Bio PBL

This PBL started out by having the students first research out the kinds of
plants that are native to our own area, and also have some medicinal uses.
The students were to identify the plant, what kinds of diseases, illnesses, or
medical problems that the plant might cure. How might the early settler
doctor use these plants in their treatments? The class then created online
posters to show and explain their plant. Ms. Kristy Baker, a English
Teacher at Andrew, then helped me by having her classes write a short
story. Her students wrote about a early settler, and how in the course of
their life and activities would do something, and then get ill or hurt because
of it. The story would be very open ended, with the writer giving
symptoms of their settler'sproblem. These stories were then given to my
students, and then we were first to read the story, write down the
symptoms that the early settler had, and the possible causes for the
symptoms. The students then went to the online posters to see what plants
could possibly used to treat both the cause and symptoms of this early
settlers problems. Would we just be able to treat the symptom or also
possibly cure this settler?

This Environmental Issues PBL actually started with the Ancient Indian
Proverb "Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it
was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our
Ancestors, we borrow it from our children."

We were simply to search out some kind of environmental issue in our
Chicagoland area. The students were to find 2 websites that dealt
directly with this issue, and the sites had to be "local" sites. The students
identified the issue, the impact of this issue on our lives and world, and
the consequences if left unchecked. The students then also created 5
questions about information that they felt people should know and learn
from this. I then made an assignment that had the students searching
those websites and answering each others questions.

In the response to the September 11th terrorist bombing of America,
this project was born. America, on that day, entered a war againest
the evil in our World. It is a kind of evil that will pose a threat to our
entire civilization and all of humanity. Our World, as we once knew it
before this attack on 9/11, will now be changed forever.

This project was a joint effort of the classes of Ms. Laurie Ritchey and
Ms. Chris Cernick---Biology teachers of Carl Sandburg High School,
and Mr. Tom Kearney---Biology teacher of Andrew High School.

A list of the top 50 major biological diseases was created. Our
students were paired up, and each small group chose one of these
diseases. The first part of the assignment was to find out the history of
the disease. They looked at the causes/symptoms of the disease, any
treatments/preventatives/cures, and lastly the impact that the disease
has had on humans throughout history.

The students created online posters with this information on it. After
this part of the assignment was done, the job was now to go through the
disease and decide which of the disease truely posed a very real threat
to our World, and which just might be classified as a fear. The
students then created another poster with the idea that they were
going to identify these real threats, and illustrate what we need to do to
protect ourselves from these diseases.

The Chicago Wilderness Society has asked our help in putting
together a travel guide brochure for the different nature areas
within our Chicagoland area. They would like our brochures to
highlight the different forms of wildlife that the visitor might
encounter, as well as what are some of the effects of our expanding
human population having on these areas. We invite you to come
along and visit some of these truely beautiful areas of nature