Action - Reflection

Grade Level: 9-12 Subject: Biology Sub-Subject: Cardiovascular System Length/Duration: 3-4 80-minute class periods Technologies Used: Google Groups[1] and Vernier Software and Probeware[2]

Background Knowledge and Skills Background Knowledge and Skills The lessons in this portion of the unit involve application of content about the cardiovascular systems of vertebrates and mammals. Students should have prior knowledge of the human cardiovascular system including some anatomy and physiology. Students should have a professional email and access to the internet both inside and outside of the classroom. Additionally, students should have some knowledge of online discussions, format and function.

Utilizing Online Discussion Boards to Foster In-Class Discussions Students will engage in online discussions that pose topics for discussion regarding class sessions. Reflection and processing of knowledge are integrated into the format of the questions. Students are encouraged to question others through their posts by challenging interpretation of information or supporting other peer responses. Classroom Lessons and Activities Lesson 1 : Exploration of Comparative Anatomy and Function: Cardiovascular Systems of Vertebrates -Students will explore the "Vertebrate Circulatorium" [3] on the HHMI website. It is a great online interactive tool for visualizing the circulatory systems of different vertebrates. -Students will complete a Venn diagram in their science journals that compares and contrasts 2 different vertebrates from the "Vertebrate Circulatorium" on the HHMI website GOOGLE Groups Discussion: http://groups.google.com/group/alejandro-biology Students will be directed to participate in the Google Groups Discussion for the day regarding this activity. They will have discussion with their peers regarding the following prompt: " Today in class you had the chance to explore the circulatory systems of different vertebrates using the "Vertebrate Circulatorium" on the HHMI website. Do the circulatory systems of vertebrates serve the same purpose for all these varieties of animals? Explain why you think that and use evidence to support your claim." the classroom. Additionally, students should have some knowledge of online discussions, format and function." Lesson 2: Hold Your Breath: Ventilation and Heart Rate Vernier Probeware Lab -Students will complete Lab 29: Ventilation and Heart Rate using the Lab Quest and Vernier Probeware System. -Students' data collection will generate information regarding the effects of hyperventilation and hypoventilation on heart rate. A data collection table as well as graphs will be generated by the students to allow for analysis of data. Lab 29 : Ventilation and Heart Rate In this experiment, you will investigate the effect of altering the levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide on the rate at which the heart beats. Two different methods of ventilation will be used to investigate this phenomenon. The first method, hyperventilation, is when the breathing rate of an organism is greater than what is necessary for proper exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide. This will be achieved by a period of rapid breathing by the test subject. The second method, hypoventilation, occurs when there is a decrease in ventilation without a decrease in oxygen consumption or carbon dioxide production by the body. True hypoventilation is usually the result of a disease. The test subject will simulate this condition by holding his or her breath for a period of time. Heart rate will be monitored using the Exercise Heart Rate Monitor. OBJECTIVES In this experiment, you will • Monitor the heart rate of the test subject using a Heart Rate Monitor. • Evaluate the effects of hyperventilation and hypoventilation on heart rate. MATERIALS Lab Quest and Vernier Hand Grip Heart Rate Monitor Possible Alternatives: Stethoscope and Timer PROCEDURE Each person in a lab group will take turns being the subject and the tester. When it is your turn to be the subject, your partner will be responsible for recording the data on your lab sheet. 1. Connect the receiver module of the Heart Rate Monitor to LabQuest and choose New from the File menu. If you have an older sensor that does not auto-ID, manually set up the sensor. 2. On the Meter screen, tap Rate. Change the data-collection rate to 0.2 samples/second and the data-collection length to 120 seconds. 3. Set up the Heart Rate Monitor. Follow the directions for your type of Heart Rate Monitor. Using a Hand-Grip Heart Rate Monitor a. Grasp the handles of the Hand-Grip Heart Rate Monitor. Place the fingertips of each hand on the reference areas of the handles (see Figure 1). b. The left hand grip and the receiver are both marked with an alignment arrow. When collecting data, be sure that the arrow labels on each of these devices are in alignment (see Figure 2) and that they are not too far apart. The reception range of the plug-in receiver is 80–100 cm, or 3 feet. Part I Hyperventilation 5. Collect data while the subject hyperventilates. a. Instruct the subject to sit still in a chair and breathe normally. b. Start data collection. After collecting data for 30 seconds, have the subject make rapid shallow breaths for the next 30 seconds. c. The subject should then breathe normally for the remaining 60 seconds. 6. When data collection is complete, a graph of heart rate vs. time will be displayed. To examine the data pairs on the displayed graph, tap any data point. As you tap each data point, the heart rate values of each data point are displayed to the right of the graph. 7. Record the heart rate in Table 1 for every 10 second interval. 8. Store the data from the first run by tapping the File Cabinet icon. Part II Hypoventilation (simulated) 9. Collect data while the subject hypoventilates. a. Instruct the subject to sit still in a chair and breathe normally. b. Start data collection. After collecting data for 30 seconds, have the subject take a large breath and hold it as long as possible. The subject should not hold his or her breath longer than 60 seconds. c. The subject should breathe normally for the remainder of data collection. 10. When data collection has finished, a graph of heart rate vs. time will be displayed. To examine the data pairs on the displayed graph, tap any data point. As you tap each data point, the heart rate values of each data point are displayed to the right of the graph. 11. Record the heart rate in Table 1 for every 10 second interval. 12. Graph both runs of data on a single graph. To do this, tap Run 2 and select All Runs. 13. (optional) Print a graph of heart rate vs. time (with two curves displayed). Label each curve as “hyperventilation or “hypoventilation”. DATA Collect data about heart rate during both trials and record data in data table. QUESTIONS 1.What happens to the heart rate during hyperventilation? 2.What happens to the heart rate during hypoventilation? 3.List several factors that you think may have caused the test subject’s heart rate to change in each of the trials. 4.What happens to the oxygen levels in your lungs during hyperventilation? Carbon dioxide levels? 5.In what way would the change in heart rate that corresponds with holding your breath be advantageous in other types of organisms? What organisms might commonly exhibit such an adaptation? GOOGLE Groups Discussion: http://groups.google.com/group/alejandro-biology File:Gg3.png Students will be directed to participate in the Google Groups Discussion for the day regarding this activity. They will have discussion with their peers regarding the following prompt: "Discuss the results of hypoventilation on heart rate that you gathered from your lab experiment. Why might this be an advantageous adaptation in other organisms? What organisms might exhibit this adaptation?" Lesson 3: Diving Mammals: Socratic Seminar -Students will engage in a Socratic seminar regarding the topic of diving mammals. Guidelines for a Socratic Seminar Be prepared to participate Don’t raise hands Invite others into the discussion Refer to the text Comments must be appropriate/respectful/focused Listen to and build on one another’s comments -Students will be expected to engage in the discussion by contributing ideas, thoughts and questions in response to other students in the class as was modeled in the Google Discussion Board. -The following prompt will be used to generate the discussion: Whales are mammals just like humans, which means that they have lungs and must breathe air to stay alive. Discuss how it is possible for whales and other aquatic mammals like them to dive for such long periods of time? -This is a great activity that can be used as an informal assessment at the end of the unit to see how well students have integrated and applied new material with prior knowledge. Have students consider these fantastic feats of human beings and pose their own question to the discussion board for the class. Topics to ponder..... David Blaine sits atop a sphere where he set a new world record for breath-holding, Wednesday, April 30, 2008, at 17 minutes and 4.4 seconds One of the last few remaining spots on earth to defy human explorers is the icy tip of Mt. Everest, 29,141 ft. high. Many expeditions have tried to claw their way up it. In 1924 G. L. Mallory and A. C. Irvine, who reached a point above 28,000 ft., may have reached the summit; they disappeared in a mist and were never seen again. All who have tried to climb Mt. Everest have been beaten by the near-stratospheric cold, the almost continual gales, the treacherous, sliding snow and the thin, high air. A 50-year-old Australian builder set a world record for the longest continuous run Tuesday when he wrapped up a 274-day trek around the country, clocking up 19,030 kilometers (11,799 miles). Gary Parsons started running April 25 and on Dec. 16 broke the previous world record of 17,071 km (10,584 miles) set by American Robert Sweetgall in 1983.Parsons averaged 72.4 kilometers (44.9 miles) a day until he broke the record and wore out a dozen pairs of running shoes during the marathon run. "I had 12 pairs of rotating shoes which I had re-soled with the toughest leather about 40 times," he said.

References Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed (pp. 57-65). New York: Herder & Herder. The title of the Google Groups Discussion created for this classroom application is " Action-Reflection" taken from the following quote. Freire (1970) states, “Human beings are not built in silence but in word, in work, in action-reflection” (p. 88). This points to the necessity of human beings to communicate and the importance of thinking about the impact and influence of your actions. When students are asked to discuss in the classroom, there are many obstacles that may obstruct the learners from expressing their thoughts and reflections. Especially at the high school level, students should be developing a more heightened awareness of their actions and impact of their actions. Sometimes the honest intentions of students are overpowered and overshadowed by other students or fear of speaking out and sharing thoughts in an open forum. This is a skill which students should practice and technology offers a venue for students to discuss without pressure. The dialogue can be engaging when extraneous distractions are removed fromt he situation. With the virtual online discussion that can be done through Google groups, students can simulate the appropriate etiquette and dialogue techniques that would also be useful in a face-face scenario. After gaining adequate experience through the online discussion where there are expectations and guidelines, students may then use those same skills to foster more productive in-class discussion and collaboration. King, Alison Guiding Knowledge Construction in the Classroom: Effects of Teaching Children How to Question and How to Explain American Educational Research Journal, Summer 1994; 31: 338 - 368. Although the study represented in the article above had no concrete evidence showing that experiential questions had significant effect on knowledge transfer, there was evidence to prove that this type of questioning was beneficial in terms of knowledge construction. The types of questioning and resultant discussion provided a much more rich learning experience and ability to create more complex "knowledge maps". This creates a just argument for encouraging and building strategic questioning strategies into curriculum, additionally teaching students how to develop their own questions and question each other is a much higher level of cognition that requires connection to their own knowledge base. With practice, I believe that students who are able to build rich questions and tie new information to their existing understandings can build not only an essential skill but also experience a much more engaging learning environment and lasting understandings. Utilizing online forums as a way to introduce questioning and discussion is a valuable tool for relieving pressure of face to face time that is often intimidating for students, especially those that are unsure about their language and content skills. Eventually mimicking the online discussion with face to face discussions like Socratic seminars can encourage students to practice their questioning skills as well as building a richer connection to the content. See Also Vernier Software and Technology http://www.vernier.com/ Howard Hughes Medical Institute http://www.hhmi.org/ HHMI Vertebrate Circulatorium http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/circulatorium/frames.html Great Website Resource for Conducting Socratic Seminars http://www.greece.k12.ny.us/instruction/ela/SocraticSeminars/dialoguedebatediscussion.htm How David Blaine Held His Breath http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1736834,00.html Track Your Fitness and Sleep with FitBit http://www.fitbit.com/ Establishing Classroom Norms Wikiversity Lesson by Sara Trueblood http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Fostering_Classroom_Norms:_Using_Wikispaces&usg=AFQjCNF3Rwvl146u9WVKaukIo5Xv-YoHsA Resources: For more lessons incorporating education technology, check out these resources: http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Educational_Technology_Lesson_Plans http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Educational_technologies