BIOL 11
Teaching 3rd Grade about Zebrafish--BioEYES Winter 2023

BioEYES brings tropical fish to 3rd-grade classrooms in Williamstown, Lanesborough, and North Adams Elementary schools, in a science teaching workshop. Elementary school students will breed fish at the school, then study their development and pigmentation during one week. Williams students will adapt BioEYES lesson plans to the science curriculum for the schools we visit, work with classroom teachers to introduce concepts in genetics and development, help the 3rd-grade students in the classroom, and assess elementary student learning. No zebrafish experience or science expertise is necessary. and all training is provided. During the first week, Williams students will learn to set up fish matings and review BioEYES lesson plans on embryonic development and the genetics of fish pigmentation. In small groups, students will practice teach the hands-on experiments using living animals. In the subsequent three weeks, students will present lessons at the schools and review assessment data. Time commitment: Week 1 – approx. 6 hours total for program training and lesson preparation with additional outside-of-class time needed to create teaching posters, dates, and times TBD Weeks 2 & 3 – approx. 4 hours per day, times TBD dependent on elementary school schedules during the regular school day between 8:30 am and 3:00 pm. Week 4 – TBD; 4 hours per day if running a school program; minimal hours if not running an elementary school program.