Twitter in Biology Classroom: Organelle Wars!

Below is a great idea from a science teacher (Brad Graba) who posted this on an NSTA listserv (reprinted with permission, additional links added to his references)... 

This creative idea could be adjusted/adapted for other disciplines as well. The idea is to be creative and think of NEW ways to get students interacting, thinking, creating, communicating, and applying content/subject knowledge!

Thanks for sharing, Brad!!!

This year when I did my cell unit, I had the students run a campaign to get one organelle elected president of the cell (thank you to Ms. Chamberlain in California for the idea).  I added a twist, though, in that I asked the students to create a Twitter account in the name of their organelle to campaign for their organelle and smear other organelles. 

A biologist, Dr. Anne Osterrieder in England, researches the Golgi Body, and was looking on Twitter to see if anyone was mentioning Golgi Body in their tweets so she could keep up on current research.  She happened upon my students' Twitter accounts and began tweeting with them.  Soon, scientist friends of hers were tweeting with my students, helping them research their favorite organelles and smear other organelles. 

The campaign was dubbed #organellewars, and it took on a life of its own.  One of the scientists that got involved has his own BBC radio show as Dr. Molecule and talked about us on his radio show, several of the scientists blogged about the project, and our school newspaper made the project front page news for our school paper. 

I've gained a lot of valuable contacts and resources with the scientists who participated with us.  Whenever I have questions I can't answer myself I go to them now.  My students were more engaged in this project than any I've ever run in my classroom, and were getting great help from biologists around the globe in learning about the cell.  It turned out to be the most rewarding project I've ever done in my classroom.

Brad Graba

AP Biology Teacher

Accelerated Freshman Biology Teacher

Science Bowl Sponsor

William Fremd High School

Palatine, IL