Flipgrid, is one of the most effective free tools a teacher can have in their toolbox today. It is a platform for sharing videos that is easy and intuitive to use. It enables students to practice key 21st century communication skills and reinforce IB content at the same time. ThinkIB Biology learning activities can be extended to include a Flipgrid portion. It doesn’t take much planning, yet it yields powerful outcomes. In this guest blog post Ali Swanson outlines four distinct advantages of using Flipgrid in IB Biology. 

Empower students to teach a concept out loud.

Einstein said “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”  Often it’s not until a student begins to discuss a concept verbally do they realize they may have gaps in their understanding.  When students are asked to present or discuss their thoughts out loud, it’s unscripted and there’s no time to stop and consult text the way one can do when writing responses. The teacher and the student both get an accurate snapshot of the level of mastery by the student.  In Fig. A below, a student has just finished an assignment from the Peptide bond structure activity, annotating a peptide bond on the Peptide bond formation worksheet.  They are using their finished assignment to explain where the oxygen and hydrogen come from to create a water molecule. You might also notice the video is only 41 seconds, however 41 seconds can pack a lot of detail by the student and is quick to assess! 

Figure A; Snapshot from a Flipgrid video of a student explaining a condensation reaction. 

Encourage students to make connections between IB topics for deeper learning. 

In Fig. B below, students have finished doing the Respiration card sort activity from the ThinkIB page Cell Respiration. An example of an extension to this activity is to have students swap their work, and then annotate their partner’s work with connections to other topics in the IB curriculum.  They can justify the connections they drew using a Flipgrid video. 

In this particular piece of work, a student could make connections between the process of cell respiration occurring in the mitochondria, with the diffusion of CO2 into blood vessels in 6.4 Gas Exchange.  They could expand on the chemical reaction of hydrolysis of glycogen into disaccharides from 2.1 Molecules to Metabolism. They might make the connection back to 1.3 Eukaryotic Cells that animal cells store glycogen while plant cells store starch, and connect this to topic 2.3 Carbohydrates and Lipids in terms of the structural differences between glycogen and starch. We just made connections between 5 different IB topics throughout the curriculum, and you can hear your student explaining those connections in their own way.  This will yield greater confidence in your students’ understanding and deeper learning overall. 

Figure B; Student sample from the Cell Respiration Card Sort

Reveal and emphasize key misconceptions that occur. 

In topic 2.1 Molecules to Metabolism, it is common for students to be overwhelmed thinking they have to memorize all of the placements of hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon inside of organic molecules. You can extend the Visualising molecules student activity on the Visualising molecules page by having students build models to discuss and communicate on Flipgrid.  They can identify and present carboxyl groups, hydroxyl groups, amino groups, etc. so that they are learning the key features of the molecules.  And instead of just memorizing that ribose is a pentagonal carbon ring and glucose is hexagonal, they can kinesthetically show their audience in a flipgrid video, creating a stronger connection. See Fig. C below. 

Figure C; Student sample from the Cell Respiration Card Sort

Allow open-ended activities while maintaining rigor during Distance Learning.

Many schools are in the throes of distance learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  This tool is highly effective for ensuring student understanding by hearing them explain their thoughts out loud.  It also easily provides differentiation and choice, for example one student might choose to create a mindmap on a topic and discuss why they made certain connections, while another may choose to create their own set of multiple choice questions and explain the understandings behind the questions they created. The best feature of Flipgrid is that it allows you to take almost any type of assignment and add in an additional layer of critical thinking and communication by encouraging students to explain their thinking. It also gives quick insight into which students are grasping the topic well and which need additional reinforcement. 

Ali Swanson has taught science at the American School of Tegucigalpa in Tegucigalpa, Honduras for eight years and has a passion for strategies that support IB and STEM learning environments. 

Many thanks to Ali for contributing this great idea.  If any other subscribers would like to share their innovations or expertise, please do contact me using the Feedback button.

Further reading

The Educators guide to using Flipgrid written by Sean Fahey, Karly Moura & Jennifer Saarinen gives a clear step by step introduction to setting up an account and creating Grids. It even includes a student guide.