Brian Desrochers
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About Me
My name is Brian Desrochers and I am a certified Biology teacher for grades 7-12. I graduated from The College of Saint Rose with a degree in Biology Adolescent Education in 2013. Since graduating, I have taught at a public school for parts of two years before working at a charter school for two and a half years. I am currently taking a break from teaching to focus on completing my degree in the CDIT program at UAlbany. I am working as a pharmacy technician part time while working on my degree full time. I have an interest and passion for using media and technology in the classroom as a way to engage students, and help them make meaningful connections to the material being presented in the classroom.
My Topic and Purpose
My course is designed to help improve science instruction, specifically Biology, by helping educators find new ways to create cognitive dissonance using media documents. There is research that shows when students feel that they are making a connection to the content, they will form a better understanding of the material. Media and technology is something that students are very connected to and it is important to draw on their interests in order to make meaningful lessons. By learning how to deconstruct media documents, and neutrally present opposing media documents, educators can encourage student collaboration and research that helps them become critical thinkers who question their beliefs and the world around them. This course is not meant to persuade students to think a certain way. In fact, it is just the opposite, as this course is designed to help students think critically by creating cognitive dissonance through media documents. Doing this will improve students' critical thinking and scientific argumentation, interpretation, and reasoning abilities. While these tactics may be most effective for controversial topics, they can be applied to other non controversial topics as well.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course students will be able to:
- Select relevant and appropriate media documents
- Analyze and deconstruct media documents related to scientific research
- Research and select relevant opposing scientific media documents
- Create assignments that allow for scientific argumentation by students based on research.
Needs Assessment
Analysis of the Learner and Context
Performance-Based Objectives
Define course-level target objectives
Task Analysis
Elaborate and analyze the objectives to identify more specific enabling and supporting objectives.
Curriculum Map
Map out the sequence of learning units and activities to achieve the defined objectives.
