Description

The goal of this class is to expose students to areas of biology that they would not normally encounter in a high school classroom. Students could take 2 semesters or one semester, depending on their needs. There are already 12 possible units, with more planned. Students will have a lot of flexibility to choose modules and spend a few weeks or even a few months researching a topic and writing about it.

Students will be provided with some material to help them get started – a short lecture, links to sites explaining basics, articles, conflicting data, videos, or book suggestions. Some students may choose to read ‘hard science’ articles in primary journals, while others may choose a softer approach with articles from popular science magazines and sites. Instead of tests and quizzes, students write summaries, explore ethical implications, or address questions about the material. There is also a year-long project in which students write a short research proposal. Even if they don’t intend to continue in the sciences, most students find that this process helps them to understand how scientists work and why some question are so hard to answer. How do you ask a good question and break it into testable pieces? How do you get patients to participate? How do you judge if the experiment was successful?

On average, students will do 4 units per semester, with maybe a week or 2 of fill-in (there will be module that’s just ‘cool science stuff’ that they can pick and choose from when they have a leftover week or 2). But it will be flexible and students can do as few as 2 and as many as 6, depending on which modules they choose and how in-depth their research is.

Modules will include ‘allergy and immunity’, ‘cancer biology’, ‘prions and neurodegenerative disease’, ‘the microbiome’, ‘how to lie with statistics’, and ‘biological cycles and rhythms’. There are also suggestions for labs that students can buy and do for certain units, if they want to. Microbiology, for instance, lends itself to labs that one can purchase kits for.

There will be a required unit, ‘experimental design’ which students need in order to do their proposal (we talk about how to get participants to join the study, how to ask the right question, confounding effects, ethics, and why some questions are hard).
Instructor: Dr Dana Underwood (dana@fundafunda.com)

For: Grades 9 -12

Hours: 4-5 hours each week

Credit Hours: 1 High School Credit on completion of both semesters or 1/2 for one semester

Syllabus: Available here

Fall Dates: August 19 – Dec 13 (with a week’s break over Thanksgiving)

Spring Dates: January 10 – May 2 (any week in March can be taken for Spring break)