Middle School Science: Genes, Evolution, and Heredity

👋 INTRODUCTION 👋

DNA holds all of the instructions necessary to create fully-functioning human beings! It's no secret that we all have different DNA... it's what makes us all interesting and unique! But how do these differences affect us, and how did they affect us thousands of years ago? Why do children look like their parents? Why is it that sometimes children looking nothing like their parents? 

This course allows students to take the journey from tiny DNA strand to evolution theory. The class has 3 main phases:

1. DNA/Genes
2. Heredity 
3. Evolution

This means that students will learn about the types of traits that make us all unique, and then HOW those traits affect the world around us!

Read on to discover some more detailed information. I hope your student joins the our genetic journey! 

🧠 REQUIREMENTS 🧠

This course requires almost no experience in these topics and is structured for beginners. It will be helpful for your student to understand the following topics: 
- Parents can have biological children that look like them. 
- Families have similar traits to one another.
- Humans and other animals have changed over time.

Your learner may be too advanced for this course if they understand 3 or more of the following topics: 
- The structure of DNA: backbone, bases, hydrophobic interactions
- Genetics like DNA alphabet (ATGC) and expression of genes
- The lac operon in bacteria
- Mendelian genetics (Punnett squares)
- Pedigrees and genetic disorders like albinism and cystic fibrosis
- Alleles (dominant and recessive) 
- Natural selection and why it occurs
- Early humans like Australopithecus, Homo Erectus, Homo Habilis, Neanderthal, and Cro-Magnon 

🥼 WHAT CAN I EXPECT? 🥼

This class has a live session every week. These live sessions are interactive, but the level of interactivity mostly depends on student initiative. I do not "cold-call" or force students to participate. This is a great fit if your student is nervous or anxious about speaking in class! For interactive students, they can participate in 2 ways: 

- Using our open chat box (as long as class rules are maintained)
- Raising their virtual hand on Zoom and waiting for me to call on them before unmuting

I do my best to maintain an open, loving, and positive space for students of all backgrounds to grow. I view each section of mine as a community that feeds off of each other. Because of this, I have 3 class rules that I expect all students to follow: 

1. Be a good "Zoom citizen." This means that students are expected to...
- avoid spamming the chat box with emoticons or words.
- wait their turn to speak and avoid interrupting their classmates.
- keep their microphone muted when they are not speaking to prevent background noise.
- avoid disrupting the class by drawing on the screen or trying to sabotage the Zoom call.

2. Be kind to everyone. This means that students are expected to...
- speak to other students with respect and kindness.
- avoid teasing or bullying other students. 

3. Be a supportive classmate and enhance the learning environment. This means that students are expected to...
- keep the class relatively on-topic and not try to distract classmates.
- use the chat box responsibly and help to keep the class on track.
- in general, come to class with a positive attitude and the willingness to be a part of our community.

If there is an issue with these rules or if your student violates one of these guidelines, I will usually give them a subtle warning during class time. If it continues beyond this, I will remove them from the session.

Students can bring their workbooks to class every time to complete the homework assignments early, take notes, or go over homework from a previous week. Even though students may bring their workbooks, there is no formal "note-taking." I will never require students to take notes, but they are welcome to do so and I'll be happy to accommodate that! 

When students come into the live session, there is usually a "Welcome" slide to greet them and relaxing music playing in the background. Students are free to interact with each other using the chat box as long as they maintain a positive space. 

My teaching style is fun, engaging and upbeat! I often compare scientific topics to real-life situations, and use doodles and drawings to explain concepts. There will be a 5-minute break halfway through the session for students to use the bathroom or grab a snack.

After each session, students can expect to receive all the notes and materials I used during class in the Outschool classroom. All recordings are posted on the Outschool classroom.

🔬FULL SCHEDULE🔬

WEEKS 1-4: DNA and GENES
- The structure of DNA: bases, sugar-phosphate backbone, hydrophobic interactions
- The concept of the DNA alphabet (ATGC) and matching strands
- DNA mistakes and mutations
- Genetic regulation and the lac operon

WEEKS 4-8: HEREDITY
- Classic Mendelian genetics (the story and the concepts)
- Punnett squares, alleles, allele notation
- Pedigrees and family tracing
- Genetic disorders 
- A small intro to double Punnett squares 

WEEKS 8-12: EVOLUTION
- Charles Darwin (the story and the Galapagos) 
- Basic natural selection theory and simulations
- Human history and different early humans
- Evolution in the present day
- Symbiosis and animal relationships

🚪 REASONS WHY PEOPLE DISENROLL EARLY 🚪

I am very fortunate on Outschool to be blessed with great ratings and good experiences with students. Just like all teachers do, I rarely encounter situations where some parents pull their students out of my classes early because there is a misunderstanding or a conflict. To avoid this, here are some of the most popular reasons why this occurs:

1. My classes are on the larger side and they are not meant to be "hands-on." 

I do not mention any "hands-on" activities in my descriptions, but sometimes parents are disappointed when they find that my classes are not one-on-one and they don't include experiments of any kind. I understand that some students need one-on-one attention, but I urge you to look elsewhere on Outschool for some great private lessons from other great teachers. My classes are an interactive lecture-style and they are very much a group setting where a student's participation is dependent on their own initiative. I do provide one-on-one help with the use of Outschool messenger if students need help.

2. I do not discipline students' behavior and expect them to know how to conduct themselves.

In general, I treat all my students like young adults. I expect that students know how to behave in an online classroom and that students are in my classes to learn and be productive classroom members. If your learner needs extra help or assistance with paying attention, being disruptive, or acting out, I will not spend lesson time teaching them how to behave and instead probably remove them from the class. Parents tend to love the amount of freedom I give to my students and it typically works out great. If your learner cannot maturely handle this freedom, there are many great teachers on Outschool who maintain a stricter environment!

3. I do not censor or silence students of specific backgrounds, identities, cultures, or orientations.

My main focus as a teacher is to create an environment where students feel accepted, strong, and loved. My zero-tolerance bullying policy and other classroom guidelines reflect this. I also think it is extremely important for students to interact with each other in the online classroom environment because many of my students are homeschooled and they struggle to make friends. To help with these goals, during certain periods of the class I allow my students to chat freely with one another and get to know each other as humans. This might mean that some students share their pronouns or identities. I do not and will not censor specific orientations or identities from being discussed as every type of student is welcome in my classroom and deserve to be supported. I do censor speech that violates our classroom guidelines; anything that is hateful, harmful, disturbing, or vulgar does warrant action.