Part 1: Identify Adult Content Knowledge
For this part of the Curriculum Topic Study (CTS) I read portions of text from Science For All Americans and Science Matters: Achieving Scientific Literacy about sexual reproduction, human reproductive systems, and human development over time. These texts are written to inform adult Americans about important scientific topics deemed important that they know. I expected that a basal knowledge of human sex organ systems and terminology would be included in this information, but it was not. Instead, much of the literature was focused on the stages of life from conception to implantation to trimester developments, and what can go wrong with fetal development. This focus shows how important understanding pregnancy and its possible complications is for adult Americans.
An important point that Science Matters makes is that science has yet to agree on a determination for when human life truly begins. We know that development begins in the fallopian tubes after one sperm cell fertilizes a mature egg cell, that it implants on the uterine wall and eventually develops into a baby which is born and is widely recognized as a human life at that point, but scientists cannot yet point to a time between conception and birth where the developing zygote/embryo is considered “human”. A second important point is that a mother’s health and diet directly affects the health and development of their baby. What they ingest, breathe in, or inject will all also be experience by the fetus. There is a clear aim for K-12 education set out by this information: that students need to be aware of how babies are made, the risks involved, and the maternal factors that can influence development.
Part 2: Consider Instructional Implications
Different from elementary and high school instruction, the middle school instructional focus for this topic is on embryonic development. The instructional focus for elementary school students is on post-birth development up to, and including, the phase of life where they are. While they should also be exposed to some aspects of pregnancy, explicit details about fetal development and systemic organ structures and functions are left out until middle school. In middle school, instruction of human body systems in general is greater and more in-depth, and the reproductive system follows suit.
As students become more aware of themselves and their bodies, they are better able to understand how the organs work together in systems, and how systems work together to maintain homeostasis. This awareness allows for students to learn about the functions of the different organs, and how each contributes to the formation and maturation of gametes, and how they function in the different stages of pregnancy. However, since students at this time are building a foundation, it is implied that instruction should not include very technical terminologies or processes. These should be saved for high school. Also saved for high school is the social contexts which sexual reproduction underlies (abortion, adoption, specific fetal diseases, STDs, etc.).
Part 3: Identify Concepts and Specific Ideas
The central idea of this unit should be development from gamete formation to puberty. Important connected ideas include structure and function of major organs and fetal development diseases and disorders. Learning goals which align with this topic are for students to be able to describe the different developmental stages involved in human embryonic development, and to be able to analyze different actions a pregnant mother can take to positively or negatively impact the health and development of the growing fetus.
Technical terminology that will be necessary for understanding the topic in the full extent suggested by the literature includes embryo, zygote, fertilization, sperm, egg, and uterus. However, it is likely that other technical terminology will be necessary for understanding development, such as fallopian tubes, cervix, vagina, testes, urethra, semen, and menstrual cycle. The literature did not specify when these terms are appropriate, but the curriculum textbook for Alachua County includes these as vocabulary terms of significance.
Part IV: Examine Research on Student Learning
The prior knowledge necessary for understanding the concepts involved with this unit are likely to have been learned earlier in the same year. The background gained from any time earlier would have been discussed in elementary school, and should be general life knowledge by the time students enter middle school. Alachua County 7th graders all take Life Science, and the human body systems unit is usually taught at or near the end of the year. Important information learned from previous units includes:
- the process off meiosis in formation of gametes,
- that gametes are cells that have half the copies of DNA (1) a normal cell has (2),
- that male and female humans have different organs specialized for sexual reproduction,
- and that sexual reproduction is common in vertebrate animals.
Other prior knowledge includes simple knowledge of mammalian pregnancies, including that mammals have live births and feed their young with milk from mammary glands, and that sexual reproduction requires one male and one female of the same species.
Misconceptions about this topic may be that babies develop in a mother’s stomach or vagina, that sex always results in a pregnancy, and that pregnancies always last 9 months. Difficulties in this subject matter could include maintaining classroom discipline with such a sensitive topic, allowing for equality in taking responses from male and female students, and ensuring students feel comfortable discussing and asking questions about the subject.
Part V: Examine Coherency and Articulation
The Atlas of Scientific Literacy shows many connections between the main ideas involved within this large topic, as well as between the science concepts and other content areas. The topics which sort the connections from K-12 learning are cell differentiation, fertilization and contraception, growth and development, and risks and survival. All of these connections, however, are incorporated into a concept map strictly focused on human development. So, many of the connections and nodes in this map are outside of the scope of the curriculum outlined by the county, who’s focus is more on the organ system and embryonic development, than post birth development.
The main 6-8th grade node that relates to the main idea outlined previously in this CTS is that “Human fertilization occurs when sperm cells from a male's testes are deposited near an egg cell from the female ovary, and one of the sperm cells enters the egg cell.” However, there is a much more applicable node at the base of 9-12 learning, which expounds on the previous node: “Following fertilization, cell division produces a small cluster of cells that embeds itself in the wall of the uterus. As the embryo develops, it receives nourishment and eliminates wastes by the transfer of substances between its blood and the blood of its mother.” While the research suggests this wait until 9th grade, higher level 7th graders should be able to understand this concept/content, and at least should be introduced to it in conjunction with the other node and other embryonic development information.
Part VI: Clarify State Standards and District Curriculum
The main state standard involved in this topic is SC.6.L.14.5 - Identify and investigate the general functions of the major systems of the human body (digestive, respiratory, circulatory, reproductive, excretory, immune, nervous, and musculoskeletal) and describe ways these systems interact with each other to maintain homeostasis. However, the textbook based off of the state standards explicitly states that the reproductive system is not directly involved with maintenance of homeostasis. So, the key words involved in this standard are “identify” and “investigate”. It is nearly, if not actually impossible to investigate the reproductive system to a great extent, so the most important verb must be “identify”.
Identification of the general functions of the reproduction system is usually taught via cross-section diagrams of the different structures and their position within the body. However, because of the vague nature of the standards, teachers have a lot of flexibility with how to teach this material depending on how they budget time. Function of the different organs should be taught in terms of gamete formation and embryonic development. Explaining the purpose of these organs and structures will be important for the students to remember the names of the different structures.
According to the reading, an understanding of this content must also incorporate pregnancy problems and post-birth developmental stages. In the state textbook, this content is also included despite not being explicitly asked for by the standards. This parallel shows that time should be budgeted to incorporate this information into the unit, which is why I have done so for the project-based instruction unit.
For this part of the Curriculum Topic Study (CTS) I read portions of text from Science For All Americans and Science Matters: Achieving Scientific Literacy about sexual reproduction, human reproductive systems, and human development over time. These texts are written to inform adult Americans about important scientific topics deemed important that they know. I expected that a basal knowledge of human sex organ systems and terminology would be included in this information, but it was not. Instead, much of the literature was focused on the stages of life from conception to implantation to trimester developments, and what can go wrong with fetal development. This focus shows how important understanding pregnancy and its possible complications is for adult Americans.
An important point that Science Matters makes is that science has yet to agree on a determination for when human life truly begins. We know that development begins in the fallopian tubes after one sperm cell fertilizes a mature egg cell, that it implants on the uterine wall and eventually develops into a baby which is born and is widely recognized as a human life at that point, but scientists cannot yet point to a time between conception and birth where the developing zygote/embryo is considered “human”. A second important point is that a mother’s health and diet directly affects the health and development of their baby. What they ingest, breathe in, or inject will all also be experience by the fetus. There is a clear aim for K-12 education set out by this information: that students need to be aware of how babies are made, the risks involved, and the maternal factors that can influence development.
Part 2: Consider Instructional Implications
Different from elementary and high school instruction, the middle school instructional focus for this topic is on embryonic development. The instructional focus for elementary school students is on post-birth development up to, and including, the phase of life where they are. While they should also be exposed to some aspects of pregnancy, explicit details about fetal development and systemic organ structures and functions are left out until middle school. In middle school, instruction of human body systems in general is greater and more in-depth, and the reproductive system follows suit.
As students become more aware of themselves and their bodies, they are better able to understand how the organs work together in systems, and how systems work together to maintain homeostasis. This awareness allows for students to learn about the functions of the different organs, and how each contributes to the formation and maturation of gametes, and how they function in the different stages of pregnancy. However, since students at this time are building a foundation, it is implied that instruction should not include very technical terminologies or processes. These should be saved for high school. Also saved for high school is the social contexts which sexual reproduction underlies (abortion, adoption, specific fetal diseases, STDs, etc.).
Part 3: Identify Concepts and Specific Ideas
The central idea of this unit should be development from gamete formation to puberty. Important connected ideas include structure and function of major organs and fetal development diseases and disorders. Learning goals which align with this topic are for students to be able to describe the different developmental stages involved in human embryonic development, and to be able to analyze different actions a pregnant mother can take to positively or negatively impact the health and development of the growing fetus.
Technical terminology that will be necessary for understanding the topic in the full extent suggested by the literature includes embryo, zygote, fertilization, sperm, egg, and uterus. However, it is likely that other technical terminology will be necessary for understanding development, such as fallopian tubes, cervix, vagina, testes, urethra, semen, and menstrual cycle. The literature did not specify when these terms are appropriate, but the curriculum textbook for Alachua County includes these as vocabulary terms of significance.
Part IV: Examine Research on Student Learning
The prior knowledge necessary for understanding the concepts involved with this unit are likely to have been learned earlier in the same year. The background gained from any time earlier would have been discussed in elementary school, and should be general life knowledge by the time students enter middle school. Alachua County 7th graders all take Life Science, and the human body systems unit is usually taught at or near the end of the year. Important information learned from previous units includes:
- the process off meiosis in formation of gametes,
- that gametes are cells that have half the copies of DNA (1) a normal cell has (2),
- that male and female humans have different organs specialized for sexual reproduction,
- and that sexual reproduction is common in vertebrate animals.
Other prior knowledge includes simple knowledge of mammalian pregnancies, including that mammals have live births and feed their young with milk from mammary glands, and that sexual reproduction requires one male and one female of the same species.
Misconceptions about this topic may be that babies develop in a mother’s stomach or vagina, that sex always results in a pregnancy, and that pregnancies always last 9 months. Difficulties in this subject matter could include maintaining classroom discipline with such a sensitive topic, allowing for equality in taking responses from male and female students, and ensuring students feel comfortable discussing and asking questions about the subject.
Part V: Examine Coherency and Articulation
The Atlas of Scientific Literacy shows many connections between the main ideas involved within this large topic, as well as between the science concepts and other content areas. The topics which sort the connections from K-12 learning are cell differentiation, fertilization and contraception, growth and development, and risks and survival. All of these connections, however, are incorporated into a concept map strictly focused on human development. So, many of the connections and nodes in this map are outside of the scope of the curriculum outlined by the county, who’s focus is more on the organ system and embryonic development, than post birth development.
The main 6-8th grade node that relates to the main idea outlined previously in this CTS is that “Human fertilization occurs when sperm cells from a male's testes are deposited near an egg cell from the female ovary, and one of the sperm cells enters the egg cell.” However, there is a much more applicable node at the base of 9-12 learning, which expounds on the previous node: “Following fertilization, cell division produces a small cluster of cells that embeds itself in the wall of the uterus. As the embryo develops, it receives nourishment and eliminates wastes by the transfer of substances between its blood and the blood of its mother.” While the research suggests this wait until 9th grade, higher level 7th graders should be able to understand this concept/content, and at least should be introduced to it in conjunction with the other node and other embryonic development information.
Part VI: Clarify State Standards and District Curriculum
The main state standard involved in this topic is SC.6.L.14.5 - Identify and investigate the general functions of the major systems of the human body (digestive, respiratory, circulatory, reproductive, excretory, immune, nervous, and musculoskeletal) and describe ways these systems interact with each other to maintain homeostasis. However, the textbook based off of the state standards explicitly states that the reproductive system is not directly involved with maintenance of homeostasis. So, the key words involved in this standard are “identify” and “investigate”. It is nearly, if not actually impossible to investigate the reproductive system to a great extent, so the most important verb must be “identify”.
Identification of the general functions of the reproduction system is usually taught via cross-section diagrams of the different structures and their position within the body. However, because of the vague nature of the standards, teachers have a lot of flexibility with how to teach this material depending on how they budget time. Function of the different organs should be taught in terms of gamete formation and embryonic development. Explaining the purpose of these organs and structures will be important for the students to remember the names of the different structures.
According to the reading, an understanding of this content must also incorporate pregnancy problems and post-birth developmental stages. In the state textbook, this content is also included despite not being explicitly asked for by the standards. This parallel shows that time should be budgeted to incorporate this information into the unit, which is why I have done so for the project-based instruction unit.