Using Data to Predict Life Choices

Lesson Focus and Instructional Purpose

Cross Disciplinary Themes Addressed

Analyzing trends in data
Effects of nature (genes) and nurture (environment)

Citing Textual evidence to support analysis
Making inferences based upon strong textual evidence to predict outcomes
Identifying primary source information

Unifying Essential Question(s)

How can data be used to make predictions about a person's future life choices?

How can we use textual evidence to support inferences about a person's future choices based upon genetics?

Subject Area Question(s)

Collaborative Learning Objective(s)

The student will be able to:

identify trends in behavior choices by analyzing data from a primary source.

Subject Area Learning Objectives

Standards Addressed

Close Reading Text Set

Anchor Text

Biology, childhood trauma, and murder: Rethinking justice

Supporting Texts

Organized Text Set

Student Activities and Tasks

Text-Dependent Questions

Biology Text Dependent Questions For Use with Serotonin and Anchor Text

1) In this example, what does the word “control” mean?
2) In this example, what does the word “variant” mean?
3) Based on the reading, is someone with increased serotonin levels MORE likely or LESS likely to be depressed? Support your claim with evidence from the reading.
4) Based on the reading, are antidepressant drugs likely to INCREASE or DECREASE serotonin levels? Support your claim with evidence from the reading.
5) Based on the reading, do you predict the mutant version of Tph2 to be a dominant mutation or a recessive mutation? Support your claim with evidence from the reading.
6) What would be the genotype of someone who was heterozygous for this mutation? Homozygous?
7) Nine of the patients in the study had the mutated version. If one of these affected patients had an offspring that was normal, would the patient have been homozygous or heterozygous? Why?
8) If two heterozygous patients had offspring, what is the chance that they would have decreased serotonin production?
9) If a homozygous mutant parent had children with a homozygous normal parent, what would be the genotype ratio of the offspring?
10) Design a parent combination that would result in a family having two children with decreased serotonin and two children with normal serotonin.


Biology Text Dependent Questions with Role of Genotype Article

1) Is the amount of MAOA an example of a phenotype? Support your answer with evidence from the text.
2) Is maltreated children an example of a phenotype? Support your answer with evidence from the text.
3) When the word genotype is used in the abstract, is it referring to MAOA or maltreated children? Support your answer with evidence from the text.
4) Describe a key difference between the MAOA gene and the Tph2 gene. Support your answer with evidence from the text.
5) What does the word expression in Paragraph #2 mean?
6) Based on the graph, what do the numbers 108, 42 and 13 refer to?
7) Based on the graph, list the descriptors of who is most likely to have a conduct disorder.
8) Based on the graph, does having high MAOA activity mean you are protected from having a conduct disorder? Support your claim with evidence from the graph.
9) The graph tracked 180 people with High MAOA activity who also had no maltreatment. What number of people in that group had a conduct disorder?
10) Describe the differences seen between Graph A and Graph B. Support your answer with evidence from the graph.
11) If a father had one mutant MAOA allele, what is genotype for this father?
12) If a mother had one mutant MAOA allele, what is genotype for this mother?
13) If a heterozygous mother and a normal father had 3 children, what is the chance they will have:
A mutant son? Why?
A mutant daughter? Why?
A carrier son? Why?
A carrier daughter? Why?
14) If a son is a mutant, what information do we have about his father? His mother?

LA:
What are the implications provided by the text that demonstrate a sound connection between childhood neglect and adult criminality?
What are the defined indicators of PTSD?
What ways does the text present as alternative coping methods for a lack of positive attachment during childhood?
How does childhood trauma affect brain development and at what age are our brains fully developed?
What effects does abuse have on the Corpus Callosum and the Limbic System? How do these effects manifest in boys and girls differently?
What does the information in the text provide for the reader to create their own opinions?
According to the secondary source, when does the onset of offending careers begin?
How is this proven/refuted between the texts? Do they support this claim? Or do the texts contradict each other?
How can you use the texts to formulate your own informed opinion on the subject?

Math
From the 'Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance', there are many questions that could be asked to probe for understanding, lead discussion, and peak students interests.

For Task 1:
What is the median percentage for the Total number of students of all the states who Carried a weapon on school property?
How did you choose the 3 states?
What data did you use?
Is there any data that is significantly different from your state?
How does your state compare to the overall Median and Range?
Is it above or below the median?
Is the difference significant?
How does your state compare to the other states you chose?
Were there any significant differences?
Are any of your findings surprising?
Does any of the data stand out?

Math Task 2:
How does your state compare to the overall box plot?
Is it above or below the median?
Does it lie inside or outside the interquartile range?
Is the difference significant?
How does your state compare to the other states you chose?
Were there any significant differences?
Does the box plot change any of your findings or opinions from the first graphs?
Which graphs were more useful for your comparisons?

Formative Assessment Strategies and Tasks

Biology Day One:
Collect their anchor text and their text-dependent questions to read and give feedback to students.

Biology Day Two:
Give students an Exit Ticket, such as these.
Schimizzi, Joanna. "Nature, Nurture, Neurotransmitter Exit Tickets." OER Commons. Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education, 26 Apr. 2015. Web. 26 Apr. 2015. <https://www.oercommons.org/authoring/8179-nature-nurture-neurotransmitter-exit-tickets>.

Biology Day Three
Collect the text-dependent questions so you can provide feedback to the students.

Biology Day Four
Provide students with a chance to demonstrate their knowledge of sex-linked inheritance patterns such as these exit tickets.
Schimizzi, Joanna. "Nature, Nurture, Neurotransmitter Exit Tickets." OER Commons. Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education, 26 Apr. 2015. Web. 26 Apr. 2015. <https://www.oercommons.org/authoring/8179-nature-nurture-neurotransmitter-exit-tickets>.

Biology Day Five
Collect the Summative Assessment.

Language Arts Day 1:
Students will be given the anchor text and a secondary text for comparison and asked to complete a Venn Diagram displaying any overlapping ideas as a ticket out the door

LA Day 2:
Students will provide a list of at least 5 characteristics that demonstrate the difference between the primary and secondary source that also strengthen their own arguments as a spot check for understanding of the material

LA Day 3:
Students will formulate and outline of facts to support their chosen argument in the Nature vs. Nurture debate. This will allow for proper formulation of ideas and ability to discern point of view and its effect on information

LA Day 4:
Students will construct a well thought out argumentative essay using both primary and secondary sources to compile textual evidence to support their claim and present arguments in a debate format to receive group feedback on their points. Essays will be graded for a formal assessment grade along with the presentation skills demonstrated

Math
Task 1: Students will use data to complete comparison graphs based on the medians and the 95% confidence intervals. Through observations, task questions, and teacher inquiry, students will be able to show an understanding of comparing data.

Task 2: Students will use data to complete box plots and then label specific data on the plot and use the plot for comparison. Through observations, task questions, and teacher inquiry, students will be able to show an understanding of comparing data.

Culminating Assessment

The summative assessment below can be used in any content class, along with any content-specific summatives that may be used by your content team.

Schimizzi, Joanna. "Summative Assessment - Data and Life Predictions." OER Commons. Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education, 07 Apr. 2015. Web. 07 Apr. 2015. <https://www.oercommons.org/authoring/7931-summative-assessment-data-and-life-predictions>.

Language Arts: The formative assessment will be composed of two stages. The students will construct a well designed essay to provide support for their arguments and will then also present them to the class in a debate format to obtain feedback and participate in a question/answer format to defend their stance on the issue. Essays and debate presentations will be graded as equal parts and provide the opportunity to demonstrate understanding of primary and secondary sources, ability to prepare and compose a well constructed piece of writing and additionally practice defending their opinion in a positive manner with public speaking practice.

Background Knowledge and Prerequisite Skills

Pre-requisite Learning

Background knowledge students will need:
* None


Skills students will need:
* Annotation strategies to support their analysis of the text
* Graphic interpretation skills to support their analysis of graphs and charts
* (Math) 5-Number Summary and Box Plots

Pre-assessment of Readiness for Learning

Provide a small segment of the anchor text and a segment of the supporting text's graphs to students prior to beginning the unit. Carefully choose segments that are vocabulary dense and graphs that are data dense but that can be read/analyzed out of context. Provide students with a short period of time to make annotations on what they notice about the text. Collect the texts and review their annotation strategies. Use their annotations to guide the additional support their skills will need.

(Math) Assess students ability to gather data from the CDC table by asking specific questions about the data.

Organization of Instructional Activities

Crawford, Jason. "Language Arts Lesson Plan Crawford." OER Commons. Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education, 07 Apr. 2015. Web. 07 Apr. 2015. <https://www.oercommons.org/authoring/7929-language-arts-lesson-plan-crawford>.

Schimizzi, Joanna. "Nature, Nurture and Neurotransmitters." OER Commons. Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education, 07 Apr. 2015. Web. 07 Apr. 2015. <https://www.oercommons.org/authoring/7923-nature-nurture-and-neurotransmitters>.

Rackowitz, Todd. "Comparing Risk Behaviors of Teens in America." OER Commons. Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education, 27 Apr. 2015. Web. 27 Apr. 2015. <https://www.oercommons.org/authoring/8182-comparing-risk-behaviors-of-teens-in-america>.

Students will complete Venn Diagrams to show any common ideas presented that demonstrate an overlap of genetics and decision making

Students will compile a comprehensive list of information that supports their opinions and analyze the possible reasons for criminality in juveniles

Students will use the information from the texts to analyze and compare juvenile criminal statistics taken from NY and LA to better understand the outcomes of the negative experiences identified in the texts

Students will then locate and compare statistical information for their localities to identify any possible trends and reasoning from individual experiences of people they personally know to support any claims made by the texts

Students will annotate their texts to cite evidence to support their positions

Students will construct a well organized outline to formulate an essay for assessment to determine learning