Isabel Sherman: Elementary Science Methods 2024-2025

      1 . What did you learn this week? This week we learned about the 5E's, which are engage, explore, explain, extend, evaluate. In class we discussed the 5E's and what the students roles and what the teacher's roles are. We talked about how 5E instructional model is aligned with Next Generation Science Standards.      2.  Are you able to relate what you learned to what you already knew? I related this to how I was taught in my classrooms regarding science. I remember on homework the task of explaining and extending what our answers were. Extending allows for the student (or teacher) bring in cross cutting concepts as well.      3.  Which parts did you find clear and which were confusing? Nothing was particularly confusing, but I was interested in learning more about the caterpillars and instead we talked a lot about the 5Es. Which is helpful, but I wish we would have talked more to their connection with NGSS. It was a bummer...

What did you learn this week? This week in lab we got to talk more about what makes something living. We discussed the difference between “dormant” and “active”. For example seeds are living, but they are dormant. They need the right conditions to grow and for the seed to germinate. I also learned different activities that could be used in my future classroom. This week we germinated lentil seeds and will be observing those next week. We also talked about the life cycles of animals and plants. Plant life cycles are all very similar, but animal life cycles vary between different animal groups (amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals). We did an activity modeling the life cycle of a chosen animal with Play-Doh. My partner and I chose to do a shark! Finally, we ended class by planting our fast plants. This is to show us that under the right conditions, a plant will grow.  Which parts did you find clear and which were confusing? Most of the class was pretty self-explanatory! I think I was...

What did you learn this week:) With our first lab and readings I learned about the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The most important takeaway of NGSS are the crosscutting concepts, science and engineering practices, and disciplinary core ideas. Crosscutting concepts encourage students to make connections between Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science, and Engineering Design. Science and engineering practices have students engage in practices to apply their knowledge of core ideas and crosscutting concepts. Disciplinary core ideas (DCIs) are the science concepts taught.  After discussing NGSS, we learned about the characteristics of living things, and we made posters to show examples. There are 8 characteristics of living things, these include: Cellular Composition → Whether it be unicellular or multicellular Genetics and Heredity→ Having DNA Maintaining Homeostasis → Actively maintaining stable conditions (human body temp. b eing between 97°F and 99°F)....