I’ve been working on these for about three months. Here’s a brief description of what I’ve produced.
16 sets of about 100 flashcards. Each set gives you a cross topic review of AP Biology Content.
Each card was designed with close attention to the College Board AP Biology Course Description. Working with two assistants, I went through a process where every phrase in that document was evaluated. If it seemed like it was worth learning, it became part of a database of key statements. Each statement was categorized, first using the AP Biology Outline, and then using my own categories (which reflect the way I would teach it).
Each statement became the basis for one or more flashcards. For example, a statement like
Natural selection is the driving process in evolution.
Became
- Natural selection is the driving process in evolution
- Natural selection is the driving process in evolution
- Natural selection is the driving process in evolution
Replace the underlined term with a line, put the statement with the underlined term on the back, and you have flashcards.
By the way, I’m only able to do this because of the amazing QWIZ word-press plug-in. You can learn more about it at Dan Kirshner’s web site.
I don’t know, at this point, how many statements I started with (but I will try to report on that soon). But we made over 1600 flashcards. I organized these into 16 flashcard decks, each with about 100 cards. But here’s was my key move. The decks are NOT organized by topic. They’re cross topic, and randomized. That’s going to make them MUCH harder. But that is going to make the learning MUCH more effective.
Also, if you can get yourself (or your students) to space out their learning, to do a flashcard set every other few nights between now and the AP exam, they will truly wind up with some long term biology memories.
Along with the 16 cross topic decks, I also provided all 30 single topic decks. The single topic decks are going to be feel very repetitive. They’re be much easier than the cross-topic decks. Use them (or have your students use them), for remediation only.
Oh: did I mention that you get a report at the end of each flashcard deck telling you which topics you might need to review (based on your self-assessment of your performance on the flashcard deck)?
Qwiz! Pretty cool software!
Please leave me comments letting me know what you think!
