There are some topics that I sometimes feel like I will never enjoy teaching... biochemistry is one of them.
Chemistry is taught in 10th grade, Biology in 9th. Biochemistry in the Biology course falls right after Ecology. The transition is difficult for my students. They have to transition from the "easy" content in Ecology that is a lot of review, to Biochemistry, which is in my opinion one of the most difficult units of the whole course. There is almost no prior knowledge of the content and it is so hard for the 9th grade mind to make the transition.
In previous years, I had "chunked" the unit into a few sections -- Atoms, Water, Macromolecules, and Enzymes. Within each of those chunks, I would give them all the information at once along with labs. It was overwhelming for them and for me! It was a lot of information for them to absorb in a short period of time.
This year, I had a different plan. We had a "transition day" where we reviewed the levels of organization again -- a topic we had previously covered at the beginning of Ecology -- and used that as a stepping stone into the levels of organization in Biochemistry. We made a foldable, gave examples, and looked at some sample molecules. It gave students a day to adjust and it gave them a preview to what we were talking about.
The other major difference I did this year was how I taught macromolecules (proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, and nucleic acids). Previously, I taught them all at once and did lots of activities involving all four macromolecules over several days. This year, I decided to spend one full day on each one. Each day has a few components -- notes/information, mini-lab, color coding and diagram labeling, and vocabulary work. This approach gave me a full day to immerse students in the vocabulary (there is a lot of it!). Although its more work for me -- setting up four different labs in four days! -- but it is totally worth it if students are able to learn and understand the material better.
I am not a teacher who can sit back and do the same thing every year for every unit. Some things I was happy with and will keep relatively the same, but I am always looking for better ways to teach hard concepts. I have high hopes that Biochemistry will be more successful for my students this year, and going forward I'm going to try to plan more lessons that are student focused.
What topics do you struggle with? What are your strategies for redesigning those units?
Some of my biochemistry resources are available on my Teachers Pay Teachers store! Check them out!
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