Unit: Women in Science

Designed by: Mertixell Marquès Gainza & Victor Villanueva

Level: Eso 2 (group b & C)

final product: Students produce a biography about a universtity of oxford professor Erola Fenollosa

During practicum 1 we as teacher's designed a mini teaching unit. As teachers we thought that by giving students a real life objective they would become involved and would learn English in a subconscious way. The objective was meeting Erola! A woman scientist who works in Oxford. They would have to prepare for this so their motivation was also key on the learning process. Throughout the activities, during this teaching Unit they learnt about the inequalities in educational equity in the present and in the past. They also reflected on how come so little women scientists are famous an so little men? Finally thanks to Erola's zoom call they also learnt the difficulties of women to achieve doctoral studies and how statistics show that men tend to be more numerous in pursuing higher studies than women.

The aim of this unit was to serve as an introduction on the main Teaching Unit that would follow on February 20th 2023. Students' saw a much broader take on GENDER INEQUALITY. 

Session 1:  Game about Ada Lovelace

During this first session, students got to play a game. Divided in two groups A and B. Students from group A(high achievers) had a different text than students from group B (average-low achievers). This text was Ada Lovelaces's biography, a well-known scientist who invented code. In order to complete each other biography they had to talk to each other and add the missing information.

Session 2:  Jigsaw reading about rachel carson

During this session students participated in a Jigsaw reading activity about Rachel Carson a well-known marine biologist.  Students homegroup was a group of four. Each home-group was then split in expert groups students were then given a piece of the text which they had to learn by heart and memorise. Once they had memorised the text they came back to their home-group and put together the whole text. Students that stood up where reciting their memorised part as other students wrote down what they were saying.

Session 3:  writing questions for erola fenollosa

During this session students are announced that they will be doing an interview to Erola Fenollosa. A Professor from Oxford University who will join us for a Zoom call! A question check-list and rubric is provided to students. Students work in groups of 4 in order to prepare their questions for Erola, scaffolding and feedback has been previously provided to them so that they can write correct questions.

Session 4:  speed dating activity

During this session students participate in a speed dating activity. They all are handed out a character (famous scientist woman or man) they need to find the perfect match for them (characteristics of the ideal match written in the piece of paper). By the end of the class everyone has found their perfect match!

Session 5:  zoom call with erola

During this session students meet Erola! As you can see in the images below they are really excited to meet her. Students felt really engaged and loved asking her questions. They wrote down what she said in order to write the final task, a written biography about her.

Session 6:  Final product: writing erola's biography

During this session students got to write Erola's biography, they did a magnificent job and wrote down many interesting things about her!

self-observation practicum 1 canva presentation:

Teaching unit agreement for practicum phase 2: