Webinar highlights spiralling and interconnections

Teachers and TEI faculty members who participated in the 24 January 2014 Unit 4 Grade 8 science webinar heard and saw how Grade 8 concepts spiral from Grade 7 through Grade 9 and across the four strands under Living Things and their Environment. Ms. Dulce O. Sebastian and Mr. Michael B. Mantala, both writers of Unit 4 modules, were the webinar‘s resource persons.

Mr. Mantala discussed the Unit 4 overview. He described the storyline that connects the five modules, identified the Grade 8 learning competencies targeted by each inquiry-based activity in each module, and explained how the five modules build on each other to achieve coherence across the four recurring strands of parts and function, heredity: inheritance and variation, biodiversity and evolution, and ecosystems. In the module presentations that followed, both presenters gave an overview of the module emphasizing the spiraling of concepts, presented the big ideas, learning objectives, and the rationale for the sequence of learning activities vis-a-vis the learning objectives. They also gave tips and additional resources for effectively facilitating the activities in class, and talked about possible issues and ways to address them. Ms. Sebastian discussed Module 1 (Biodiversity) and Module 2 (Interactions), while Mr. Mantala discussed Module 3 (The Digestive System), Module 4 (Nutrition and Wellness), and Module 5 (Cellular Reproduction and Genetics).

A recording of the webinar may be accessed at http://engageteachers.adobeconnect.com/p57jo2swts8/.

0 Comments