EdTechTeacher iPad Summit Boston 2015

What happens when we say “yes” to mobile devices in an Advanced Placement Biology laboratory? Discover the answer by becoming a Digital BioLab student. Your inquiry-based challenge will be to conduct an investigation of seeds. Are seeds alive? Use cutting-edge devices such as digital microscope cameras and portable hand-held scientific probeware to accelerate your exploration of seeds and plants.

In this hands-on laboratory experience, adapted for a conference room environment, you will learn how active learning strategies and technology integration can improve science instruction. We will highlight why today’s AP Biology students need to shift their thinking to Big Ideas based upon the College Board’s redesign of the AP Biology curriculum. You will learn to facilitate laboratory experiences that support authentic questions. Discover how mobile apps such as Nearpod can be used to assess learning progress, engage a wide range of learners and calibrate instruction. Rapidly generate multimedia presentations using the Adobe Voice iPad app to communicate understanding of scientific ideas. Participants will be encouraged to share their perspectives on creating innovative performance-based assessments based upon the Next Generation Science Standards’ (NGSS) call to measure crosscutting science concepts.

The Digital BioLab initiative is an active collaboration between Boston Public Schools and Harvard Medical School’s Hinton Scholars AP Biology program. The program has also been successfully piloted with Beijing, Chinese students as part of an educational science instruction exchange effort. A team composed of an AP Biology teacher, science curriculum specialist, program coordinator and Boston high school students will facilitate this session. Attendees do not need a scientific background to fully participant, but should bring their curiosity.