L.W. Beecher Museum Magnet School is a Pre-Kindergarten through 8th grade school in New Haven, Connecticut. As the 7th and 8th grade science teacher, I am the only science-specific teacher in the building. For this reason, my main focus is ensuring that the culture surrounding science class and my classroom, the “science lab,” is exciting and welcoming. My primary goal is for students to see that science is engaging and fun, and that it applies to their everyday life.
7th grade students will participate in this unit during their cells and the human body curriculum in the second marking period, which typically falls from November to January. At this point in the year, most 7th grade students have not been exposed to a science-specific class or to working in a “science lab” every day. Through this unit, students will gain experience working in a lab, and the skills that are built through experimentation and teamwork. Students will go through the engineering design thinking process to create a prototype for a solution to an injury to the skin. The students will begin by learning about healthy, functional skin and then learn about two major injuries to skin: burns and skin cancer. The focus on framing the unit around the engineering design thinking process is to intentionally bring a hands-on, interactive approach to learning. Through this process students will gain access to a real-world experience of prototype design and ideation.
