OpenSciEd Unit 6.6 · Lesson 09
Look for: In the Progress Tracker, look for students’ d…
From Teacher Edition
Facilitation guidance from the lesson plan — what to notice in student thinking and how to respond while teaching.
What to look / listen for
In the Progress Tracker, look for students’ drawings or written explanations to describe how cells split to make more cells to fill the gap. The size and shape of the old and new cells should remain the same. (The actual type of cell used in the drawing or description is not important here.) A complete drawing might look something like the image here.
Keep in mind that the Progress Tracker should not be used as a summative assessment, but rather as a formative assessment to understand what students are thinking at this point. We recommend that you provide feedback in the form of questions to probe student thinking and push for more sensemaking.
What to do
If students struggle to show how the gap is filled by new cells that result from old cells splitting, consider making a separate handout with an image similar to the one at the top of this step. Then direct students to draw 2-3 more blank boxes below and draw what is happening in these steps for the gap to be filled in the end. You could also replay the video at this point, and then ask them to fill in the diagrams.