/
Tutor Breakout

Tutor Breakout

Owned by Robert Simpson (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Oct 08, 2024

School teachers and tutor will coordinate where they would like to meet. (We will provide the signs.) Tutors will lead students

Session Goals

  • Develop a mentoring relationship with students through personal connection, trust and support
  • Understand how to use the language of science
  • Practice asking questions (inquiry)
  • Understand the purpose of organizing AP Biology concepts using four Big Ideas & Selected Units
  • Self-assess current understanding of AP Biology Essential Knowledge statements
  • Reflect on the group's knowledge of AP Biology
  • Demonstrate group understanding of AP Biology Essential Knowledge organized under different Enduring Understandings

3:45 PM - Tutor welcome

  • Tell a story about what got you interested in studying science. Students will relate to you better if they understand your passion for learning and interest in discovery.

3:50 PM - Improv/Icebreaker activity

4:00 PM - Improv activity/Icebreaker activity

4:05 PM Open Inquiry Activity

4:15 PM - Big Ideas Activity


  • EVO - Evolution | Big Idea 1: The process of evolution drives the diversity and unity of life. #bigidea1
  • ENE - Energetics | Big Idea 2: Biological systems utilize free energy and molecular building blocks to grow, to reproduce and to maintain dynamic homeostasis. #bigidea2
  • IST - Information Storage & Transmission | Big Idea 3: Living systems store, retrieve, transmit and respond to information essential to life processes. #bigidea3
  • SYI  - Systems Interactions | Big Idea 4: Biological systems interact, and these systems and their interactions possess complex properties. #bigidea4
  • Each Tutor team receives a Unit/Big Ideas poster. 
  • Students indicate their comprehension level for each Essential Knowledge (EK) statement using red, yellow or green dots. - 10 minutes
  • Tutor will then ask each student to share one response. It could represent any level of understanding. 
  • Select one area to report out as a group using the reverse of the poster. 
  • All groups pair-share
    • Odd & Even Groups pair up - 10 minutes
    • Example > Group 1 shares with  Group 2, Group 3 shares Group 4.

4:45 PM - All Groups return to the Armenise Amphitheater with their Big Ideas/Unit Group posters.