Creating a Foundation

As a biology major, it’s almost ironic that I struggled with general biology both in high school and in college. Learning facts like the contents of a cell, the genes of pea pods, and taxonomic naming were as random to me as learning sporadic dates in history class. It was also difficult for me to conceptualize these things because I couldn’t see them. Mr. M, my high school biology teacher, tried to do fun activities like decorate a cake like a cell and watch a YouTube video of little cartoon organelles moving around in a cell. From these activities, I learned that I should memorize the list of organelles in a cell, even though I didn’t understand what an organelle or a cell was. My general biology college professor didn’t help clear this confusion, either. She flipped through PowerPoint slides that had cartoonish images of cells and DNA and organelles. She made us memorize how each of these cartoon organelles looked like and what they did. I only truly understood cells when I looked at various kinds of cells under the microscope in anatomy, learned about how these cells made up organs, and learned about why we need these organs. It was much easier for me to know these facts when they connected in my brain rather than when they were a list or a diagram that I needed to memorize. From these Master’s classes, I learned that people learn better when using a web of knowledge rather than memorizing unconnected facts. To help students create this web, teachers should take a day or even a week to teach why and how things such as cells and DNA are connected. Also, teachers should let students see real cells before subjecting them to these cartoon diagrams.

http://www.yourgenome.org/

http://thegreatestgarden.com/animal-cell-light-microscope-observation/

While I struggled with general biology, I noticed other students struggle with basic algebra. When students had to answer more complex math problems, they were often trumped by the basic principle of PEMDAS. Math is a subject that builds upon itself. If these students don’t understand how to answer these problems now, they will only struggle more in college when they need to use these concepts in chemistry and physics. There should be more support for students to create a solid foundation of knowledge of math. If teachers don’t have enough time to sit down with every confused student, they should pair confused students with students that can explain these concepts to them.