AP Biology Mitosis Lab

At AP training we were having issues with the mitosis lab because we could not get the onions to produce roots. A friend I met at training, Stephanie, suggested using garlic because she had success with it I the past. I decided to go ahead and test the garlic. I had plenty of roots within a couple of days. This picture is 4 days after I set it in the water.

Interactive Notebooks

One of the teachers at AP training had very funny names for her notebooks.  BILL (Biological Interactive Learning Log) & TED (The Experiment Document).  I am totally copying this idea (with her permission of course), but I doubt many of my students will make the connection during our excellent adventure.

AP Summer Institute

AP training this year was somewhat overwhelming.  I registered for the one closest to me so I could sleep in my own bed, but it wasn't until August 6-9.  This was way too late.  I have so many ideas, but not much time to make those a reality for this year.

The AP Biology curriculum has changed for this year.  Most of the labs are new, but seem like they can be broken into pieces that we will be able to complete in one class period.  There is a lot of emphasis on open inquiry labs. Many topics have been cut out, which frees up time, to cover other topics for longer, but which topics?  How much more time should I allow?  I dreamed about AP Thursday night after four days of training.  I started out Friday trying to make a timeline for the year, and ended up wanting to crawl in bed, get under the covers, and never come out.  I have recovered.  And I am attempting to play it by ear as much as possible, but that really doesn't work with me.

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?