LEARNING TO TEACH OTHER

By: Alex Riolo, San Diego CA

Biodiversity Project - Fall 2009

In this project we learned about a specific taxa, gymnosperms, or pine trees. After researching our taxa we wrote lab background information sheets. We then created and interactive component to teach middle school students about our taxa, and had a lab day to share our information with them.


The final aspect of this project was the lab activity. Our lab activity was to have the 7th graders identify the differences in pinecones. We provided them with background information, as well as pictures and other information to assist them in identifying the pinecones.

I leaned more about pinecones, and pine trees, and how they mate and live. Furthermore, I learned how to write lab background information. I also learned how to communicate the information that I learned to other people.

When presenting to the middle school students we learned a lot about how to make the information more palatable to students with less background information that we have. As the day progressed we were better able to tailor our presentation to the audience. In the end I feel that we were able to impart a good portion of the information.

In total the whole project went really well. I learned a lot about not only how to learn information myself, but also how to teach others. It was a little slow in the beginning, but we learned how to catch up and make a strong finish. If we were to do this again I think that we would work harder in the beginning and spread out the work.