A concept wall ... wait, what?

So last year we had an inservice training and they were trying to get us to have a word wall.  That sounds great, for elementary school teachers, or English teachers, but I just can't see it in my high school biology/AP biology room.  So I decided to try to get the students to create a concept wall.

I originally envisioned  the large blank wall in my room, gradually being filled with student work that visually explained concepts in biology.  And by the end of the year it would be a huge "cheat sheet" and contain all the info we had learned.  So, who needs this most ... the freshmen ... mistake!  It was ridiculous.  I gave up. 

Toward the end of the year I let my AP students take the project on as a review of what they needed to know before their exam.  This time I put up colored paper and sectioned off the paper into the units that we had covered.  This was an improvement, but still fairly lame. 

So this year we are starting anew.  I am starting it at the beginning of the year with the AP students.  We are having a contest at the end of each sub section for the info and the design of the info for the wall. 

Has anyone ever tried this before, or have ideas that could help?

A new year ... a new experiment

I am hoping to share what I am doing in class, what I am excited about, what is working, and what fizzles.

Right now I am playing with Minigroup and LiveBinders.  I plan on changing my AP Biology class to make the students more responsible for their learning.  I am planning on the AP class creating a concept wall again.  (It failed last year with the freshmen in charge, then the AP taking it over late in the year.)  Interactive Notebooks are back in a big way for the 3rd year.  I think the next few posts will talk about these things I have done in the past.

If you have any suggestions, comments or questions please contact me.