Bulletin Board

This poster was useful in guiding students through the process of answering questions appropriately, especially the freshman classes. First, you state your claim or answer. Then, you support your answer with evidence. Finally, you apply reasoning and explain further.

There were several instances in the course of my student teaching where referring to this poster was helpful to the students. A specific example involves a freshman biology student studying biomolecules. The student was asked to identify an amino acid molecular structure from several different molecular structure illustrations. First, state your claim, which structure is an amino acid. The student replied “this one” and pointed to a molecular structure on the page. Support your claim with evidence, how do you know? The student replied, “there’s a nitrogen in the structure.” Finally, expand your answer with reasoning. The student replied, “The amine group in an amino acid contains a nitrogen and this is the only molecular structure on the page with a nitrogen group.” The poster was a successful guide in developing a meaningful answer to a question.