Middle School Science With a Biomedical Engineering Major

👋 INTRODUCTION 👋

When I was a tutor, I would often encounter parents who were worried about making sure their children were "ahead" enough. This is understandable considering there is no set-in-stone middle school science curriculum! When I was in middle school, I wish I would have received a more sophisticated science introduction before I was thrown into high school/AP courses! 

I've designed this course to give students a fun and laid-back intro to Biology and Chemistry. As many parents have testified, this course has offered learners a glimpse into unique science topics they wouldn't get elsewhere. 

Although this is a structure class with live sessions, assignments, and a curriculum, my main goal is to offer an accepting and enjoyable space to learn and grow in the sciences. Students can expect to: 

- Engage in interactive activities and build a community with their section
- Learn the basics of Biology and Cellular Biology
- Learn the basics of Chemistry 
- Participate in review games that round out individual units
- Complete a tailored workbook with meaningful assignments 

Read on to discover some more detailed information. I hope your student joins the Middle School Science crew! 

🧠 REQUIREMENTS 🧠

Some students are more advanced in these topics than others, so it's important to make sure your student will have room to grow in this course. The class is meant for beginners, so your learner may be too advanced for this course if they already understand 4 or more of these topics: 

- The parts of atoms (protons, neutrons, electrons)
- Elements and the Periodic Table
- Bohr Model drawings of atoms
- The parts of cells
- Biomolecules like carbohydrates and lipids
- Hydrophobicity 
- The structure of DNA and DNA bases
- Protein synthesis
- Cell communication and signaling
- The plasma membrane and its parts

That being said, even advanced students who have taken the course in the past tell me that they have learned something new and interesting during each lesson. I'll be happy to cater to your advanced learner outside of class with extra materials, too. For more information on that, please message me! 

On the flip side, your learner may not be ready for my class yet if they DON'T understand the following topics: 
- The existence of atoms and molecules
- Mathematic operations: adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing
- The existence of elements like gold, oxygen, hydrogen, etc. 
- The concept of positive and negative charges (positively charged vs. negatively charged)
- The concept of human cells and how humans are made up of trillions of them

🥼 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 could bring their workbooks to class every time to complete the homework assignments early, take notes, or go over homework from a previous week. 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 1-6: Basic Chemistry 
Topics include: 
- Atoms and subatomic particles
- The coolest elements and their properties
- The Periodic Table and how to read squares (finding protons, neutrons, and electrons of an element)
- Bohr model drawings of atoms 

Weeks 6-11: Basic Molecular Biology
Topics include: 
- The molecules of life: proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, nucleic acids 
- Structure and function of DNA
- Hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity 
- Protein synthesis and folding

Weeks 11-15: Basic Cellular Biology
Students may pick the specific topics we learn in this unit. Choices include: 
- Cell signaling
- Cell organelles
- DNA specifics 
- Tissue types and different variations of cells.

🚪 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 outside of class time.

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 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 deserves to be supported. I do censor speech that violates our classroom guidelines; anything that is hateful, harmful, disturbing, or vulgar does warrant action.