Using Storyboarding to Model Gene Expression

Students often find it challenging to create images of complex, abstract biological processes. Using modified storyboards, which contain predrawn images, students can visualize the process and anchor ideas from activities, labs, and lectures. Storyboards are useful in assessing students' understanding of content in larger contexts. They enable students to use models to construct explanations, with evidence to support hypotheses - practices emphasized in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Storyboards provide an opportunity for performance assessment of students' content knowledge against a backdrop of observing patterns, determining scale, and establishing relationships between structure and function - crosscutting concepts within the NGSS framework.