Exploring DNA & RNA Polymers - Essay Sample

Introduction

The primary objective of this lesson is to enlighten learners on the formation and components of RNA and DNA nucleotides and the ways in which they relate. The instructional plan entails the milestones that the students will use to gauge their understanding and comprehension of the topic. One of the milestones is that the student will be able to describe the relationship between polymers and monomers of the RNA and DNA polymers. Further, the plan details anticipatory challenges and how to address them. In particular, the plan provides guidelines on how to increase learners' abilities in identifying concepts and applying scientific concepts. Importantly, the plan shows that the instructor should then administer a self-assessment test to examine the extent to which the learners have grasped the concepts. Next, the instructor proceeds to introduce the bulk of the topic. This will take 45 minutes. Visuals, coloring, and coding will be used to help the instructor drive the message home. The last part will involve a self-assessment test to determine how much of the concepts taught have been understood.

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Brain-Based Principles and Strategies

Brain Seeks and Creates Understanding

According to Jensen (2017), the brain of a human being can be viewed as a meaning-seeker or meaning-maker. In other words, human beings strive to understand the occurrences in their surrounding regardless of the cause. The significance of the meaning determines the level of attention paid so as to comprehend the concept and content. On this account, the instruction plan applies this concept by anticipating the likely challenges and coming up with ways in which the teacher can develop his students' abilities to apply unifying ideas to make connections across science content. Also, the instructor recognizes the significance of this principle by quoting some words from A Framework for K-12 Science Education' which state that "As students develop their understanding of the relationships between structure and function, they should begin to apply this knowledge when investigating phenomena that are unfamiliar to them. They recognize that often the first step in deciphering how a system works is to examine in detail what it is made of and the shapes of its parts" (National Research Council, 2012 p. 98). These words reinforce the premise that the instructor recognizes that the brain seeks and creates understanding.

Rough Drafts/Gist Learning

This principle asserts that a student's brains rarely comprehend a complex subject the first time. However, as time goes by and if the learner continues reading it, its importance increases and the brain starts storing this knowledge in the long-term memory. The instructor applied this principle in the lesson when he first introduces the topic of study and the expected outcomes. By doing this, the students get a chance to familiarize themselves with the concepts and the brains create rough drafts of these ideas. According to Jensen (2017), it appears the instructor does not expect the students to have a high level of understanding at this point. Their extent of understanding is determined through self-assessment I which is a Likert scale indicating the student's level of understanding for each learning objective. The scales are A: I am able to do this, B: I am beginning to get this, and C: I still can't do this. In addition, the application of this principle is demonstrated by randomly asking students to read out learning objectives and some of the confusing terms, which are then discussed together and clarified.

Input Limitations-Priming

Priming refers to the quality of exposure to large amounts of information within a short time. Although this is the typical feature of the learning process in schools where students are expected to cram as much information as possible within the shortest time possible, it is not an effective teaching method because teaching faster will only make the students forget faster (Gulpinar, 2005). That philosophy is noticed in the instructional plan in the introduction of student activities. At this point, the major takeaway is how the instructor tries to strike a balance between time and the vast content. Understanding that teaching all the materials within the allocated time will only result in low understanding, the instructor focuses on the most important details which are the visual structures of RNA and DNA while paying little emphasis on reading tasks. That illustrates that instructor recognizes and applies the input limitations principle and that unloading too much information in a short time is counter-productive.

Perception Influences Our Experience-Coloring

This principle is anchored on the idea of subjectivity. Jensen (2017) posits that subjectivity changes a person's experience which in turn changes their perception of the world and ultimately their experience. Given that experience stimulates changes in the brain, changing the perception changes the whole learning experience. The instructor applies this principle by incorporating coloring and art into the lesson. The use of colors and art is aimed at making the lesson enjoyable and to demystify the concepts. In other words, the instructor aims at changing the perception of the students about the topic or lesson from dull to happy and in turn change their experience which will stimulate the brain to grasp concepts.

Recommendations

To improve the plan, it is advisable to add two principles that include; 1) reward and addiction dependency, 2) malleability/neural plasticity. These two principles are somewhat similar to the reward and punishment philosophy which is an effective approach in motivating or discouraging people to or not to do something (Balliet, Mulder, & Van Lange, 2011). The rewards could be simple things like clapping, candy, or recognition in front of the others. However, punishment should be introduced to counter excessive positive feelings and maintain learning moods. Maintaining such a climate would stimulate changes in the sensory cortex, frontal lobes, temporal lobes, amygdala and hippocampus which would ultimately improve the student's experience.

Motivation and Engagement

The most outstanding motivational and engagement aspect in the plan is the use of art to learn about the structures of RNA and DNA. This approach will transform the students from passive players into active contributors to the learning process. According to Dixson (2010), active learning is more effective than passive learning because it enhances a student's understanding of the course concepts by engaging and interacting with the course materials. Also, this approach will allow the teacher to carry out a constant analysis and assessment of the students because there will be constant interaction between the material and the student (Dixson, 2010).

Other motivational and engagement aspects of the plan include self-assessment I and self-assessment II. These assessments will allow the students to examine how much they understand the concepts and provide feedback to the teacher who will then clarify confusing concepts and further explain complex ideas. The two self-assessments will transform the students from passive learners who only listen and take notes to active learners who evaluate their level of understanding and engagement with the teacher by providing their answers.

With regard to motivation and engagement, the plan could be improved by asking the students to list down the characteristics that they think define them individually. That would help the students understand the functions of the DNA and RNA and how they shape an individual. Given that DNA is inherited, the students could be asked to name some of the traits that they think they inherited from their parents. That would motivate them and increase engagement.

References

Balliet, D., Mulder, L. B., & Van Lange, P. A. (2011). Reward, punishment, and cooperation: a meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 137(4), 594.

Dixson, M. D. (2010). Creating effective student engagement in online courses: What do students find engaging?. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 1-13.

Gulpinar, M. A. (2005). The Principles of Brain-Based Learning and Constructivist Models in Education. Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice, 5(2).

Jensen, E. (2017). Principles of Brain-Based Learning. Brain-Based Research On Brain-Based Learning. Retrieved from http://www.jensenlearning.com/principles.php

National Research Council. (2012). A framework for K-12 science education: Practices, crosscutting concepts, and core ideas. National Academies Press.