning to End: 11/06/2020
• Theme: The Wonder of Seeds (seed germination and growth)
• Expected Breaks: Students will be off school on Wednesday, October 14th. This should not interfere with data collection.
• Course: The course is Honors Biology for high school freshmen. We just finished covering scientific methodology and are currently in a unit on the chemistry of life. During the PlantingScience session time, we will study cells and cellular processes, including photosynthesis and cellular respiration.

Our Outcomes

I have two main goals for my students as they participate in this module with PlantingScience. One goal is to connect the students with a data-driven scientist working authentically in the field of biology. I think it is so important for students to see that the methodology they learn in the classroom is truly “real” in the work of scientists. This helps them connect what we are studying to real-world applications that are meaningful to them, their families, their communities, and the world. The second goal is for students to create a question for inquiry and then design an investigation that can answer that question. So often in science instruction, students are simply following recipe-like directions in which they just mindlessly do one step after the other without really thinking through the steps and why they are doing them. Using inquiry, students are more invested in the investigation because they thought of the question and they are designing the steps to collect the data that will either support or refute the hypothesis. I desire for the students to learn how to think as much as they learn how scientific investigations work.