General Directions
Each student will research a topic (e.g. biomes, organelle, genetic disorder), and find 3 to 5 facts or interesting details about this topic, which should include information that is not commonly known.
During class students pair up to share this information in short (1 – 5 minutes each) sessions.
At a bell or buzzer, they will switch partners.
I often have them complete between 4 and 8 rounds depending on the complexity of the topics, amount of variability in the research and number of students.
Adaptation: As a guide, you can provide a set of questions for them to focus on, and have them provide a short introduction each round. This helps keep things from being so repetitive and can help the students stretch their understanding, ability to answer questions, and discussion skills.
This website is a repository for all of us to give, take, and share the tools we use to make our classroom more accessible and engaging.
We (at least one of us!!) have found all of these tools to be great tools to convey complex information in biology to our students. Have a look around, here are a few tips:
