Using Google Docs And Presentations for Collaboration in Biology Lesson Plans

In the past, each section of my Natural Science Biology Lab was divided into 8 groups of 5 each. Each of the groups works together for the labs, and they also put together a presentation for the final lab session. I do this presentation because I think it keeps the students coming to lab, they learn to collaborate, and they develop a social network. It does what I’ve intended it to, for the most part, but with the imaginable gripes - some students drop the class, some students stop participating, some do all the work while others do none.

I really like the idea of doing this through Google Docs (and I kind of kick myself because I’ve known and used Google Docs for so long, but never thought to have the students use their UA accounts to do this - doh!), simply for the revision history. If I hear one more student complain about someone not doing their part, I will lose it. But, this very obviously, and factually, lets me know who did their part and who didn’t. And it eliminates the lost flash drives, the paper being on someone else’s computer, or work being lost. No one gets to “own” the work - all students in the group have equal access to the project, and I love that.

Here is the link to my Presentation Information -

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OxSrJYbvGYz5RE_v7-_a9bSnFXa-eb1o8Dp4dzH57sQ/edit?hl=en_US

Here is a link to the Rubric for the project

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oICCuHCdHUt2pWqftoLnXtVfRFEdGX-Oko5aOJFVMIk/edit?hl=en_US