This group contains the Fall 2017 PlantingScience projects from Jefferson City High School, led by teacher Susan Saracini-Cram and scientist-liaison Kate Eisen.

My goal for my students this year is to practice and gain confidence and prowess as scientifically literate citizens of our community.  I hope that working through the Planting Science platform my students will engage in scientific thought and discussions with their peers and with field scientists/professionals.  I want my students to value their deductive reasoning skills and apply the investigative methodology in science to help them solve unique and inquiry based problems.

The majority of my students are 10th grade biology students.  Many of my students this semester are very bright and interested in science however a small portion are also below grade level in reading and math and are not intrinsically motivated.  Science is a daily struggle and difficult for them to grasp and engage for several reasons.

My students have a basic understanding of the characteristics of all living things, the basic differences between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells, water and basic organic chemistry - classes of macromolecules and their characteristics, DNA structure and replication, cell division and protein synthesis.  The Power of Sunlight module will be incorporated into my unit on cellular energy.

My class meets daily from 11:35 to 1:30 with a lunch break for 12:40 to 1:05 Central time.

I believe we will start 10/18/17 and continue for 2 -3 weeks into early November.  My schedule is very restrictive as I have to cover a tremendous amount of content for End of Course testing in December.  Biology is one semester at my school.

My students all have internet and iPad access daily at school and many have internet services at home.  They have access to the iPads at school and at home.