POGIL: the Pursuit of Scientific Writing

Being a new teacher, I talked with my students about STEM Education as being a method in which I am learning how to foster young minds in Science while allowing my students to make sense of the world around them. The one thing I wondered is how come my students think the concepts I have taught them thus far is only applicable to the discipline of Science. Since the first day of school, my students have been learning about how everything we learn in class connects to the real world in some way, shape, or form. The most recent example I have is where my students are using cellular organelles and are relating the function of those organelles to their technical areas. For some of my students, this assignment came easy and were able to see for how the cell membrane functions in the cell to control what comes in and out of the cell and that relates to a fence of classroom door because all of those items also share the same function.

However, when one of my students was unsure of how the Golgi body would be utilized in a tech area like cosmetology. When I was working with my student, I shared with her that the function of the Golgi body is to put the finishing touches on cellular molecules before reaching their final destinations. Despite my lack of experience with makeup, I was able to complete research with my student to guide her in direction of setting spray or powder. This substance puts the finishing touch on the face after all makeup has been applied. After providing her with that real-life connection, she has never forgotten the function of that organelle. Being with my students every other day, I aspire to continue to make my classes as enjoyable but real and authentic as possible.

The whole big idea around making these real-world connections is to strengthen my students in their development and aide them in the writing of CERs. For my action research project, I wanted to focus on what impact Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) will have on Biology students who are learning how to effectively write CERs. Due to the needs of my students, I have the writing of CERs chunked so that the claims box is in one area, evidence boxes in another, and reasoning boxes at the bottom of the page. This allows for my students to be able to organize their thoughts into one document. For each CER that students write, they will be participating in mini lessons. These mini lessons include modeling a CER for students, posting slides of sample responses and pick out what I great about the response and what needs improvement, and also through peer reviews. I hold strong to the ideal that students have three teachers in the classroom. Students have me as their instructor, the classroom environment, and each other. Due to this ideal, this aides students in collaborating with one another to provide constructive feedback to better their work in the same manner that we do in this class. My hope for this research is that implementing these techniques will not only make my students more confident in scientific writing but writing across disciplines.