Week 2 Blog
1. What did you learn this week?
This week, we learned about living and non-living things. For living things we went over the 8 core characteristics which are, cellular composition, genetics & heredity, maintains homeostasis, growth & change, reproduction, metabolism, movement, and responds to stimuli. To represent these characteristics, in class we made posters listing, describing, and drawing them. We also talked about things being in dormant states, like seeds or beans. These things will be considered non-living once they are disconnected from their original plant, however, when they are given some kind of resource like water and they start growing a sprout, they are then considered living.
3. Which parts did you find clear and which were confusing?
For the parts that I found clear this week, I really understood what exact things something needs to have in order to be considered living. What helped me understand this even better was doing the posters and everyone briefly explaining each characteristic and doing drawings as well. As for the parts that were a little more confusing to me, I was still trying to figure out how to break apart the NGSS standards sentences and relating them to the chart. However, I think I did figure it out, the sentences just go in the same order as the chart, so I am not confused on that anymore!
4. How can you apply what you've learned to your teaching in the future?
For applying what I've learned to my teaching in the future, I really enjoyed the activities we did in lab this week, which were germinating seeds and dissecting beans. I think these would be great hands on experiment options to use in my future classroom. I always enjoyed doing activities like these because it helped me actually remember and retain the material. For the dissecting beans activity, this would be perfect to teach the standard of how plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, and reproduction. For the germination activity, this would be great to explain what factors seeds need to grow, which are light, heat, nutrients, and water.
I agree with your statement about NGSS. I still find breaking down the NGSS and bit confusing, but I really like the positivity you have to learn it!
ReplyDeleteHi Anna! I also loved doing the hands-on activities in class today. I think they helped me learn about the characteristics of a living cell better and allowed me to get more engaged in the content. This is something I also want to implement in my future classroom. Much like you, I am a little confused on each part of the NGSS so maybe you can help me understand next time I see you. Nice blog post!! :)
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you on incorporating these types of lessons into our future classrooms. It is important to take our personal past experiences with how we learned science growing up and use in our classroom. I also really enjoyed during experiments like the seeds and beans because I was able to retain more information. I hope we can give our future students these same experiences!
ReplyDeleteGreat job Anna! I 100% agree that hands-on activities were very enjoyable and effective. Additionally, I loved how you explained how you will implement this into your future classroom!
ReplyDeleteHi Anna! Wonderful job! I agree with you that the activities we did in lab this week would be appropriate for elementary level students. They were engaging, fun, and educational all at the same time. I also liked the way you posted a photo of the NGSS chart. As someone who appreciates visuals, this was a great tool for me to use! Keep up the good work!
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