Welcome to Our Virtual Classroom

We started blogging this summer, but now we are going to take it to the next level. This will be your blog for AP Biology (Period 1 & 2) for the whole year. Let me make that clear -- this isn't MY blog; this is OUR blog. This blog is what you'll make of it. I'll prod a bit to get you started, but you can then take it as far as you want, to make it a helpful learning environment for all of you.

Since I strongly believe that you don't really learn something until you have to teach it to someone else, we will use this blog for students to teach students. Each day a student in class will be assigned to be the class sherpa -- our guide who will show us the clear path up the mountain of knowledge. I will appoint the first sherpa, but after that... today's sherpa will pass their baton on to the next sherpa of their choosing. This will serve as 50% of your participation mark for the quarter.

What will the sherpa do here?

1. Summarize the day's lesson.
2. Highlight the important points of the lesson -- especially highlighting concepts exemplifying the 8 themes of biology (more about these later).
3. Highlight any unanswered questions left after the class.
4. Help clarify any points of confusion left after class.
5. Point us to resources that help learn today's lesson -- like animations, videos, diagrams, photos, other teacher's Web sites that illustrate concepts we've been learning.