Alexa's Elementary Science Methods Blog

  What did you learn this week? This week in lab we learned about biomes, ecosystems, and habitats. I learned the 6 different biomes this week which are forest, tundra, marine, desert, grassland, and fresh water. I also learned about symbiotic relationships from the Helping Hands video. Symbiotic relationships are ones where both animals benefit. One odd symbiotic relationship the video listed is with a coyote and a badger. They hunt prey together and the badger is able to dig and the coyote is able to run fast. Lastly, I learned about food chains and food webs. A food chain is a single path that shows the way that energy moves through an ecosystem, while a food web has more detail about the relationships between the different levels of the food chain.  Are you able to relate what you learned to what you already knew? Previous to this class I had learned about food chains and food webs, however, I feel that I learned mainly about producers and consumers and the basics of food ...

  What did you learn this week? This week in class I learned about the different parts of a lesson, specifically, the 5E model. The 5E model consists of the different steps in a science lesson. These steps are used when teaching concepts with inquiry-based instruction. This model has five steps, 1. Engage, 2. Explore, 3. Explain, 4. Elaborate, and 5. Evaluate. The engage phase gets the students curious and interested in the topic being taught. Explore allows the students to conduct experiments and investigations. After they experiment, they get to share their findings during the explain phase. The elaborate phase is what gets them to take what they have just learned and apply that to an activity or by answering new questions. Lastly, the evaluate phase is where the students self-assess themselves and the teacher can also see how well the student(s) understood the lesson.  How can you apply what you've learned to your teaching in the future? When I begin teaching in the future,...

  What did you learn this week? This week in lab we learned about the life cycles of different insects, animals, and plants. One life cycle we learned about was the life cycle of a butterfly. The stages are: 1. egg, 2. caterpillar (larva), 3. chrysalis (pupa), and 4. adult butterfly.  In our table groups we chose a life cycle that we wanted to portray with playdough. My group chose the life cycle of a turtle. The life cycle goes: 1. eggs, 2. hatchlings, 3. juveniles, and 4. adult. We also did some planting this week that we will be able to watch and see how it changes over time.  Are you able to relate what you learned to what you already knew? I can relate what we learned in lab this week about life cycles to what I learned in elementary school about life cycles. I remember focusing on the life cycle of a butterfly in elementary school. One way they taught us the life cycle of a butterfly was by reading the story of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar". The book started off by ...

 What did you learn this week? This week we learned more about the 8 characteristics of living things by making a chart where we wrote out each characteristic along with a short description and picture that represents the characteristic. Next, we planted some seeds by putting multiple cotton balls at the bottom of a cup, placing the seeds on top of the cotton balls, and then drizzling water over the seeds and cotton balls. The last experiment we did was dissecting beans where we were able to identify the seed coating, as well as the embryo. Lastly, we discussed the difference between living and non-living things. We watched a video to further our understanding on this topic where we learned that living things have the ability to grow, move, and breathe, while non-living things do not.   Which parts did you find clear and which confusing? What I found clear during this lab was the 8 characteristics of living things. I feel that I am starting to feel more comfortable explai...