This week I visited Liberton High School. I met the class with whom I will be working, I discussed further my ideas with the biology teachers at the school, and saw the school grounds.

Meeting my class

I was surprised that the class I will be working with consists of only 15 students. However, a small group will make it quicker and easier to manage and carry out the practical work, and I will also be able to support individual students more closely. From my lesson observation of the class, the students seemed to enjoy practical activities and video clips. They were much less engaged with directly delivered oral information. Although this will be necessary in some instances, such as for explaining activities, I will try to keep this ‘lecturing’ style of teaching to a minimum, and think of other ways that I can keep the students engaged. One example I have thought of is with a starter activity on averages. Instead of recapping averages on the board, and delivering the information to the students verbally, I will create a multiple choice averages quiz. This active engagement will hopefully be more effective in refreshing the students’ memories of how to calculate averages.

Discussion with teachers

It was really useful to discuss my ideas with one of the biology teachers I will be working with. I was given a good insight into the needs of the class members, from the teacher’s perspective, as well as advice as to which learning tools will work well with the class. For example, I was told that many pupils struggle to formulate headings for tables, and axis labels and scales for graphs. I will therefore create a template table and graph for the students to use. It was also good to find out that the classroom has resources such as mini whiteboards, which the students could use as part of my insect quiz. I now have a much better idea of the equipment I will need to provide the school with, and can now organise this. I will provide the school with an equipment list for each lesson, to enable them to devise an appropriate risk assessment for practical activities.

After discussing the timings of the school day, I now know that the school’s lessons were shorter than I anticipated. Therefore, I have decided to deliver my material over 5 lessons, instead of the 4 I had initially planned. This will ensure that I can deliver detailed and clear information, without rushing the content to finish a lesson on time.

The school grounds

Now I have seen the school grounds, I am reassured that sampling can take place on site. This will mean that the students will have more time to identify the insects they collect, and analyse their results. I have decided that we will sample underneath a clump of the plant broom, and have another sampling location in a more diverse clump of rough grassland. I will group the class into pairs, and each student will be responsible for a yellow bowl in a different habitat (broom vs grassland). In addition to placing the bowls, students will also measure the diversity of the vegetation. To make this simple, I will get the students to count the number of different plants that they observe to be present within a 1 x 1 m quadrat. We will do a practice of this as a starter activity in the classroom, using a picture. I hope that this will mean students are better equipped to carry out this method of measuring diversity in the field.

Next steps

I now have a more concrete idea of the practicalities surrounding my lesson delivery, and I have begun to consider how I can keep students supported and engaged. My next steps will be to begin to design the lesson plans and resources, in preparation for teaching in March.

On Wednesday, I met with two biology teachers from Liberton High School. We discussed the details of my project, such as timings, the year group and class it would be most appropriate for, and the sampling method that would be best for the experiment.

Including a careers aspect to my project

I was pleased that the teachers were so positive and enthusiastic about my proposal. Overall, they seemed to think my project would fit well in the students’ learning journey and would tie in well with their previous learning. The positive ending to the scheme of lessons, through focussing on positive case studies and actions students can take to help insects, was well received. Before the meeting, I wondered if it would be relevant to include reference to future career possibilities as part of the lessons, as this would allow students to consider associated career pathways and would be an interdisciplinary opportunity, meeting E&O HWB 3-20a:

“I am investigating different careers/occupations, ways of working, and learning and training paths. I am gaining experience that helps me recognise the relevance of my learning, skills and interests to my future life.” (Education Scotland, 2017).

Including this aspect in the final lesson will, I feel, reinforce the importance of insects in society that will have been previously covered in the introductory session. When I suggested this to the teachers, they thought it was a very good idea. I am going to start collecting resources which I could use to inform the students about ecological careers, such as the British Ecological Society’s “Where Can Ecology Take You” leaflet, and videos such as the Royal Entomological Society’s “What is an entomologist?”.

Chosen sampling method

It is likely that I will be working with a S1 class, around March time. The biology teacher is going to contact me soon to confirm more specific dates. We also talked about the possibility of me going into the school to observe some biology lessons, to meet the students, get a feel for the school, and identify suitable habitats around the school which could be used for sampling insects. The teachers seemed keen to try out the insect sampling technique using yellow plastic bowls. They thought that kick sampling in a river could be difficult logistically, and have previously tried pitfall traps, but with limited success. The yellow bowl technique is therefore looking likely to be the sampling method I use.

Equipment available

The school has access to hand lenses and microscopes, which will help the students to identify smaller insects, and get a closer view of insects, hopefully fostering a greater appreciation of the delicate and intricate structure of insect body parts. The teachers also mentioned that the school has lenses available which attach to phone cameras, and allow photos to be taken of small things, such as insects. They suggested students could use this equipment to take photos of the insects they find, and present these, along with their results in a poster. I thought this was a really useful suggestion, as the posters could give me an indication of what the students have learnt, and will give me material that I can present and evaluate in my technical report. I thought that having visual results in the form of photos may help to engage to less able students and appeal to a wider range of learner types.

Future plans

Moving forward, I am going to add more detail to my plans for the first lesson in the scheme of work. I will develop my plans for the other lessons once I have visited the school in the new year. This will give me a more concrete idea of where sampling can take place, and a better feel of the appropriate level at which to pitch the work.

References:

Education Scotland (2017). Benchmarks Personal and Social Education. [Online]. Available at: https://education.gov.scot/improvement/learning-resources/curriculum-for-excellence-benchmarks/. [Accessed: 14 December 2021].