An Idea for Autumn Inquiry

Autumn is a season with a distinct feel and smell. The combination of generally comfortable temperatures, the low angle sunlight, and the odors of the newly decomposing summer accumulation of vegetation create a unique atmosphere that is uniquely stimulating. The activity of the natural world is intensified as organisms react to the changing season—reproductively and energetically. And it is easier to observe many organisms not usually seen since the vegetation is dying back. One such organism could very well serve as an inspiration for student research and inquiry.

From mid September to early November, take a walk along the wooded edge of almost any field in the eastern two thirds of KS and you might notice small twigs lying on the ground under the overhanging tree limbs. You might also find these twings along the ever increasing suburban walking trails where these trails pass beneath overhanging trees. These twigs may be from any number of trees from elm, hackberry, and honey locusts in the west to hickories, pecans and persimmons in the east. These are definitely twigs, usually no more than 15 mm in diameter at their thickest and about as long as your arm. As twigs there is not much to call your attention to them except for a couple of unusual observations. You’ll notice that they still have their leaves attached. In fact they are the brown, dead leaves or the dried green leaves of branches separated from the tree while still green—not the leaves of autumn. As you pick up one of these twigs you will notice that the butt-end appears to have been cut from the tree. This is the sign of twig girdlers.

Twig girdlers (Oncideres cingulata) are long-horned beetles (Cerambycidae) with an interesting life cycle. They range throughout much of the eastern U.S. In September adult females lays eggs towards the end of twigs of various hardwoods. After laying 3 or more eggs on an outer twig the female then girdles the twig by cutting about halfway through the twig with her mandibles. Later, fall winds in autumn help to separate the twigs from the tree—thus why they are found beneath trees this time of the year. The eggs are in the twig. They hatch in late fall or winter (at least in the southern states). The larval stage is spent entirely within the twig. The twig is food source and protective shelter. The larva pupates in late summer. The adults emerge shortly after and the cycle renews.

I’ve introduced numerous students to twig girdlers during autumn walks and fieldwork for biology classes. I’ve found them wherever I have taught—usually on campus or very near. In the past I’ve just focused on the interesting life history but recently it occurred to me that this organism might be a very fruitful and accessible organism for student-centered research.

The unique life history of this organism offers a rich source of questions for student study. They twigs are easy to find in the fall. In a very short time one student or a group of students can collect a large sample of girdled twigs from different tree species over a wide range of habitats. It’s fairly simple to determine the number of eggs on each twigs and it’s also easy to take measurements of the dimensions of the twigs. I expect that raising the eggs to larva to adults should be relatively easy, also. Quick, accessible questions come to mind. Is the type of tree selected as a host correlated with the size of twig selected? Eggs Laid? Pupae success? Is there a correlation between size of twig and offspring produced? What about parasitoids and parasites? What predators to the larva contend with?

If you are intrigued about twig girdlers you can learn more about them at: http://www.ag.auburn.edu/enpl/bulletins/twiggirdler/twiggirdler.htm

If you find some twigs near campus take your students for a stroll and see if you can’t get a good round of questions coming from your students about this interesting phenomenon. If you or your students find this organism interesting enough for further research I’d be interested to know. Good luck.

Retirement

Last Saturday, my wife, Carol and I crashed a party. Mind you, this is not something we normally would do but I just had to see the surprise retirement party for John Wachholz put on by his wife and his former students. We weren’t invited because we were not former students--but we are—everyone who knows John has learned from John. You see, John has taught biology for 43 years with passion and courage and I know of no other teacher who continually receives “thank-you for changing my life” letters from former students. John and I have shared many phone calls—often weekly—where we discussed the challenges of teaching biology. John’s dedication to doing the right thing and passion for teaching have always been an inspiration to me.

We crashed the party because we wanted to meet some of his students who I had heard so much about. In fact, in was one of his former students that let me know about the get-together. The party was a perfect fit. We assembled at the Land Institute in the barn and John was caught totally unaware as he was escorted to the “Land” by his step-daughter, Linda, and family. As normal, John’s own passion and caring for his students meant that any attempt on his part to convey his appreciation had to be interpreted through his tears of joy and his breaking voice. John is not afraid to wear his emotions on his sleeve. His former students proceeded to give short talks about what John had meant to them. Inspirational. You might expect that at least the biologists (there were at least three with biology PhD’s) would have talked mostly about the biology they learned. Au contraire—mostly his students talked about John being an inspiration, about how he got them to think and how he made them realize how important they were. The most used phrase that I heard all night was some form of, “I see the world through his eyes.” or “I hear his voice in my head.” You see, John, has always challenged students, colleagues and friends to think about their impact on this planet, their role in society and to be productive as an individual.

I’ve often said that no profession (other than health care) probably has as much emotional up and down as teaching does. Even a great teacher like John can find themselves questioning what they are doing and their own abilities in the face of the different challenges that face an educator each and every day. You can have five great classes in a row and be feeling like you’ve really had an impact only to have the entire day’s accomplishment spin out of control during last hour as you encounter one recalcitrant, uninvolved student that you can’t seem to reach. For John, these moments always weighed heavily. It’s probably a character of outstanding teachers. The evening had to be an incredible validation for John. John’s wife, Bette Sue, talked of courage. It truly does take courage to be a teacher like John.

John’s generation is retiring. Just this year in Kansas, John, Ernie Brown and Pat Wakeman are retiring. In recent years, Stan Roth, Harry McDonald and Terry Callendar retired. This generation has been very active in professional societies. All of the previously mentioned folks have served as KABT, the Kansas Association of Biology Teachers, president or as board members. Stan was for president for NABT. I'm sure I'm forgetting some and I apologize.

John was a member of the board of KABT, president, newsletter editor and treasurer for much of the last 25 years of his career. Over the years, John hosted a number of workshops and meetings at his school to share with other teachers—particularly new teachers.

The biology teachers of John’s generation were the product of the federal government efforts to infuse science education with real science during the ‘60s and 70’s. Many biology these were able to attend numerous NSF sponsored summer workshops where they learned biology content, how to do biology, and how to teach biology. A survey of Presidential award winners indicated that the two things that most of the awardees attributed to their individual success were NSF workshops and professional science teacher organizations like NABT. John fits that description as well. I’m really concerned that we are turning away from these time tested and proven methods of biology teacher professional development—particularly the summer workshops. Of course there are other sources of summer workshops and I encourage biology teachers to take advantage of them. The best place to learn about these opportunities or to even create such opportunities for biology teachers is as a member of a professional science teachers organiztion. John would certainly concur. New and old biology teachers, please, join your local and national professional organizations. I guarantee that you and your teaching will benefit--and so will the biology teaching community.

KABT Ashfall Field Trip

Blog Revival:

I can’t really believe how long it has been since we last posted to this blog. I knew that as biology teachers trying to maintain a blog would be difficult so I thought I’d share the load—still too big of job while class is in session. However, it is summer and I’m on a leave of absence so I’ll try to revive this blog….

Kansas Association of Biology Teacher Spring Field Trip Report:

Each spring for the past 4 decades the KABT has led field trips to sites of interest throughout Kansas. Once in a while we also venture to adjoining states. This year the board elected to go to Ashfall State Park in Nebraska. The itinerary and links can be found at: http://kabt.org/F_Trips/KABT_Spring_Field_Trip_2005.htm

Field trip members included: Sandy Collins, Paula Donham, Carol Williamson, Josie Stiles, Shari McDougal, Eric Kessler and family (Christin, Mara, Rebecca, and Owen) and myself, Brad Williamson. It’s a long road trip to Ashfall. This, along with the weather forecast doubtlessly limited our attendance.

We all took our own routes and met at the Nebraska State Museum on the Lincoln campus at about 10:30 a.m. on Saturday morning. This museum is really a gem.

Nebraska is one of the best locations in the world for studying the Cenozoic and mammal evolution. I organized this trip based on the premise that mammal fossil history has great untapped, educational potential.
While dinosaurs and dinosaur evolution serve to really motivate students it seems to me that many of my students regard dinosaurs as almost fictional characters. This is not as big of a problem with mammal fossils—everybody connects to “warm, fuzzies.”

We spent a couple of hours touring the fossil exhibits. The museum has a great display of mammoth and mastodon fossils.

We were amazed at the diversity of elephants found in Nebraska. A bonus was a new exhibit of Ivory Billed Woodpeckers and Eskimo Curlews as well as Joel Sartore’s Photograph exhibit—extraordinary. The museum displays helped us to get our arms around the diversity of extinct animals that once populated the Nebraska plains and helped us build a time framework to begin understanding the fossil history of mammals.

After a quick lunch we drove on to Niobrara State Park. This park is at the confluence of the Niobrara River and the Missouri Rivers. It was one of the sites described in Lewis and Clark’s Journal. The panorama is spectacular. We timed our arrival to take advantage of their Saturday night Bison Burger cook out. The park personnel invite park goers to a BBQ and program each Saturday night. The food was great and the program was interesting. A local mountain man enthusiast shared his view of the history of the area and his mountain man gear.

Earlier, I mentioned that the weather forecast may have contributed to low attendance. The forecast called for strong to severe thunderstorms with possible tornados. Most of the tornado activity was forecast for much further south. One of the advantages of the wide open plains is that you get to watch storms develop in late afternoon. While we were eating at the BBS the thunderheads were building off to our south. By the time we were done we thought we’d best be getting our campsites ready for the impending storm. We dodged the first storm...

But later, just after sundown, one of the park rangers came by and informed us of an approaching storm, 20 minutes away, with high winds and hail. He strongly suggested we take shelter in the bathhouse in the RV campground. We all loaded up in our cars to get to the bathhouse but it was actually almost 2 miles away—the storm hit before we made shelter. Blinding rain, golf ball sized hail and 60+ mph winds made for a very hazardous situation. We could not see the roads to drive on and to make matters worse we were on steep hills. Luckily we all eventually made shelter or lasted through the storm in our vehicles. After the storm, Josie (a second-year teacher) accused me of creating a stressful situation just to facilitate the transfer all they’d learned into long-term memory. (If it works I’ll have to try it again, sometime….) We returned to our tents about 12:30—the tents were all standing and we slept well.

After drying out, showering and breakfast at a local café, we loaded up and headed to Ashfall. I had prearranged for a guided program but had not counted on the program being led by Michael Voorhies, himself.

Mike is the guy who discovered Ashfall. His enthusiasm for paleontology and science is truly contagious. The uniqueness of Ashfall is that the dozens of specimens are largely complete and articulated—a very rare occurrence. Mike’s inspiration to complete an on-site museum with the specimens in situ and not transferred to a museum display was brilliant.

The impact on learning is immense and especially for biology teachers. We all left with books, ideas and inspiration for how to supplement our evolution units and most of all we all wanted to volunteer to help with future digs at Ashfall.

While an old standby I think that a revisiting of the evolution of horses would have a number of advantages for evolution education. Several of the teachers were very impressed with a simple display of the lower legs of the 5 species of horse found at Ashfall compared to the modern horse.

Here is a reference to a PBS site that might provide a beginning. http://www.pbs.org/wildhorses/wh_origin/wh_origin_intro.html and another from Kathleen Hunt: http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/horses/horse_evol.html

I think that a good measure of the quality of a place is the books for sale in the gift shop. In my opinion the books for sale at this little gift shop speak volumes about the folks that run it. I said as much to Rick Otto, park superintendent, and he expressed his appreciation and indicated that he had selected books to be informative and educational along the themes of Ashfall.

Ashfall is truly remote from the general flow of travelers across our country but by all means try and find time sometime to make it to the excellent resource—you won’t be sorry.

Challenge: To the KABT members attending this field trip enter your impressions of the trip by posting a comment to this post—just click on “Post a Comment”

Formative Assessment Tools

Specifics for Chris Willems question:

In “Finding Answers to Questions” I indicated that my own frustration with trying develop fly fishing skills had led to a greater empathy for my student’s frustrations with learning biology. Here, I will lay out a few of the changes that I have implemented in my classes over the past 3 years to create an environment that helps students to work on their own models and strategies for improved learning. Generally, I have tried to increase non-threatening student opportunities for formative assessment. A caveat: earlier, I indicated that I was no where near becoming an expert fly caster but I have developed the ability to appraise my own casting more effectively which greatly speeds up my own progress. The same can be said about developing a classroom environment for learning—I’m no where near finding the right environment for every student but I do know I’m on the right track.

At a school board meeting, four years ago, I listened to a presentation by our art coordinator, defending funding for art education. She cited research that indicated that students in the arts are uniquely self-motivated to practice and critically evaluate their own work. I began to take umbrage with this claim but the more I thought about it the more I had to agree. My first conclusion was that perhaps there is something fundamentally different (regarding motivation) about the subjects normally taught in the arts and the academic core. But the more I thought about it I decided that the real difference was in how the arts are taught—they practice and practice and practice some more. In the core academic course we generally make assignments that help students develop skills but usually each assignment is graded and there is very limited opportunity for iterative practice to polish the skills needed. I decided to add more opportunities for practice in my class.

Some Specifics:

Years ago, I decided to create a grading system that weighted all test scores as 50% of the final grade and daily/lab work as 50%. Traditionally, my summative tests are difficult while I have usually been more lenient on the daily/lab grades, allowing students multiple opportunities for satisfactory completion. I mention this, only because this grading system pre-adapted my class so that the following strategies work well within my classroom structure.

Also, each of these strategies relies on technology. Technology allows me to extend my interaction with students beyond the classroom space and beyond the classroom schedule.

Online Practice Tests:

Three years ago, I started preparing online practice tests for students. I’m convinced they have made a big difference in student learning—or at least their ability to indicate their learning to me. Many test generating software packages have web-based tests as one of their options. Early on I simply posted these tests on my own private site. Later I used the school’s web servers and now I publish these practice tests within our school’s Blackboard environment. For every test I prepare a quick practice test (sometimes two) that the students can take as many times as needed. No one receives a grade for these attempts. This is very important. Students are instructed to focus on the questions—and not the answers. To encourage and reward them for taking the practice tests I use the questions on the summative test they have later (along with unique, new questions). This works in a similar manner to the old teacher strategy of letting students create their own “cheat sheets.” The difference is that the students develop their own test taking strategies that also pay off when it comes to the standardized testing environment we are in, now. After we take a test, I want my students to be able to tell me how they did on the test. Confidence is huge in testing success. One caution: students themselves are not used to this environment, yet. It takes about a semester before the majority of my students start using this opportunity.

Online Web Activities:

I am fortunate in that I have co-authored a biology curriculum (Exploring Life, Prentice Hall) that features specific web activities coordinated with each concept of each chapter of the text. These online activities open up a number of possibilities for student learning. The obvious examples of animations and interactive are the key advantages but the 24 hour and nearly universal access are very important advantages as well. I’ve had student keep up with their assignments while traveling overseas or on long family trips. Most importantly, students can return to the web site multiple times to review the concepts. It is pretty easy to spot those students who suddenly realize how important the web site is—their test performance spikes.

Individual Student Response Systems:

I’ve been using these in my classroom for three years now. The system I use is eInstruction’s: CPS system. ( http://www.eInstruction.com ) These systems should be part of each classroom’s toolkit. They allow for anonymous (non-threatening) student input in the classroom. The data is immediately available and is useful for helping students evaluate and reflect on their own learning. I’ve utilized these to introduce topics, imbedded in instruction, as review and to explore controversial topics. I’m convinced that this technology is here to stay. In my classroom we use the iterative process of Peer Instruction developed by Eric Mazur:

(http://mazur-www.harvard.edu/education/educationmenu.php )

The students are presented with a question (on overhead, by LCD projector, or orally). The classroom is polled as the students enter their individual answers to the question without discussion. The results of the poll are presented to the class in the form of a histogram for all to see. As the instructor I evaluate the results and decide how to proceed. If the class has mastered this concept we move onto the next concept. If the class is divided (the usual) I ask the students to form groups and discuss the possible answers to the question. This peer group interaction is very revealing and constructive. A new poll is taken—usually with positive results and powerful learning. Occasionally, the results provide feedback to me that I need to re-teach the material. Almost always the re-teach concepts are concepts that are very prone to preconceived models of the world that students bring to class. The ISR systems have truly changed the landscape of my classroom.

One caution: Like any tool the ISR systems can be overused and abused but taken in moderation and properly applied they are very powerful formative learning tools.

The Teaching Power of Stories

We were in Boulder, Colorado over the holidays staying with our son, his wife and our little granddaughter. They have a pastel calico cat named Tuolumne – you know - a cat that used to be the “child” before a human one came along. They keep their cat indoors, protected from the bears and cougars which have been seen in Boulder. But the cat is determined to get out so they will let her into the back yard when they are working there. My son was outside with Tuolumne one afternoon when I went into the living room to tell my daughter-in-law something. At that moment I spied through the window an absolutely exquisite red fox running from the side of the house into the back yard. I interrupted myself and ran to the window to watch this beautiful animal. But my daughter-in-law, shouted “Tuolumne is out,” and ran outside to save her cat. As I watched the fox head to the rear of the play house, I worried that the cat was behind the playhouse and would soon be a fox dinner. But just at this moment, I saw Tuolumne race from the side of the house, chasing that fox out of her yard as fast as she could! It was quite an unexpected sight – a 10 pound house cat chasing a large, beautiful, red fox.

I tucked this story away in my mind to tell my students in North Carolina. I collect stories. I love to watch my students settle back with interest when I start telling some tale about nature that I have experienced or read. And I get a particular chuckle when they think they have tricked me into deviating from a lesson and telling a story. What my students don’t know is that my deviations are very calculated – almost always!

Stories can help excite students over a lesson. Just recently, I was launching a two-week project on Integrated Pest Management (IPM). Now, this is NOT a topic that typically causes great excitement in a 14 or 15 year old. I could just imagine the yawns and groans. But I started with a couple of stories. In 1998, it was reported that 7 children were born without eyes in Ontario, Canada. The parents suspect fungicides, although this has not been scientifically validated. Ironically, in 1980, I met a woman who had a little son born without eyes. She was a chemist and in her research to get answers, she began to suspect an aphid spray that she had used during the critical point in embryological development. And in 2002 in New Zealand, a farmer used a tractor to block a gate so that a regional council could not get in to spray a fungicide in a nearby drain. The farmer blamed the fungicide for his calves who were born without eyes. My students were fascinated by the idea that chemicals could possibly cause such defects in development. We talked about other possibilities such as genetic mutations and we discussed the type of research that would be needed to try and discover what might have caused the cases of anophthalmia in Canada.

And then I told the story of Agent Orange, the herbicide used during the Vietnam War. I knew someone who died from cancer who had served in Vietnam and had been heavily exposed to Agent Orange. At that time, the government was denying any connection. However, just recently, military researchers have conceded that exposure to Agent Orange has increased the risk of prostate and skin cancer. This story led to a lively discussion of everything from the purpose of Agent Orange, to the reasons for government denial, to the slow process of research and the need to carefully and scientifically investigate hypotheses.

By the time I had introduced their research project related to IPM, they were bubbling with interest. They are prepared to call various institutions to find out what pesticides the institutions use. They will research various pesticides and the pests, themselves. They will present their findings to their classmates and write letters to the institutions that they investigate. Once again, the power of stories was confirmed! My students are eager to proceed.

………..I don’t know when I will use the fox story. Maybe I will use it when we discuss animal behavior – always a popular unit. Maybe I will save it for a day when there are a few minutes left at the end of class. I know many of my students will have their own stories to tell – and I will save some of those stories for next year’s students. Maybe this is one of the secrets of teaching – knowing the right stories to tell!

Finding Answers to Questions

Last spring, I made a life-changing decision—I decided to become a fly fisherman. I have been fly fishing off and on for about five years but I had been fighting making a commitment to this new avocation. I was afraid of the time and resources that I’d have to commit in order to fulfill this passion. I’m not sure of the exact moment but I’m sure that it was in the spring along an Ozark trout stream. While I’m born and bred a prairie biologist, I do revel in the beauty of spring in the Ozarks.

There is real substance to the mystique of fly fishing—skills and knowledge that can take a lifetime to master but the rewards, while subtle, are great. For a biologist, I can think of few avocations with as much reward. As Norm Maclean explains in A River Runs Through It, “It’s not fly fishing if you are not trying to find answers to questions.” So, this essay is not really about fly fishing—it is about trying to find answers to questions…...

In the hands of an expert, the fly rod is a thing of beauty and nothing looks so easy as casting flies with a fly rod. Of course, the key here is “in the hands of an expert.” For most novices, mastering the fly rod is the first of the skills needed for fly fishing and it is anything but easy. I’m not aware of any physical activity that looks so easy but turns out so hard to master. Fly casting is extremely sensitive to little nuanced differences in timing and balance. Of course, I was sure that I could teach myself how to cast a fly rod by just reading about it and I was correct up to a point. I was able to acquire enough skill with the rod to catch a few fish and get my fly into the water but in four years of trying I never felt that I had acquired the casting skill that I thought I should have. I would cast great for a short time and then inexplicably would be unable to put my fly anywhere near it’s intended target. I seldom felt smooth and in harmony with the rod; I was always fighting it. Moreover, after fishing for an hour or two, instead of my casting improving, I usually found that my casting deteriorated to the point that I would have to quit. I don’t think I have ever had a passion that wasn’t “easy.” I struggled.

Finally, I swallowed my pride and attended a free fly casting clinic, last spring. There, I received a little impartial observation and advice. Later, that week, while fishing at our neighborhood pond, I found myself falling back into my old habits. But this time it was different. This time, I was able to successfully evaluate my technique, reflect and correct it. Later, I told my wife that despite not catching any fish, I had had one my best days of fly fishing, ever.

I was not anywhere close to becoming an expert fly caster but I knew what it would take to become one. I knew I was on to something—the feeling of mastering my frustrations was truly liberating. I hadn’t had that feeling in a long time—not since I was a child. As my wife says, “As adults we employ many different strategies when learning new material—forgetting what it was like when we struggled earlier in life.” It was empowering—and it was an epiphany.

Suddenly I had a greater empathy to how my students must feel when they are trying to learn biology. It’s not that they are not trying—my students just haven’t quite gotten to the point that they can evaluate and analyze their own learning strategies so that they can be efficient learners. I spent 4 years flailing away at the water with little improvement—I wasn’t correctly evaluating my technique. Likewise, my students often frustratingly apply the same study habits and skills they acquired earlier in their careers—not understanding why these same strategies are not working now. Earlier in their learning careers most of their learning could best be characterized as recall and memorization. These strategies simply do not work well if you are trying to understand biology at the higher levels of Bloom’s taxonomy. Application, evaluation and synthesis require completely different strategies. Meaningful learning involves higher level learning.

To meet my students’ needs, I kept trying to find analogies, interesting discrepant events, engaging projects such as the Monarch Watch and any number of other strategies to make biology interesting and accessible for all students. These were, by any measure, successful strategies but something fundamental was still missing. My fly fishing epiphany confirmed what I have been suspecting for the last half dozen years—students need help to develop effective learning strategies for themselves. One of our first goals in curriculum design should be to prioritize embedded formative assessment so that students can develop and evaluate their own learning strategies. For now I will point out that for our students a critical component of this assessment is that it should be non-threatening. That means it should be anonymous and non-graded. Most formative assessment is targeted to informing curriculum delivery but I think the most fruitful use provides empirical data to help students inquire into their own higher level learning.

For me, and I suspect most biology teachers, biology as a subject has always been inviting and easy to learn. I am passionate about biology. This passion drives my teaching—my desire is to share this wonder for my students. But this passion can be blinding. My students respond to my passion for biology and I always assumed that they would eventually discover their own individual strategies for learning—just like I assumed that I could learn to fly cast on my own. What I learned on the pond is that my students have just been flailing at the water, hoping for an occasional good cast and like me they need some guidance to find more effective strategies to evaluate their own learning. Teaching, like flyfishing, is not teaching unless you are trying to find answers to questions…

BW

Introduction

Welcome to the "Teaching Biology" blog. While it is difficult to predict how this blog will evolve, at this beginning, the vision is to provide a repository of shared experiences and reflections for the biology teaching community. Biology teachers face more controversey than probably any other field of secondary education. Biology teachers face the additional challenge that no other content area (except current events) changes so rapidly in fundamental ways. This "Age of Biology" makes biology teaching truly exciting but the current political and educational climates make effective teaching a real challenge.

I have been teaching biology for more than 25 years and I've been very fortunate in my career in that I've been a part of a number of innovative curriculum projects (i.e. The Monarch Watch, Wisconsin FastPlants, The GENE project, the GLOBE project, the Global Lab project, and several others.) Working to improve biology education for not just my own students but for other teachers and their students as well is very rewarding.

I'm starting this blog to share some of the insights that come from a life-long passion of teaching biology and to respond to the ever changing landscape of biology and biology education. Knowing full well, that my time is limited (as well as my experiences), I've invited friends (who also happen to be vetern biology teachers) from around the country (or world) and from diverse schools to contribute on this blog. Hopefully, this blog will take on a life of its own and become a valued resource for the next generation of biology teachers.

Brad Williamson