Notes From Nancy Canino on 7th Grade Science:

The primary issue for us in 7th grade biology is time. We have the equivalent of 120 minutes per week, plus the myriad of Monday and Friday holidays which subtract from that, for bio. every week. Our class time is 40 minutes. The current curriculum calls for us to cover diversity of life, from bacteria to mammals, and we have previously used the entire year to do just that. This year, for the first time, we are rushing through the first three kingdoms (monera, protista and fungi) to make room to expand our work in the plant and animal kingdoms to include more physiology and anatomy, especially focused on the human body. Seventh graders are still very curious and fascinated with how they work inside and I very much want to capitalize on that interest. We are just now designing that new curriculum, but I do not see many obvious ways to make connections to the outside world when we are focusing inwards.

I would very much like to end the year summarizing the diversity of life and concentrating on ecological issues and genetics/evolution. Putting the big picture together so to speak. I am not optimistic that we will have time for that this year and I am sorry for that loss. Currently we do very little that I would consider environmental ed. The one global project we do is independent research papers or reports on a disease caused by a bacterium or protozoan that the students work on during the fall. These obviously address worldwide issues, including population dynamics, but we do not spend time discussing these more than the student mentions during their talk or paper. Again, a loss.

The most positive thing we do is get the kids outside -- Jim took his students on a mushroom hunt last week, we regularly go out for walks during the plant unit and we hope to get them out for some exercise physiology during the animal unit. They enjoy the variance from the classroom, but I don't think they're seeing the forest for the trees. It's up to Jim and I to point out the "ecosystem" we're exploring, the topology, the microclimes, etc. The students do not usually see these on their own.

I could most easily incorporate more ecology awareness into my students repertoire by having them do labs in class where they make the connections. I am certain that there is curriculum out there that has these kind of activities, but I do not have these items and do not have the time this year to begin to pursue them. We try to make 2 out of every 3 classes primarily hands-on activities and I would much prefer to incorporate environmental ed. in this way than in lectures and other sit-down approaches.

I realize, Peter, that this may not have been exactly what you were wanting from me and I hope that Jim may have been more optimistic and able to list all the various ways we incorporate global environmental awareness into our curriculum, but I have to admit that I do not think that we do a very good job and I do hope that you can help us improve in that arena.