Reading Apprenticeship Inspired Assignment or Lesson

Tina Givrad

California State University Los Angeles

Discrete Mathematical Models, Formulation and Analysis of Basic Discrete Models in Biology

Least Squares Line and Errors

Purpose

This flipped model lesson plan, will give the students the opportunity to gain their first exposure to the new and challenging concept of the Least Squares Line and Errors prior to the class. This lesson plan provides ways to guide students through their first exposure to the topic. Since the initial exposure happens before students come to the class, the class time could be used to engage students with activities that help them to build deeper understanding of the concept.

Context

This activity takes place during week 3 of the instruction. Students have started the semester by learning about the flip model and their active role by starting to learn before the class starts. They have gone through some review and practice problems on application of linear models and now they learn to measure how well a straight line fits a collection of data.

Criteria

Class will start by a quick recap of what students were required to learn before they come to the class. Once all their questions are answered, there is a short quiz which measures their understanding from what they were exposed to before class activities. One of the assignments for this class session is before the end of the class session, students need to write a short summary of the key points, they have learned from the lesson.

Metacognitive Conversations

Students have gone through an introduction to the lesson by reading an article. They also have watched a short video related to this topic. We start the the class by a quick recap of what students were required to learn before they come to the class. Here they need to think about what they have learned and what they need extra help with. They have the opportunity to ask their questions. Once all their questions are answered, they will be working in groups of four and sub group of two. Each pair will work with each other and then each pair check their answers with the other pair. The goal is by the end of this activity, even if they are still confused, they know what they are confused about.

Details

I started the flip model before the pandemic. We continued using the flip model after switching to remote learning. This specific activity could be used either in face to face classes or in synchronous remote classes. Students need 60 minutes of preparation before the class, 75 minutes of in-class activities plus another 100 minutes for solving more advanced problems.

Flipped Model Lesson PlanTG.pdf

Text and Materials

The text book used for this course is Calculus for the life sciences 2nd edition by Greenwell, Ritchey, Lial, e-book custom edition (ISBN 9781323492109. In addition to the textbook the instructional videos and articles are also used to help students as they prepare for the lesson. The ebook is a custom edition as biology students will use the same textbook for the future math sequence classes that they need to take for the completion of their degree. What kind of pages, passages, problems, graphs, equations, images, etc. are the students working with? Why did you choose these texts? List references for texts including page numbers and, if applicable, links to OER resources. Link to any other materials that might be needed for the lesson.