As a teacher assistant, this lesson is wounderful.  It helps ELLs to engage more in the classroom and it provides a sences of unity in the classroom as well.  I would like to work in a classroom setting like this in order to learn and help students over all.

As an ENL teacher who will co-teach biology next year, this video has helped me to get an idea of how to support my ELLs with their vocabulary and content. It love how students were able to communicate with one another in their home language to support their understanding of the content. I love the point about building literacy in both languages because it is important that our learners know that there is value in using their native language. More importantly, I am a strong beilever in learning by doing and I think PBL is the best way for ELLs to grasp the content because they are making direction connection to it through their personal experience and engagement in the activity itself.

If I was in this class I would have had a stronger interest in science.  I loved seeing the excitement in the classroom.  Reading a text first in a persons native language helps them to better understand the English text.  This is a great skill to use in research assignments.

I think if I was in this class as a child I would have loved science.  It was great to see the excitement in the classroom and peers working together.  Reading content in a person's native language first  helps the student understand the text in English.  This is a great way to complete research assignments.

This is a wonderful example of a typical high school unit including a lab/simulation component.  It is a well-planned "lesson" that many effective biology teachers have taught for decades.  We need more of videos of secondary science and math videos on this wonderful resource (Teaching Channel). All of the aspects the very effective teacher and Clair Sylvan state as fundamental science best practices of teaching science effectively that the science education community has advocated for decades, including:

“hands-on”, “small group”, “more than just words (vocabulary)”, “graphically represent”

Organizes (white board chart) “(lab) procedure guides” “own words to describe each step” “heterogenous groups” “(meaningful conversation) kids talk to each other about what they’re doing” “(academic) conversations in (native) own languages”, “develop understandings in their native language”, “developing literacy in 2 places”, teacher using visual/physical representations when demonstrating “unzip” DNA, peer support.  However, I'm unsure why it is labeled a PBL, unless it's using the buzz word to attract viewers.  I suggest more commentary on characteristics of science PBLs and how they may be different from historic science best practices be included.